Gentia 5.0 is the first industry platform for analytical applications that is fully integrated with Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services, providing seamless integration of leading relational and multidimensional data sources. The release also incorporates new features for rapid analytical application deployment and enhanced performance options for optimizing processing across corporate networks. The result is the fastest platform for delivering analytical solutions, based on completely open data sources that can be deployed to any number of users.
"Our customers want to deploy their applications faster and to more users. Gentia 5.0 gives both IT organizations and end users the ability to rapidly deploy analytical applications that addresses their unique business requirements," said Glenn Conradt, Managing Director Gentia South Africa. "Coupled with seamless integration to Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services, Gentia will be the analytical applications platform of choice for companies wanting to integrate and analyze data from heterogeneous enterprise data sources."
Faster Application Deployment
Gentia is recognized as the fastest platform for building complete analytical applications for enterprise-wide deployment, a core competency that has been extended in Release 5.0. Using Gentia 5.0's Application Designer, business end users now have the ability to easily develop and deploy their own personal analytical solutions in a matter of hours without IT involvement. This allows organizations to tap local business knowledge and domain expertise more effectively for quick solution deployment - which is especially important in time-sensitive business processes such as budgeting and forecasting.
In addition, Gentia 5.0 offers application templates to guide users in custom designing their own systems. This allows specific business applications (e.g., profit and loss analysis) to be built from predetermined model structures. Users can select templates and complete structures via a "drag and drop" environment or from simple external file structures. Both these new features are an extension of Gentia`s visual development capabilities.
Seamless Enterprise Integration
For organizations seeking to integrate heterogeneous data sources within their analytical applications, Gentia 5.0 provides both client/server and Web-based support for Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services, through a new visual Open Source Object. With Microsoft`s OLE DB for OLAP API fast becoming the industry communication standard for all OLAP/ROLAP products, Gentia is the only analytical applications platform vendor to provide full integration for corporate customers.
For example, a user could launch a profit and loss analysis program built in Gentia that accesses information from multiple multidimensional data sources. Gentia`s Application Framework ensures consistent presentation and analysis of all corporate data sources, OLAP or ROLAP as well as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, relational databases, legacy applications and text. This kind of integration minimizes user and system administrator training, protects corporate investment in database technology and allows a fit-for-purpose approach to quickly design customized analytical applications.
Enhanced Deployment Options
Recognizing that many successful analytical applications are deployed to wider user audiences over time, Gentia 5.0 offers customers greater network efficiency and application performance by incorporating configurable server-based processing, local caching of business structures, packet optimization and SQL performance enhancements. Gentia administrators can decide whether a company's analytical processing would operate more efficiently at the server level, on the desktop or through a combination of the two. Using Gentia 5.0, IT administrators can also reduce network traffic by storing large dimension business structures locally, using the Gentia server to update those models intelligently.
Some companies have very powerful servers, while others have most of their computing power vested in PCs. Gentia 5.0 can help companies optimize application performance by enabling IT managers to flexibly configure processing, down to the application page level, so that it can happen on either the server or the PC. For example, an application page could be constructed that automatically switches to server-based processing for Web applications, improving access speed and reducing network traffic.
"Gentia has always focused on providing a complete solution for delivering analytical applications across distributed networked environments," said Robert Moran of the Aberdeen Group. "Coupled with the Application Framework, comprehensive multi-lingual capabilities and Year 2000 support released earlier this year, Gentia 5.0 is well positioned to be the premier platform provider helping to address the rapidly expanding market need for customized decision support solutions that work with all sources of enterprise data."
Availability
Gentia 5.0 will begin shipping on November 30, 1998.
Editors Note
About Gentia Software
Gentia Software (NASDAQ: GNTIY) is the leading supplier of analytical applications that enable clients to maximize their competitive position through enterprise-wide deployment of strategy management, performance measurement and operational analysis solutions. By leveraging the only networked Business Intelligence solution designed for enterprise-wide deployment, Gentia enables a new class of analytical applications, such as the Balanced Scorecard, which ensure information delivery to key decision makers' desktops and browsers throughout an enterprise. Gentia Software's worldwide client list of more than 500 customers includes JP Morgan and Company, Volvo, McDonald's Restaurants, Fortis, Swiss Reinsurance and Sun Microsystems. The company has dual headquarters in Boston and London and operates in more than 20 countries worldwide. For additional information about Gentia, visit the company's Web site at www.gentia.com or call (011) 807-5755.
Share