Actuate launches industry's first reporting system architected for client/server; Actuate's active, adaptable and scalable reporting environment attracts Kaiser Permanente and Chase Manhattan Bank.Software Corp. today announced the industry's first reporting system architected for the client/server environment A networking environment that is made up of clients and servers running applications designed for client/server architecture. See client/server. . Based on patent-pending Report Object technology, Actuate provides object-oriented reuse of business reports and report components and balances reporting functionality and processing between three tiers -- client, application and server. Actuate gives developers the power to build Report Object designs and components which can easily be adapted and customized by end users to meet ad-hoc query and reporting requirements. Early Actuate customers, Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care organization, based in Oakland, California, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield. and Chase Manhattan Bank The Chase Manhattan Bank, now part of JPMorgan Chase, was formed by the merger of the Chase National Bank and the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1955. The bank is headquartered in New York City. , are looking to Actuate to support distributed reporting requirements. "Actuate's product in a very real sense represents a major step forward in client/server based reporting. Actuate offers a new paradigm New Paradigm In the investing world, a totally new way of doing things that has a huge effect on business. Notes: The word "paradigm" is defined as a pattern or model, and it has been used in science to refer to a theoretical framework. that supports IS departments in providing standard data reporting formats which meet a variety of end-user requirements, including the need for user-friendly, customizable reports," said Steve Garone, senior analyst at International Data Corp. (IDC). "Actuate has effectively met the requirements for report generation and management in a client/server environment." A New Paradigm For Information Access According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. IDC, the most important reason for client/server adoption is the need for improved end-user data access. IDC identifies report generation as the largest information access market category over decision support systems (DSS (1) (Digital Signature Standard) A National Security Administration standard for authenticating an electronic message. See RSA and digital signature. (2) (Digital Satellite S ) and executive information systems (EIS (1) (Executive Information System) An information system that consolidates and summarizes ongoing transactions within the organization. It provides top management with all the information it requires at all times from internal and external sources. ). Previously, products in this category were not built to effectively manage the process of data access through reports in an enterprise, client/server environment. "Actuate's approach is unique in that it can separate query processing and report generation (server-based) from viewing and printing reports (client-based), thus reducing network traffic and significantly increasing overall system performance," said Garone. Additionally, Actuate bridges the gap between the powerful but complex language-based reporting products used by developers and the simplistic sim·plism n. The tendency to oversimplify an issue or a problem by ignoring complexities or complications. [French simplisme, from simple, simple, from Old French; see simple end-user tools offering little flexibility and robustness. Actuate accomplishes this by applying object-orientation to the process of report design. With Actuate, developers build reports out of reusable components, making it easier to construct and maintain custom reports while keeping information consistent across the business. IS provides the standard data reporting components so users can create custom reports and queries using subclassing more quickly and simply than with any other technique. Actuate's object-oriented technology See object technology. base allows a high degree of user interaction, such as the ability to browse and search reports on-line more efficiently than on paper. It also delivers links to other applications and systems, automatic table of contents generation and context sensitive help for any report field. "Traditional reporting products represent a report with characters or pixels offering no capability to intelligently search a report to find data which meets specific criteria," said Nico Nierenberg, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Actuate. "Actuate is the first reporting product that facilitates the search and navigation through a report with objects. This makes corporate information more useful on-line than in any other form. Additionally, Actuate Report Objects can be distributed independent of the database from which they obtain their contents, allowing mobile computing Using a computing device while in transit. Mobile computing implies wireless transmission, but wireless transmission does not necessarily imply mobile computing. Fixed wireless applications use satellites, radio systems and lasers to transmit between permanent objects such as buildings uses and Internet access See how to access the Internet. ." Kaiser Permanente Looks To Actuate For Enterprise Reporting With the dramatic expansion of information technology, and the desire for increased competitiveness in corporations, there has been an increase in the use of computing power to produce unified reports which join different views of the enterprise in one place. Kaiser Permanente is the country's largest HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, . Kaiser's Northeast region currently devotes well over 50 percent of its IS time and resources to meeting the organization's reporting needs. Kaiser recently moved from the mainframe to a client/server architecture An environment in which the application processing is divided between client workstations and servers. It implies the use of desktop computers interacting with servers in a network in contrast to processing everything in a large centralized mainframe. See client/server. and found that existing reporting tools used in the new environment could not deliver the functionality, performance and manageability they were used to -- then Kaiser discovered Actuate. "Kaiser's Northeast region is looking at Actuate because of the immediate payback it may provide," said Craig Johnson Craig Johnson may refer to:
