October, 2007
APOS Solutions News is
published approximately once a month, to share information about
how APOS BI Tools and services are
extending the Business Objects platform for companies like yours.
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http://www.apos.com/Company/SolutionsNewsletter/APOS Solutions News
10-2007.htm?source=nl
Connect
to BusinessObjects XI from Microsoft Outlook, with on-line and
off-line report viewing, scheduling and more!
We're pleased
to announce the latest new member of the
award winning APOS BI Tools suite -
our new Integration Kit for Microsoft
Outlook. Currently under development, this
powerful new solution will enable your
Office 2007 users to maximize on your
Business Objects investments.
Using Microsoft
Outlook as their Business Objects XI portal,
users can:
-
access and view all authorized
Business Objects folders and reports
-
schedule reports while connected on-line to
BusinessObjects XI
-
schedule reports even while not connected to
BusinessObjects XI
-
view
and analyze reports off-line
- take reports with you for off-line analysis
These are just the highlights of this
exciting new member of the APOS BI Tools
suite,
contact us
for additional information. Stay tuned for
availability and release date information
coming soon.
By e xtending
the 'report package' capabilities of
BusinessObjects XI,
Report Package Booster
provides
powerful
document consolidation, generation and
distribution capabilities.
Recently added new features include . . .
-
use html report content as your email
message content
-
set the consolidated pdf display to
Landscape or Portrait
-
set the consolidated page size
-
assign your own file name
to the merged pdf document
-
original page sizes can be
maintained throughout the consolidated document
-
all original page
orientations can be maintained
-
portrait and landscape
documents can be mixed in one consolidated document
-
new printer
scaling
options - horizontal, vertical or none
-
send reports separately – create an
email message with all original files loaded separately
-
zip one or more files (with password)
and send to email or file location
-
assign contents of text
file to be used as the email message content
-
create
custom table of contents
pdf page Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Pagemaker, set your own internal
hyperlinks by using predefined page numbering flags
Please
visit here
for
a full feature list
and a web demo of Report Package Booster for BusinessObjects
XI Release 2.
To check out how Report Package Booster can help your
organization, please
visit here
to request demo download instructions and
our current price list.
APOS Delivers Improved Web Intelligence and ESRI GIS Integration
New
Linked GIS and BI Analysis
Now, in one display window, you can present an
ESRI GIS map in one frame and a related Web Intelligence report (or
Crystal Report) from BusinessObjects Release 2 in a second, linked
frame.
In this example, selecting features from the
map on the left updates the report content in the right side frame.
Likewise, selecting items from the report on the right updates the
map on the left.
This demonstrates the full bi-directional
capabilities of the APOS Integration Kit and adds the benefits of
side-by-side viewing.
Contact us for more specific information about this new
capability. APOS assists in the creation of powerful 'Location
Intelligence' solutions, by enabling the integration of the world
leaders in business intelligence and GIS - Business Objects and
ESRI.
Visit here
to view more information about the
Integration Kit for ESRI GIS.
To request a demo download version of the Integration Kit for ESRI
GIS, please
visit here.
"We have saved time, which
translates to money, when we use
InfoScheduler. It has increased the
productivity of our report developers
and our end-users in executing necessary
reports, with the right criteria,
distributed to the appropriate location,
at the right time. The tools assist in
enhancing the productivity of our report
developers and more importantly, the
Business Objects Administrators, who are
being asked for assistance in executing
reports."
…Lynn Lagowski, Manager of Enterprise,
Insights Platforms, Southwest Airlines
APOS BI Tools Used:
Bursting Manager, InfoScheduler, Instance
Monitor, KPI, Object Manager, Report Package
Booster, RealTime Monitor for Business
Objects XI R2.
Background:
Southwest Airlines has been providing
customers’ transportation within the
contiguous United States, as the "Low Cost
Airline" for 36 years. Southwest also
transports cargo and freight. The mission of
Southwest Airlines is dedication to the
highest quality of Customer Service
delivered with a sense of warmth,
friendliness, individual pride, and Company
Spirit. In order to keep fares low Southwest
must keep costs low. Southwest is dedicated
to finding ways to lower costs and increase
productivity and quality.
Challenge:
Southwest’s technology department assists
the Company in lower costs, while increasing
the productivity through technical
solutions. Southwest is using
BusinessObjects Enterprise with more than
1,600 reports that are managed within the
environment. The increasing demand for the
Business Intelligence data by more
departments and more users introduces new
complexities associated with a large user
base. These challenges include user
administration, security, and the different
performance needs of the customers. There is
a broader need for the platform to integrate
with internal applications and portals. The
Business Objects infrastructure required
improvements to meet Southwest Airlines
requirements. For example, when a single
report needs to be executed for each of the
airports that Southwest Airlines flies from,
it becomes a time consuming and overwhelming
task. Southwest contacted APOS Systems for a
solution.
