BI Suite or Platform BI Takes a Step ForwardInformatica PowerAnalyzer 4.0by Rajan Chandras and Poornima Deshmukh Continued from Page 1 You can also set up permissions for others to use the report and schedule email broadcasts of the report to users in various formats (PDF, Excel, HTML, or CSV).
The Discuss tab lets you share comments, and the Feedback tab lets users give feedback that can only be viewed by the report owner. Despite simplistic implementations, both of these features are useful. Reports also benefit from automatic importing of metadata and can be refreshed automatically on data load completion. In addition, PowerAnalyzer 4.0 provides the ability to mix historical and real-time data. Workflows. PowerAnalyzer 4.0 has patent-pending workflow technology for guided analysis through visual assistance. The concept behind workflow is simple: an ordered series of reports, each related to the previous. You can specify filters on attributes for each report, which are then passed to the subsequent report. This ability lets that report focus deeper toward a root cause. You can set indicators and alerts for workflow reports, which helps you highlight areas of concern or attention. And you can share your workflows with others, so that the workflows become a means of not just shared knowledge, but also a potential training tool. Excel support. PowerAnalyzer 4.0 also has strong support for Microsoft Excel, and you can export data to Excel using PowerAnalyzer's formatting or Excel's templates. You can also create pivot tables in Excel that can be refreshed dynamically using macros. Management. Complementing the various user components are strong administration features within the same browser interface, which eases product and user management for BI administrators. Under the HoodAlthough its BI functionality is noteworthy, its technical product architecture is where PowerAnalyzer 4.0 takes a big step forward. Informatica has taken a sensible "thin-client" or "Internet-centric" approach, building PowerAnalyzer 4.0 on a J2EE and EJB architecture, with standard databases as data repositories. As a result, PowerAnalyzer 4.0 immediately gains the power of extensibility for Web services and connectivity to portals that arises from a Web-centric architecture and the robustness, availability, and scalability that standard J2EE and database servers offer. In addition, tight coupling with the data integration and extract, transform, load (ETL) capabilities of other Informatica products (such as PowerCenter) is making Informatica a powerhouse in the enterprise data integration marketplace. (Bear in mind, however, that Informatica doesn't deploy on Microsoft .Net.) The Big PictureAlthough all these features are impressive, this product should be evaluated in the light of how it came to be. Informatica has a leadership position in the data movement market and is respected for its erstwhile flagship ETL product. Therefore, Informatica started with the advantage of readily available market intelligence in the data management space, as well as assured market penetration — or at least, a foot inside the customer's door. As a late entrant to the BI market, Informatica also had the opportunity that few other BI vendors share: Starting with a clean slate and building from the ground up. To its credit, Informatica appears to have made the right choices in various ways: technical architecture, product feature set, user interface design, and good documentation. I also understand that Informatica has taken a positive stance toward licensing and total cost of ownership (TCO) for PowerAnalyzer 4.0 by providing maximal capability at composite pricing. I didn't delve deeply enough into that aspect, however, to comment on it. The business of BI is in a state of immense flux. Business Objects is acquiring Crystal Decisions, while Hyperion Solutions Corp. is buying Brio Software Inc. In the meantime, enterprise software vendors such as SAP and Oracle have their own designs on BI. Despite the daunting challenges of surviving these BI market dynamics (perhaps "dynamix" describes it better), Informatica PowerAnalyzer 4.0 seems to have everything going for it. It has a relatively future-proof, "Web friendly" architecture, comprehensive functionality, close integration with other Informatica products, and Informatica's deep market and product experience with data management. All things considered, Informatica PowerAnalyzer offers a compelling alternative in the BI space and may well be the product to beat. Here's an easy recommendation. Give Informatica PowerAnalyzer 4.0 serious consideration in your enterprise data and BI strategies. Rajan Chandras is a principal consultant with the New York offices of CSC Consulting (www.csc.com) and can be reached at rchandras@hotmail.com. The opinions expressed here are his own. Poornima Deshmukh [dpoornima@hotmail.com] is an independent consultant in the NY/NJ area in BI and data warehousing.
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