XTRAC Solutions LLC Request for Proposal

Priorities Must Have = 10 Very Important = 8 Important = 6 Nice to Have = 4 Not Important = 2 No Need = 0 Vendor Responses - Complete the RFP by completing the "Solution Provider Evaluations" - Peruse the ratings legend to make sure the responses are one of the 6 possibilities mentioned heres - Detailed responses should be recorded in the "Remarks" column with any supporting materials mentioned here

Response SUP PSUP PADD CST FUT NS

Ratings Legend
Explanation Supported as delivered "out-of-the-box" Supported through an integrated partner solution Supported through add-on products offered by partners Supported via customization (changes to source code) Will be supported in a future release Not supported

Evaluation Criteria Functionality Core Functionality Role based Dashboarding and Reporting

Description

Priority

Remarks

Response

10 Does the product support the concept of rolebased reporting, dash boarding and analysis? For example when a user logged on, he sees only and instantly the information (portlets, graphs, tables, gauges, data) he is authorized for? Are common drill-down paths and hierarchies stored in a repository? If so, can they being made dependent on the role users have? For example the primary drill-down path of a product manager is to drill into the product groups; the primary drill-down path of the director sales is region. Is it possible for end-users to adjust standard reports or dashboards, for example delete a column, filter the data, change the sorting et cetera? Can the adjustments be saved for that particular user in a way that when he logon on the next time the adjustments are still in place? Is an export of the data and/or formatting to Excel available? Is an export of the data and/or formatting to PDF available? Can one attach notes to the figures, graphs, dashboards, and distribute these notes to a particular user group or a specific user? If so, can these notes being linked to a specific period, product or customer (e.g. dimension member(s))? Can we store report files in a searchable format into a content management server using the CMIS interface? If so, is this functionality supported out of the box? What are the functionalities that can be selectively exposed to a business workflow user in XTRAC? If so, does the product support storing the history of these planning and budgeting figures in the database when the figures are changed by the user? Can we turn off this feature selectively? Yes. Information Builders provides a role-based environment supporting all levels of security down to the field level. Once a user has identified themselves, WebFOCUS will automatically tailor the user interface, report content, and functional priveleges based on their unique identities and skill levels. SUP

Common drill-down paths stored in repository Do they depend on the role users have?

Yes. Drill paths are stored in the WebFOCUS metadata layer. Yes. This is supported by the WebFOCUS multi-drill facility where users are offered the option of various drill paths, not just within the data, as with traditoinal drill down, but also to outside resources and/or reports if desired.

SUP SUP

Standard reports can be adjusted

Yes. End users are provided the ability to adjust columns, filters, sorting, etc. for reports and dashboards to meet specific needs.

SUP

Can the adjustments be saved for that particular user

Yes. Report selections can be saved for future use.

SUP

Export to Excel, formatting included

Yes. Individual reports and content can be exported to Excel. WebFOCUS can generate reports in Excel that retain all of the fonts, colors, conditional styling, and hyperlinks of the same report rendered in HTML or PDF. This allows the user to receive reports executed from the Web in Excel format directly. Yes. Individual reports, compound reports, and dashboards can easily be exported to PDF. Comments can be stored in WebFOCUS Active Technolgies reports. Additionally, our performance management offering (WebFOCUS PMF), enables individuals and/or members of a team to enter comments, view comments and track actions performed by others.

SUP

Export to PDF Attach notes to figures and distribute them

SUP SUP

Notes can be linked to specific dimension member Support CMIS

This functionality is not currently supported, but it can be offered with custom code.

CST

In principal, this is supported, usually via Web services; however more information is required before a definitive answer can be given.

SUP

Can this be done by an end-user

Yes. WebFOCUS offers a flexible series of functions that can be exposed or restricted from the end users via the security model.

SUP

Keeps history when figures are changed

Curently available as a bespoke solution.

CST

Evaluation Criteria Support for Balanced scorecarding

Description Does the product support the balanced scorecard methodology in terms of key performance indicators, perspectives, critical success factors, strategy maps and actions?