Solution:
Southwest Airlines’ goal was to provide an
easy to use solution to enable report owners
to schedule and reschedule their reports at
will, very quickly, while maintaining a
record of schedules. The decisive factor for
choosing a solution provider was they must
be a Business Objects partner and they must
be flexible and easy to partner with. The
new solution must be integrated with
BusinessObjects Enterprise and the tool set
must be on the same major release schedule
as BusinessObjects Enterprise. APOS Systems
and the APOS BI Tools fit these
requirements.
Southwest also utilized an on-site visit
from an APOS Consultant for a BI Tools
Assessment. During his visit, the consultant
met with different user groups to review
their requirements. Then he provided a
proposal to Southwest for the tools that
would best equip their Business Objects
Administrators, as well as their report
developer’s productivity.
Among the products implemented, the APOS
InfoScheduler has been able to improve the
end-users ability to schedule and distribute
a single report, numerous times to different
audiences.
The technology department has seen the
benefit of the APOS tools that have been put
into operation with the increased
productivity of personnel. The airport
personnel also benefit from the APOS tools
by having necessary reporting on time and
with the correct / appropriate information.
"Currently, there have been approximately
five people that have used the InfoScheduler
to schedule and execute reports, but the
receiving audience could reach more than
2,000 users," stated Lynn Lagowski,
Manager of Enterprise Insights Platforms,
Southwest Airlines.
Visit here
to view this case study in full and other APOS case studies.
If you are an existing customer and would
like to be featured in one of our case
studies please
contact us for more information.
 Webcast
- Thursday OCT 25
Join us
for a
webcast covering an overview of the APOS BI Tools
suite for the BusinessObjects XI platform.
The main purpose of this webinar is to
provide high level information to help you better assess the range
of current solutions available.
Learn how APOS BI Tools can help
you leverage and extend the value of your business intelligence
investment.
Date: Thursday,
October 25, 2007
Time: 10am PDT, 1pm EDT, 6pm BST
Speakers:
Allan Pym, VP Sales - Eastern Region, APOS Systems Inc.
Warren Kobbeltvedt, VP Sales - Western Region, APOS Systems Inc.
If you plan to be in
Orlando or Sydney, please be sure to come by our booth to see us.
-
October 15-18 - Orlando,
Florida, North America Business
Objects User Conference
-
October
29-30 -
Sydney, Australia, AsiaPac Business
Objects User Conference
If you'd like a
specific appointment to meet with members of our development,
sales or management teams at either of these events, just
let us know.
One of our challenges is keeping
our customers and colleagues current on the APOS BI Tools suite as
it grows.
Visit here to request demo download
instructions and our current price list.
Instance Administration
and Scheduling . . .
InfoScheduler - power
batch scheduling from Microsoft Excel
Instance
Manager -
administrator power tool for managing instances
Archive Manager -
report
instance archiving, with restore
capability!
Instance
Monitor - email
notification of failed instances
System Management and Monitoring . . .
Object
Manager - report
promotion, object & security management
RealTime Monitor -
powerful SNMP
monitoring & control of servers, with alerts
KPI - metadata for
analysis, who's viewing which reports, license analysis, server
activity monitoring
RunTime Manager - set availability time windows for
Job Servers, Page Servers, etc.
Enhanced Report Distribution . . .
Bursting
Manager - burst a large instance into small ones, burst
one report to many
Distribution
Server
- powerful
post processing capabilities, zip support, password security and
more
Report Package
Booster
-
consolidate reports to password protected
pdf/xls and distribute
Application
Integration
. . .
AddressBook
Gateway -
integrate Outlook/Exchange with ePortfolio/InfoView 'schedule to
email'
Integration Kit for ESRI
GIS -
two-way integration between Business Objects and
ESRI GIS
Integration Kit for
crystalreports.com -
schedule Webi, Deski, Crystal Reports to crystalreports.com
Integration Kit for
Microsoft Outlook -
connect to BusinessObjects XI from Outlook, offline report viewing
Miscellaneous Tools . .
.
Add-In Wrapper for
BusinessObjects XI Release 2
- Crystal Reports Add-In menu fast track
integration
Processing Extension
RAD - fast
track processing extension development
View Time
Security - row level data security without
C++ development
Dynamic
Parameters -
SQL-based, user-specific pick lists, cascading
parameters *CE10
and prior
Subscription Manager
- allow users to
manage their own report subscription *CE10
and prior
If you
have a unique reporting system requirement,
let us know. We love to
work on special projects and regularly save our customers a lot of
time and money by using APOS BI Tools as a fast-track foundation for
a specific customized solution.
This newsletter is published
approximately 12 times a year. If you don’t want to receive future
newsletters or would like to add someone else to our email list,
visit here. If you have any compliments or
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