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Databeacon Makes Web Reporting/Data Analysis A Team Sport

Databeacon Inc, a leading developer of Web reporting and data analysis software, has announced the US availability of Databeacon Collaboration Edition. This new release gives organizations the ability to publish and disseminate live Web reports and data analysis to a large number of information consumers over corporate extranets or the Internet.

Until now, business analytics has usually been carried out by a few highly trained individuals, working in departmental silos. This inhibits easy sharing of reporting and analysis information. These individuals have been able to draw their own conclusions from data, but sharing those insights with a large audience in a timely way has proven to be problematic in terms of software licensing and systems infrastructure costs.

"Data analysis must move from solo to collaborative if we're ever going to bypass the bottlenecks involved with relying on specialized business analysts This means packaging analytical applications into portal interfaces that ordinary people can access online, and then allowing them to share not just the static report output, but the actual dynamic analytical experience through online collaboration," said Andy Coutts, CEO of Databeacon Inc.

Databeacon Collaboration Edition offers anyone with a browser and an Internet connection the ability to collaborate on Web reports without any need to install software or take training. Simply sending an email from the Databeacon Insight viewer to people of your choice activates a self-defined workgroup Email recipients just click on an "Analyze Report" link and then can continue to interactively analyze Web report data within their own Databeacon Insight viewer which is loaded automatically in their browser. They are then able to add their own Web reports to share within the workgroup as needed.

Databeacon Collaboration Edition allows analysts to collaborate on data-driven conclusions with clients, managers to deliver the results of data explorations to executives, and civil servants to share insights with stakeholder groups. As well, Databeacon's unlimited user/per processor server licensing model allows customers to cost-effectively publish interactive Web reports for analysis by thousands or tens of thousands of users from a single Web server. Databeacon also offers entry-level pricing for small businesses with limited numbers of users.

Databeacon Collaboration Edition also introduces new capabilities and features that ensure a highly productive collaborative environment, including:

• Updated user interface for Databeacon Insight viewer: Enhanced Databeacon Insight viewer to better service first-time information consumers including, report selection, category selection, % of row/column total, new title variables and mouse pointer feedback.
• Relative time categories: Data publishers can now provide pre-defined relative time periods in their reports. Information consumers can then use relative time periods such as "previous month" to select data, apply filters and create functions.
• New presentation modes: New presentation mode allows the presentation of data in a more natural reporting format, while also allowing information consumers to switch modes to a more powerful analysis, or Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) format, with one click.
• Exception highlighting: Unlike most products that require exception highlighting rules to be defined at the publication stage, Databeacon Collaboration Edition allows information consumers to determine rules at any time during their exploration of data.
• PageEnhancer API: For customers interested in tightly integrating Databeacon functionality into existing Web portal environments and applications, Databeacon PageEnhancer API provides full programmatic control of the updated Insight viewer's features and functions.

Pricing

Pricing for Databeacon Collaboration starts at $5,000 for a 5-user license. Databeacon's more common unlimited user/Web server pricing starts at $25,000 per processor for Databeacon Collaboration Edition, and $15,000 per processor for Databeacon PageEnhancer API.

Technology Platform Availability

Databeacon Collaboration Edition is immediately available for Windows 95, 98, NT, Millenium, 2000 and XP; standard Web servers with CGI support such as Apache 2.0+ or MS IIS 4+; and MS Internet Explorer 5.0+ and Netscape Navigator 4.7+ Web browsers. UNIX releases (IBM AIX, HP-UX, Sun Solaris and LINUX) and Microsoft Analysis Services support are scheduled for release this summer.