Viador Introduces First Enterprise Information
Portal for IBM S/390 Enterprise Servers
ACTION ITEMS
Viador Inc., a leading provider of Enterprise Information Portals (EIPs), has announced plans to make its breakthrough Viador E-Portal Suite available on the IBM S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server platform. The Viador E-Portal Suite is a web-based suite of products that provides a single architecture for securely searching, analyzing, and delivering all types of corporate data, giving users a "portal-like" view into a corporation's business information. By making the suite available for the S/390 Server, Viador enables direct access to mainframe-based data through a simple browser interface, without the need to duplicate data on servers, redesign data schemas or purchase additional hardware. Organizations can use the Viador E-Portal Suite to directly access, analyze, and widely distribute the vast amounts of critical business data on their S/390 enterprise servers via the web and leverage the strategic value of information throughout the enterprise.
The Viador E-Portal Suite will be rolled out to the enterprise server in two stages during 1999. The first stage, available today, offers powerful yet easy-to-use back end reporting and analysis capabilities for data stored in DB2 databases on the S/390 server. In the second half of 1999, Viador will make its out-of-the-box portal interface and searching capabilities available for the S/390 platform as well.
In the past, S/390 data and reports were typically made available in one of two ways.
In practice, these methods typically resulted in report backlogs and delays in information delivery. With a majority of operational business data residing on IBM servers, direct and easy-to-use access to S/390 data is essential for enterprises seeking to effectively leverage their business information for strategic advantage.
The Viador E-Portal Suite on the S/390 platform delivers a fast and simple way to access, analyze, and distribute mainframe data via the web. With Viador, all types of users -- from the information novice to technically savvy business analysts -- can directly create, modify or run their own reports and analyze information in real-time through a simple browser interface. Users can take advantage of up-to-the minute or static web-based HTML reports and a host of other capabilities, including everything from visual Java charting capabilities to more sophisticated multidimensional analysis of DB2 data. Users can even export information into desktop applications such as Microsoft Excel.
"Most business information access technologies fail to address the fact that 70% of operational data resides on IBM S/390 servers. Without offering easy access to this data, the picture of what is happening in a corporation is incomplete," said Viador President and CEO Stan Wang. "The Viador E-Portal Suite is designed to provide simple, scalable access to all enterprise data through a unified, web-based environment."
In addition to enabling unparalleled access to information assets within the organization, Viador's open, web-based architecture brings a customer-proven 100% Pure Java technology to the S/390 platform. It provides organizations with a solution that can be centrally deployed and maintained, as well as easily scaled to meet the growing information demands of today's businesses. The Viador E-Portal Suite's comprehensive security and access control features protect sensitive data within the enterprise. It also can extend access beyond the firewall to authorized partners, suppliers and customers, seamlessly integrating them into an organization's electronic information supply chain. Viador's open APIs enable corporations to create their own custom branded portal interfaces that take advantage of Viador's server-based information backbone and complete suite of business intelligence capabilities for reporting and analysis.
"Quick and easy access to information is a key to success for companies competing in today's e-business environment," said Jim Kelly, vice president, data management marketing, IBM Software Solutions. "DB2 Universal Database coupled with Viador's solution provides customers with that access to information on IBM's S/390 enterprise servers."
About Viador Inc.
Viador Inc., formerly Infospace, Inc., is the leading developer of Enterprise Information Portals that help corporations leverage their information and technology assets to gain business advantages. The company's Viador E-Portal Suite gives thousands of users, including business managers and analysts, rich yet easy to-use business intelligence functionality based on a thin-client architecture that supports widespread deployment at a low cost of ownership. Viador's breakthrough technology has won customers including 3Com, Charles Schwab, FedEx, Internal Revenue Service, Lucent Technologies, Sprint PCS, and Xerox. Headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., Viador is a privately-held company backed by Crosslink Technology Partners, ITV, Mitsui & Co., and Technology Associates. For more information, call 650-685-3000 or visit the web site at http://www.viador.com.