Priority

Remarks Yes. The ability to provide reports with KPIs and key metrics with drill down is inherent with WebFOCUS. Additionally, as an optional add-on solution, we offer our WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework (PMF). This software extension of WebFOCUS allows users to establish a comprehensive enterprise system for performance management. It contains a data structure to hold performance data, the ability to define metrics and strategy maps, and the ability to generate KPIs. It allows organizations to link strategic goals to their supporting tactical goals and projects for complete transparency, tracking, and analysis of this information. Yes. Information Builders specializes in providing self-service, on-demand information generation for non-technical users.

Response SUP

BI self-service supported

Does the product support the concept of BI selfservice, for example can one make or change his own dashboard, reports or lay-out?

SUP

Scheduled distribution of reports/dashboards Can reports / dashboards distributed by email on a regular, scheduled basis? Publish and subscribe Is the product real-time aware Does the product support the principle of publish and subscribe? Is the product real-time aware, for example if new data has been arrived in the database, the report or dashboard is refreshed instantly? Need ability to generate and maintain a visual data model of the data repository (i.e. a graphical view of the underlying tables and views for the report developers). Can user groups and organizational roles be defined? Can one user have more than one role? At what level does authorization work? Can it be integrated with another product's authentication/ authorization database - in our case XTRAC?

Yes. Information Builders provides a robust scheduling and distribution component that allows for reports to be distributed on a regularly scheduled basis. Yes. Recipients can bypass the scheduling feature and subscribe to information on their own through a subscription function. Yes. Information Builders can be used to provide real-time dashboards and reports.

SUP SUP SUP

Data Repository

Yes. The WebFOCUS metadata describes the data model, files, fields, dimensions, joins, calculations, descriptions, and all of the useful information needed to both prepare new reports and for the execution of requests. Graphical views are provided, allowing developers to see a visual representation.

SUP

User and Identity management

Yes, user groups and organization roles can be defined, and a user can be assigned to more than one role. WebFOCUS can take advantage of authorization, authentication, roles, and access privileges already established in the environment. Further, through the use of Role Trees, user access to items (reports, graphs, launch forms, and URLs) can be limited and defined based on their membership in a particular user group or their access to a particular 'domain' of data. All of this can be accessed through a single sign on (or it may be leveraged when the user signs on to the system via a facility such as Active Directory, etc.).

SUP

Usability and Visualization Ease-of-use

10 The ease-of-use of the product for business users. Is it easy to learn and easy to use on a daily basis? Yes. In fact, to quote the Gartner BI Platforms User Survey, 2011, Only Information Builders achieves above-average ease of use, belowaverage implementation cost per user, above-average complexity of deployments and above-average business benefits. WebFOCUS offers parameter-driven templates (guided ad hoc), which are highly parameterized reports accessible to any number of users. Parameterized reports allow complex reports or business logic to be presented in an easy to use interface. With just a few clicks, parameterized report users can customize their report while still utilizing corporate standards for styling and queryingand without learning new tools or installing new applications. Yes. Screen design for end users can be made to look as simple and well-balanced as desired. Yes. We believe that WebFOCUS can support this functionality, but more definition is required to be sure. SUP

Screen design Task compatibility

Does the screen look quiet and well-balanced? Does the tool support the tasks (in the same sequence) as the BI developer and BI user?

SUP SUP

Evaluation Criteria Number of graphs and visualizations

Description What type of graphs/visualizations can be chosen? Mention them all.

