Information Builders Bundles WebFOCUS with SQL Server 7

Information Builders, a global leader in the combined Web reporting and enterprise integration solutions known as i-business, revealed that the newest release of its WebFOCUS Business Intelligence Solution will deliver industry leading online analytic processing (OLAP) by being fully-integrated and bundled with SQL Server 7's OLAP Services. In addition, Information Builders' Consulting Services Division will provide installation, configuration, integration and optimization services.

Currently shipping, WebFOCUS v. 4.3 is the first business intelligence solution with the ability to report from legacy, ERP and relational data in conjunction with data that has been loaded into Microsoft OLAP Services cubes. In other words, WebFOCUS users will be able to generate complex reports in one pass against data stored in OLAP Services cubes, then quickly join those reports with ERP, legacy or other data sources for true enterprise reporting.

According to David Sandel, vice president of Information Builders' Business Intelligence Division, "Our internal customer research has determined that power analysts want high-performance cubes and OLAP reporting capabilities without being locked into a proprietary cube format. By standardizing on Microsoft's OLAP Services cubes, WebFOCUS is the first business intelligence solution on the market to provide an open, thin-client OLAP solution to produce insightful reports in real time."

"We're excited that Information Builders has chosen to bundle and integrate OLAP Services with WebFOCUS," said Andrew Hoover, group manager for Business Intelligence at Microsoft Corporation. "By running OLE/DB in the standard WebFOCUS reporting interface, Information Builders can now offer the OLAP Services Cubes to WebFOCUS users and deliver a powerful combination of relational and OLAP reporting."

The WebFOCUS/Microsoft Integration Road Map

The integration of WebFOCUS with SQL 7 OLAP Services is the first step in bridging Information Builders' business intelligence solution with Microsoft Office 2000 and BackOffice 2000. Later this year, Information Builders will enable OLAP Services to access legacy data via its EDA enterprise integration middleware and then deliver the ability to generate OLAP Services Cubes directly from WebFOCUS. These planned features reflect Information Builders' commitment to providing an open, integrated solution for multidimensional cube reporting from an enterprise-reporting environment.

About WebFOCUS

Launched in 1997, WebFOCUS has rapidly become a leading business intelligence solution for the corporate Web. WebFOCUS includes: WebFOCUS Application Server for enterprise-wide, Web-based reporting with direct access to more than 85 different databases on 35 different platforms; WebFOCUS Managed Reporting for centralized administration of adhoc reporting and development environments; WebFOCUS Report Broker for report scheduling and distribution; and WebFOCUS Maintain for rapid application development.

About Information Builders

Information Builders supplies the market-leading Web business intelligence and enterprise integration solutions. The combined strengths of these core technologies provide organizations with the ability to dynamically transform all of their data into valuable business information. This information can be distributed immediately via the Web to customers, employees and partners throughout the world. This unique and comprehensive solution, known as ibusiness, makes dynamic, scalable and cost-effective e-business applications possible.

Headquartered in New York City, Information Builders is one of the largest independently owned software companies in the world, with more than 5,000 customer sites, including 90 of the Fortune 100, currently using its core technologies. The company employs more than 2,000 professionals worldwide and generated revenues exceeding $340 million in 1999. To learn more about Information Builders products and services, point your Web browser to www.informationbuilders.com/ .

Contact: Michael Ventriello 917-339-6099 michael_ventriello@ibi.com