Actuate At Chase Manhattan Bank Chase Manhattan Bank has been a leader in the development of distributed technology. As Chase continues to implement client/server systems, the company has been searching for a reporting product that could deliver the highly-dynamic, custom reporting capabilities needed to support complex financial products. "Chase has many client/server applications and a large requirement for reporting in this environment," said Jonathan Vaughan, vice president of applied technology at Chase Manhattan Bank. "The client/server market needs a reporting tool with a new distributed architecture, and we are evaluating Actuate's product for this area." Actuate -- Reporting Architected For Client/Server Actuate produces Report Objects -- structured documents composed of persistent objects which are active and intelligent. Report Objects represent the reports, such as invoices, checks, financial statements and sales forecasts, that are an essential part of all business applications. Unlike other reporting products, Actuate is Active, Adaptable and Scalable bringing a new level of versatility, power and performance to reporting. Active -- Actuate Report Objects are active and intelligent. Users can interact with Report Objects, getting context sensitive help on fields, browsing, searching, transferring data and linking to other reports and systems merely by pointing and clicking. This kind of power built into every report can reduce the overall number of reports corporations have to write as well as improve corporate-wide access to information. Adaptable -- Developers build Report Object designs and components which can be easily adapted and customized by end users to meet new requirements. Designs are assembled visually using drag and drop A graphical user interface (GUI) capability that lets you perform operations by moving the icon of an object with the mouse into another window or onto another icon. For example, files can be copied or moved by dragging them from one folder to another. from libraries of reusable components. Components can be simple objects such as integer, text and currency controls or more complex objects including queries, frames and graphs. Components may also be complete, sophisticated report designs. Scalable -- Actuate reporting applications can run entirely on a single PC, or they can span large distributed networks and deliver the required performance, security and manageability. As systems grow, Actuate Report Servers can be added that run on either UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). or Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. machines to handle larger volumes of work and more users. The Report Encyclopedia, which is managed by the Report Server, is a sharable repository that stores Report Object designs, libraries, executables, instances, users, privileges, request queues and other objects necessary for robust and secure system operation. Actuate Reporting System Pricing And Availability The Actuate Reporting System consists of a suite of products. Actuate Developer Workbench, Actuate End User Desktop and Actuate Viewer will be available in December 1995. Actuate End User Workbench, Actuate Report Server and Actuate Administrator Desktop will be available in the first quarter of 1996. -- Actuate Developer Workbench is used by professional developers to design, test and deploy Report Object designs and class libraries. It is priced at $1,999. -- Actuate End User Desktop is used for requesting ad-hoc reports and for viewing and printing Report Objects. Pricing for Actuate End User Desktop is $199. -- Actuate Viewer is a royalty-free product for end users to view and print Report Objects. -- Actuate End User Workbench is used by end users to adapt, customize and assemble Report Object components built by developers, create new ad-hoc queries and reports and to view and print Report Objects. The Actuate End User Workbench is priced at $599. -- Actuate Report Server provides shared high performance Report Object generation, distribution, printing and administration. Pricing for the Actuate Report Server starts at $1,500. -- Actuate Administrator Desktop is used by system and network administrators to manage user accounts, set resource quotas and security, manage Report Servers and schedule production activities. Actuate Administrator Desktop is priced at $599. Actuate Software Corp. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in San Mateo San Mateo (săn mətā`ō), city (1990 pop. 85,486), San Mateo co., W Calif., on San Francisco Bay; inc. 1894. It is a commercial and retail center with some high-technology manufacturing. San Mateo, Spanish for St. , Calif., Actuate Software Corp. is a private company that has equity financing Equity Financing The act of raising money for company activities by selling common or preferred stock to individual or institutional investors. In return for the money paid, shareholders receive ownership interests in the corporation. from investors Accel Partners and Mohr, Davidow Ventures. Actuate has created the first reporting system architected for client/server. The company reaches its customers through a multi-channel sales, distribution and support strategy that includes large, strategic sales to Fortune 1000 corporations as well as Actuate-certified VARs and consultants worldwide. -0- Note to Editors: (c) 1995 Actuate USA. All rights reserved. Actuate is a trademark of Actuate Software Corp. All other trademarks are held by their respective owners. CONTACT: Actuate Software Corp. Pete Cittadini, 415/638-2012 or Samluk Communications, Inc. Mary Camarata, 510/736-8166 |
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