Priority

Remarks WebFOCUS provides over 120 different types of graphs and charts that are fully customizable, intuitive, and highly interactive. One may select from a number of basic graph types, as well as refinements on these types, known as graph styles. Some of the basic graph types available include: 3D graphs Bar graphs Area graphs Line graphs Pie graphs Scatter graphs Heat Map graphs Polar graphs Radar graphs Stock chart Histogram graphs Spectral Map Bubble charts Pie-Bar graphs Please refer to Appendix BGraph Examples for examples. Yes. With WebFOCUS, you can add further value to your data and/or graph by using conditional styling to highlight certain defined data with specific styles and colors. Conditional styling enables you to define conditions that determine when to apply particular fonts, point size, text style, foreground and background color, and drill-down procedures to the data in your report, when the report is run. However, conditional formatting isn't just limited to font and color formats, but can include virtually any style of formatting to meet requirements. Yes. WebFOCUS supports Web standards such as cascading style sheets for easier branding. Yes. All WebFOCUS reports, graphs, and charts can be enabled with drill down, allowing end users to take full advantage of the WebFOCUS drill technology. This enables the integration of powerful hyperlink drill-downs to any other report using any other data source, program, location, or multiple locations within enterprise reports. These hyperlink drill downs are available in all supported output formats, including HTML, Excel, and PDF. Drill-down is possible from any report/graph to any other report/graph while remaining in context. Yes. WebFOCUS fully exploits the native capabilities of todays most popular mobile appliances, allowing users to access and analyze any information from any smartphone (BlackBerry, iPhone, Android) or tablet (iPad). Unique to WebFOCUS is the build once, deploy everywhere capability, allowing WebFOCUS generated documents and applications to be deployed without regard to mobile device because WebFOCUS will automatically adapt to the device features and behaviors. WebFOCUS provides a plug in for Adobe Flex Builder which allows Flex Builder report developers to build WebFOCUS reports within a Flash environment. Any open source or Fusion chart can be designed and integrated with WebFOCUS Report data. Additionally, WebFOCUS utilizes and supports HTML5 and enables interoperability with JSPs.

Response SUP

Conditional formatting

Is conditional formatting supported? Explain how.

SUP

Style-sheets supported (css) Drill-down supported on elements in graphs

Does the product make use of cascading stylesheets (css)? Is drill-down supported on specific elements of graphs if required and relevant? For example, a user wants to drill-down on the combination of product type and quarter. Are the reports / dashboards optimized for viewing on iOS Devices, PDAs and Blackberries?

SUP SUP

Support for iOS devices, PDA's and BlackBerries

SUP

How do you support integration with other UI XTRAC currently uses Adobe Flex for UI. We are technologies specifically Adobe Flex, HTML 5 evaluating our UI strategy given that we need to and simple JSPs support many devices that may not support Flex UI Searching and Alerting Meta data search Is there a search facility to search reports / dashboards (search over meta data)? Federated Search We have a BPM DB interfaced with Document Management DB (Documentum and FileNet) using CMIS. When users perform a full text search, we need to be able to bring all relevant reports along with XTRAC work items and Documentum/FileNet documents Is there a search facility to that support finding specific data that is stored in the reports or dashboards (search over data)? Can one define alerts and notifications? If so, how do you configure the feeds?

SUP

8 Yes. This is supported through the WebFOCUS Administration Console SUP

WebFOCUS provides a search function based on key words and phrases, allowing users to easily and quickly locate the information they need. Additionally, WebFOCUS provides a solution to search any structured or unstructured data, regardless of its source or location. It also allow users to leverage a familiar and intuitive Google-like interface to instantly access detailed records, unstructured documents, aggregate summaries, etc..

SUP

Search over data in reports and dashboards

Yes. Please see the response to the previous question.

SUP

Alerts and notifications Are they RSS compatible? Infrastructure and Architecture

Yes. Alerts and notifications can be defined. RSS feeds are supported, but require custom coding at the present time. 8

SUP CST

Evaluation Criteria Load-balancing and clustering

Description Does the product support load balancing and clustering? If so, describe how it is arranged? Does the product support fail-over? If so, describe how it is arranged?

