Frequently Asked Questions
What is UniViz Analytics?
UniViz Analytics is a multi-tier Web application for delivering business
reporting and analysis across the organization in a powerful, intuitive user
interface. The architecture consists of a server which handles data connectivity to an
OLAP data warehouse and a rich Web client dashboard which provides data analysis,
reporting, and visualization capabilities.
How is this different from what I have now?
Since UniViz combines the best aspects of three distict types of tools, we'll
go through the differences one by one:
OLAP Analyst tools (Powerplay, Microsoft Analyzer) -
UniViz was built for decision-makers, not analysts. What does that mean? The power
of analytics is now in the hands of everyone from your high-level executives to your
front-line managers and line-level employees, empowering them with the data which is
currently only accessible to business analysts.
Reporting Tools (Impromptu, Crystal Reports) -
UniViz was built to address the inflexible nature of business reporting today. Much
like traditional tools, you can create, publish, and share reports with co-workers.
However, with UniViz these reports are live data views, allowing anyone to drill down
into the data, view it in another way that makes sense to them, and then save or share
it. Going from static to dynamic reporting allows people to be empowered with
information as never before.
Executive Information Systems (custom built, dashboards, digital cockpits) -
The problem with a traditional EIS/DSS is that they provide only a high level,
inflexible view of key business metrics. The VP of sales may be able to see that sales
are trending down in Asia-Pacific, but can't break that out by region, sales manager,
or product line. With UniViz, every user has the power and flexibility to get to the
root of a problem quickly and make more effective decisions.
So it's like an database?
Not exactly. UniViz takes the data in your OLAP data warehouse and delivers it to
users in a visually rich, interactive way, allowing them to spot trends, root out
problems, and make better decisions in real time.
Are your products HTML-based thin clients?
No, our products are rich client Web applications built on Microsoft's .NET Framework.
While the Web has undoubtedly revolutionized how businesses exchange information,
the "Webification" of many client/server applications had a dramatic affect on the
functionality of those applications. Since the combination of HTML and JavaScript could
not support the rich functionality of a desktop application, developers had to
drastically scale back the features and behavior of their Web-enabled applications.
With the emergence of new rich client Web technologies, this trade-off is no longer
necessary. By building our products on rich client Web technology, we are providing the best of
both worlds: the connectivity and easy maintenance of the Web along with the functionality
of an installed client.
What OLAP databases do you support?
Currently, we offer turnkey integration with Microsoft Analysis Services. The UniViz
architecture is designed to support multiple OLAP data sources, however, so
contact us if you would like to investigate tying
UniViz Analytics to Hyperion, Cognos, Business Objects, Oracle, Microstrategy, or
any other OLAP data source.
What about security?
UniViz is based on Web standards, so it integrates easily with existing security policies
and authentication schemes.
Read more about UniViz Analytics here... |
