3-D CHARTING SYSTEMS MANAGE DATA

The process of mining masses of complex data over the Internet is getting a boost inside companies from new enterprise charting systems that can show complex results as charts and graphs in simplified form for business users.

The emerging, enterprise charting systems sit on central servers accessible to many users via a browser or simple client viewing system, says Philip Russom, an analyst at the Hurwitz Group (http://www.hurwitz.com).

The appearance of such systems means charts can be tied to the sources of their data through these servers and kept up-to-date instead of stagnating in a static report, he says. If charts are automatically updated each time they are called up, more business employees are likely to turn to them for the information they need.

Systems such as Platinum Technology's Forest & Trees 6.0, introduced Nov. 2, 1998, and ChartWorks' Java-based ChartWorks System, which will move to an enterprise server approach later this month, can show large amounts of data as three-dimensional charts. Visual Insights (http://www.visualinsights.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Lucent Technologies, introduced the Visual Insights Developers Toolkit on Sept. 15, 1998. The kit is a set of ActiveX controls that can be used to create 3-D chart applications that run on Microsoft's Windows NT servers.

Informix plans to announce a charting system, Visionary, later this month. The SAS Institute (http://www.sas.com), maker of data analysis systems with charting included, is reportedly eyeing a stand-alone enterprise charting system as well.

"The introduction of 3-D visualization is a great step toward making mined data more useful," says John Ulery, product manager for Platinum's Forest & Trees. By 3-D, he doesn't mean adding gray shading to the bars of a bar chart. Three-dimensional charting adds an axis to the two-dimensional, X and Y bar chart. For example, a chart examining suppliers based on price and speed of delivery could add a third element, inventory, in a chart with X, Y and Z axes. A fourth element, such as the suppliers' reliability, could be added as color shading to the bars, Ulery says.

Trying to evaluate all these elements in a table or printed report is difficult, he says. Once they are loaded into a 3-D chart, the desirable suppliers are immediately evident.

In some cases, enterprise systems borrow charting techniques from scientific researchers, letting users view a "scatter" chart or clusters of points on X, Y and Z axes. The enterprise systems give the user the option of revolving the point of view as if in 3-D space. What the data means shows up visually by where the clusters appear along each axis, Hurwitz's Russom says.

But it's uncertain how widely they will catch on. "Users haven't adopted them in great numbers yet because they just showed up last fall," he says.

Enterprising charting systems built with Visual Insights Developers Toolkit let users interact with charts, zeroing in on details or requesting a follow-up chart that examines a different set of elements, says Michael Tatelman, vice president of business development at Visual Insights.

A Visual Insights-based system helps bank customers of First Data Resources, the leading credit-card transaction processor, to sift through card user data looking for evidence of fraud, such as a sudden departure in purchasing patterns for an individual. The system helps banks "analyze immense quantities of data" and "better understand consumer behavior," such as reduced activity that may presage a switch to a new credit-card company, says Richard Zehnacker, managing director of First Data.

Scott Raven, manager of the National Pain Data Bank for the American Academy of Pain, says the ChartWorks System enables visitors to his site to examine the results for different treatments for ailments, such as lower back pain.

His site (http://www.aapainmanage.org) is an example of how previously remote or inscrutable information can suddenly be made available to a much wider audience. "We can grab data from any source, [such as] databases, enterprise resource planning systems [and] analytical systems," says Silas Matteson, director of product marketing at ChartWorks.

The new charting systems get the charting function "out of everybody's desktop" and onto a central server, he adds. There, a company can both better manage the charting system and "give everyone a connection to the data."

A new data visualization technique can summarize reams of data on business relationships, mined from the data warehouse, in chart form for quick understanding by end users.