Priority

Remarks Yes. WebFOCUS leverages a powerful combination of clustered servers and a robust load-balancing algorithm. The distribution of work, failover, and resource allocation are managed in a completely autonomic manner, ensuring optimum performance while reducing hardware costs proportionately as the environment is scaled. Yes. Simple failover relies on Information Builders technology's native functionality to emit and respond to "heartbeat" messages which signify normal operation of the primary server. When a failure is detected, the backup host executes a process which manages the switch-over (sending an appropriate message to the router to reconfigure itself, posting an e-mail to the SysOp, and so on), and then assumes the workload of the primary server. It should be noted that the primary and backup servers need not be located in the same data center, for example, they may be geographically dispersed. Yes. WebFOCUS end user tools are completely Web-based. WebFOCUS is a true thin client application written specifically for use on the Web, leveraging state-of-the-art Web technologies such as AJAX, HTML5, etc. WebFOCUS requires no plug-ins or any other software installed on a desktop. Of course, if you want to utilize output formats such as Excel and PDF, you would need the appropriate software, but otherwise a browser is all that is required of an end user. Yes. WebFOCUS' Web-based, zero-footprint, MS Office inspired ad hoc development tool allows extensive reporting and dashboard creation and delivery in an easy to use, familiar layout.

Response SUP

Fail-over

SUP

Zero-footprint viewer

Are the products fully web-based and support they the zero-footprint concept (e.g. no software is downloaded or needed on the client computer) Does it hold true for the software where one defines reports, dashboards and analysis?

SUP

Zero-footprint definer

SUP

Web 2.0 / AJAX supported Adobe Flex and HTML 5 Support Number of portlets technologies

Is Web 2.0 / AJAX supported? Is Adobe Flex and HTML 5 Supported? What kind of portlets (or webparts) does the product support? For example IBM Websphere, SharePoint, SalesForce.com, Oracle CRM or BEA WebLogic Portal? Does the portlets have a zero-footprint? Are the portlets certified or validated by the vendor of the portal technology? On what platforms (UNIX, Windows, Linux and so forth) does the product run? This is specified for the design environment, the end-user environment (the client computers) and the server environment. Does your solution provide above defined functionality within one environment, software package or screen? In this case reporting, interactive analysis and dash boarding can be combined very easily

Yes. WebFOCUS is a true thin client application written specifically for use on the Web, leveraging state-of-the-art Web technologies such as AJAX, HTML5, etc. Yes. WebFOCUS is a true thin client application written specifically for use on the Web, leveraging state-of-the-art Web technologies such as AJAX, HTML5, etc. For more on Adobe Flex, please refer to our response to line 35. WebFOCUS Open Portal Services provide a set of WebFOCUS components as on-screen components that allow you to integrate WebFOCUS business intelligence into your existing Enterprise Information Portals (EIPs). We offer support to SharePoint, Oracle, IBM, SAP, and others.

SUP SUP SUP

Portlets zero-footprint Portlets certified Platforms

Yes. The portlets have zero footprint. Not at this time. WebFOCUS is platform agnostic. It has very few hardware and software limitations in its implementation, including being deployed in a virtualized environment. WebFOCUS can be deployed and is supported on multiple platforms, including Windows, AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Sun, zLinux, z/OS, and i5/OS.

SUP CST SUP

Reporting, dash boarding and analysis All-inone

Yes. Information Builders provides one integrated business intelligence suite called WebFOCUS. WebFOCUS is a proven, tightly integrated business intelligence suite that provides access to more data sources and runs on more platforms than any other similar product. WebFOCUS offers comprehensive functionalityincluding enterprise reporting, ad hoc query and online analytical processing (OLAP) analysis, information delivery and management, portal integration, flexible and intuitive development tools, and administration and securitybuilt from the ground up by the same engineering staff to ensure interoperability.

SUP

MS Office integration

Does the product integrate fully with MS Office? Which versions? Can reports be maintained in the Office environment? Is there a live connnection between the reports and the Office document?

