Went to London Summit where I saw Gerry speak about the future of wf. He seemed to imply that wf would increasingly be marketed as a tool that could offer a more complete solution than other BIs which just reported. In particular you can use WF to update back to the rdbms.

Other stuff was that he would increasingly be using wf as an enabler for freeware and open source, such as integration with free stats packs. (ANALYSE FILE coming back?).

Also saw a demo of RA replacement Info Assist which looks very nice but is an extra cost option. They regarded this as a Cognos killer and development has been very swift. I reserve judgement until checking it for stability but it seems a good value item to revamp the look and feel of your BI.

Please note all this is in my opinion what Gerry was saying and does not represent his authorative opinion in any way.

What do others think of this news?

I think this strategy of being an broad enabler in today's "Internet cloud" trend is not bad. It's kinda tricky working with a lot of open source, since these components could also be implemented in open source BI applications. But it's nice that all is included free in the WebFOCUS package.

Infoassist can be a very good competitor for Cognos. Some customers see this tool and first think they're looking at Cognos. So IBI was always blamed for not making shiny bling-bling tools and now they have it!

Did you also see the Flex integration in PDF? I thought this was very impressive!



P.s. I think the London Summit should be held earlier in the year, this 'news' was also at the June Summit.

john , there is a stats integration coming, and dec 10 there is a webinar on the subject... not quite analyze, but something better, presumably, called "Rstat". dec 10, 11-12 est, go sign up.

It's funny, when I bought my last Swiss army knife, it came with all the attachments, I didn't have to pay extra for them.

Amen Francis Amen

quote:

when I bought my last Swiss army knife, it came with all the attachments, I didn't have to pay extra for them.

Quite right. But the number and version of attachments depends on the model and the last time I looked every one of those models is a different price.

im quickly coming to the conclusion that is more like this swiss army knife:


WF Tool Set

Francis,

When you buy your latest camera and a new lense comes out, do you get that at no extra cost?

T

When you buy a canon lens you even have to pay extra for the bag and the hood....

How many bug fixes does it take to make a camera lens work like it's supposed to?

Actually, I did buy a camera lens once that had to go back to the factory for a bug fix. They are no longer just tubes filled with expensive glass. They now have electronics tucked into them as well !!

(but I know what you are trying to say Francis)

Richard

quote:

(but I know what you are trying to say Francis)

As do we all .... but it's great fun fishing!! (note: not phishing!!)

Small game hunting, are we, Tony?