Yes. WebFOCUS offers industry-leading integration with not only Excel, but with other Microsoft Office products. WebFOCUS enables both inclusion of reports into documents and presentations and exporting of query results to documents and spreadsheets. Currently, Office 2010 and earlier are fully supported with WebFOCUS. Yes, reports can be maintained within Excel; and a live connection can be established.

SUP

Functions in a Service Oriented Architecture

Does the product function well in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)? If so, describe here at least two examples.

Yes. WebFOCUS can integrate with the iWay suite of services to give access to an SOA archetecture as well as via the support of Web services. Appropriate examples can be supplied once Information Builders understands more about the implemetation XTRAC is planning.

SUP

Evaluation Criteria Supports 64-bit architecture Supports In-Memory or Caching

Description Does the product support a 64-bit architecture? Does the product use In-Memory technologies or caching? If so, describe here the restrictions and conditions for using it properly

Priority Yes. Information Builders can support a 64-bit architecture.

Remarks

Response SUP SUP

Yes. WebFOCUS provides an in-memory analytics solution with cutting-edge data visualization capabilities. Analysts can perform in-depth, intuitive analysis in real time without the need for a pre-built data model. Additionally, caching options include in-memory processing on the user's browser, caching of large answer sets on the Reporting Server, and taking advantage of relational database caching and aggregate awareness. The Reporting Server caches metadata automatically, and caching expiration is configurable. Additionally, you can set up a cache of a particular piece of information and have them exist for some pre-determined amount of time (daily for instance). If the information is identical, reports can be cached in a repository and when users request them they are simply redirected to the cached version. Further, WebFOCUS Active Technologies accesses data sources in a single pass and provides the formatted answer-set with portable analytical capabilities. Users can perform OLAP operations including slice and dice, computations, pivot, roll-up, and other actions including collaboration, export to Excel, creation of charts and other analytical functions. This allows minimal access to data sources, caching of documents, sharing between users, and the utilization of PCs versus expensive servers.

Designs stored once in a repository

Is the design and content of a table or graph (the query and the visualization) stored once and is it reusable for multiple purposes, for example when users want to see it from different perspectives like month, year, customer, product et cetera Is it stored in an (open) repository and is it possible to reuse a design in multiple BI applications and on different devices (desktops, tablets, smart phones)? 8 Is aggregate awareness supported?

Yes. With all of the selectable options with WebFOCUS' parameterized reports, users can easily manipulate the components for analysis.

SUP

Designs are resuable across BI applications

Yes. WebFOCUS allows users to develop once and deploy many times, to many platforms.

SUP

Performance Issues Aggregate awareness

Yes. WebFOCUS is aggregate aware in that it fully supports aggregate aware database structures. It is Information Builders position that aggregate awareness should optimally be done at the database level. Database vendors have provided sophisticated capabilities, and database administrators are trained to do the analysis necessary to build these structures to ensure efficient database access. Yes. Please see the response to the previous question. Yes. Please see our response to the requirement on line 61.

SUP

Aggregate stores (ROLAP/MOLAP) Automatic selection of best aggregate

Can aggregates be defined in the database (or cube)? Will the product automatically select the best aggregate when the user wants to (re)run a report or dashboard? Are query results cached?

SUP SUP

Caching

Yes. Query results can be cached. Caching options include in-memory processing on the user's browser, caching of large answer sets on the Reporting Server, and taking advantage of relational database caching and aggregate awareness. This can be accomplished programatically.

SUP

Reuse of the cache

Is the cache reused automatically by a similar or sub-query requested by other users? Is Changed Data Capture caching supported (e.g. when new data arrives the cache is automatically updated)? Need ability to store and report on query and report access and performance (what queries / reports are being run, by who, and how long they take). When the database changes what happens to the caches? 6

CST

Changed Data Capture (CDC)

Not at this time.

CST

Query/ Report access and performance

For usage analysis and planning, WebFOCUS Resource Analyzer provides complete monitoring of every end users data access requests. Every report request and ad hoc query that arrives at the server is tracked and logged. Every conceivable statistic about the query is also loggedwho issued the query, what time of day, how long it ran, how many rows were returned, joins and record selection specified, etc.

SUP

Cache management Predictive Analysis

The caches remain unchanged until refreshed.

SUP

Evaluation Criteria Data mining models

Description Does the product support data mining models outof-the-box? What models and analysis can be used?

Priority

Remarks WebFOCUS RStat provides the most widely used statistical and data mining models for analysis based on algorithms and techniques such as decision trees, association, classification, and clustering. Within the development environment, Information Builders provides a predictive modeling interface for developing predictive and scoring applications. We have developed a graphical user interface within the report development environment to support open source Rs most popular models with the ability to support its many thousands of additional models. Not at this time. Not at this time. WebFOCUS Magnify allows for the searching of unstructured (or structured) data across multiple data sources, formats, and locations. Additionally, parsing unstructured data to create structured objects can be done via R scripting, with advanced customization, custom scripting, and assistance from our consulting services.

Response SUP

Type of models

SUP

Data mining applications Type of applications Text mining

Are data mining applications supported out-of-thebox? What type of data mining applications are supported (list of applications)? Is text mining supported? If so, describe what type of text mining models are supported? 8 Are management models like the Balanced scorecard supported out-of-the-box? Which models? Can the product link key performance indicators by setting the possible impact of one indicator on another? Are strategy maps supported?

CST CST SUP

Performance Management and Planning Management models

Yes. With WebFOCUS Performance Management (PMF), we support the balanced scorecard out of the box. In fact, WebFOCUS PMF is Balanced Scorecard Collaborative (BSC) certified and is open to supporting other methodologies as well. Yes. WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework (PMF) allows organizations to link strategic goals to their supporting tactical goals and projects for complete transparency, tracking, and analysis of this information. Yes. WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework (PMF) provides easily designed strategy maps that link measures in a cause-and-effect roadmap to enterprise goals. Yes. Establishing strategic objectives and linking them to specific key performance indicators is core functionality within WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework. Yes. Different multiple strategies are supported; and they can be linked to specific key performance indicators.

SUP

Impact indicators

SUP

Strategy maps

SUP

Strategic/Business Objectives

Are strategic objectives supported? Can they be linked to specific (key performance) indicators? Are different multiple strategies supported (different critical success factors)? Can they be linked to specific (key performance indicators)? Can one define norms and targets? By indicator? By time-frame? Are planning facilities included in the product?

SUP

Multiple strategies

SUP

Norms and targets

Yes. Defining norms and targets by indicator and time-frame is fully supported with WebFOCUS Performance Management

SUP

Planning Security and Connectivity Single sign-on supported

Planning solutions such as strategic planning, financial planning, human resources planning, operations planning, and capital asset planning can be provided through a partner solution. 8 WebFOCUS integrates with existing security infrastructures. It silently exchanges credentials with industry-standard Web authentication packages for single sign-on across the enterprise. Credentials may be stored in LDAP directories, DBMS environments, or at the operating system layer. Users can be challenged for credentials at any point in processingat system, portal, Web server, or database access. WebFOCUS can authenticate against Active Directory or other enterprise directories. WebFOCUS supports and implements security at multiple levels of your system, resulting in a comprehensive, tightly integrated security net for the most sensitive data and applications. WebFOCUS allows users to access information securely from anywhere using pre-existing, single sign-on capabilities. And, WebFOCUS offers security integration for both third-party and custom systems, including seamless integration with IBM/Tivoli Access Manager, Netegrity SiteMinder, and RSA ClearTrust, as well as a security plug-in that provides built-in support for Active Directory, LDAP, WebFOCUS Reporting Server, and relational database systems.

PADD

Does the product support single sign-on? If so, please describe how it works

SUP

Support for Active or Enterprise Directories

Does the product make automatically use of Active Directories or Enterprise Directories?

SUP

Evaluation Criteria Data authorization available

Description Is it possible to define for each user, user group or role what data one is authorized to see? Interplay with XTRAC security DB If so, is it applicable for rows, columns or rows and columns?

Priority 6

Remarks Yes. Access to data can be defined by user group, role, etc. WebFOCUs has a very flexible 'Realm Driver' that can connect to the majority of security solutions implemented in the marketplace today. If XTRAC requires something more tailored, security exits are available to accomodate XTRAC's needs. The level of authorized data access can be established for row and/or column level. Specifically at the data level, row and column level security can be implemented in the metadata layer or during database engine execution. We provide two features which operate at the metadata layer; FILTERS and DBA. Yes. WebFOCUS reports and dashboards can be made to adjust automatically for each user who logs on. WebFOCUS provides the flexibility to assign roles to different users to control what privileges each user has. Assigned users can make changes to their individual dashboard. System administrators can make changes to all dashboards, while providing the ability for certain group administrators to make changes to only their assigned groups. This flexibility makes it easy to control the content and layout of your system while still allowing individual users to customize their personal environment.

Response SUP

Security On rows/columns/both

SUP

Are reports and dashboards automatically adjusted

If so, is the report or dashboard automatically adjusted for that particular user? If yes, described here how it works.

SUP

Does it make use of database authorizations

If authorizations are stored in the repository of the database, can the product make use of it? List here the data sources the product can natively connect to? E.g. Oracle, DB2, SQL Server 2005, MS Analysis Services et cetera. Is there a repository, if so describe here the functions of it?

Yes. Authorizations stored in the database repository can be utilized by WebFOCUS.

SUP

Number of native connections to data sources

Information Builders provide over 300 native data, platform, and application adapters. We can effectively leverage your existing information assets, , whether in a data warehouse or non-data warehouse environment. Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server 2005 are just a few of them. Please refer to Appendix C-Information Builders Adapter List for a listing. Information Builders provides an end-to-end view of system metadata. Information Builders' approach to metadata simplifies development, maintenance, and support while improving performance of the overall business intelligence system. WebFOCUS metadata acts as a buffer between users and data sources, allowing people to work with data in business terms, easily manipulating it for reporting, analysis, ETL, or enterprise integration. Furthermore, WebFOCUS provides the tools to create business views containing calculations, filters, sort objects, rankings, and styling. They can be reused by any WebFOCUS application to dramatically reduce development time; and a library of powerful routines lets users apply complex mathematical, string, date, and time functions.

SUP

Does the product has a repository

SUP

Impact analysis

Does the product support impact analysis (data, security and connectivity)?

Yes. WebFOCUS has integrated impact analysis capabilities that help manage the changing of data, fields, procedures, services, or variables described to the platforms metadata layer. This robust capability makes managing enterprise BI systems much easier while requiring fewer resources. Yes. Through its metadata functionalities, WebFOCUS provides the ability to see how a column was derived. It traces the column back to the data source(s) it came from, breaking down all of its components along the way. Yes. These reports can be created.

SUP

Data lineage Support XTRAC Entitlements

Does the product support data lineage? Need ability to generate reports of user entitlements maintained within the system Need ability to audit data access and store audit trail

SUP SUP

Data access audit trail

An audit trail is available and solutions have been developed for recording changes in the Managed Reporting Administration. Information Builders' resource analysis will also record everything about users report execution, including the query.

SUP

SDK and customization of the product

Is there a system development kit (SDK), so one can build his one portal, with a specific look-andfeel and functions? If so, does the SDK contain/support the same possibilities and functions as if one were working with the client interface?

All report development and application development is accomplished using a rich GUI toolset. This toolset is extensible via a Software Developer Kit (SDK) that exposes full WebFOCUS functionality via Web Services. Mostly, but not all client functions are supported at this time. Typically administrative functions require the client interface, but all reporting functions can be supported through the SDK.

SUP

SDK has same functions as clients

CST

Strategic

Evaluation Criteria Influencing Roadmap

Description XTRAC being able to license/own all code or drive roadmap of the product

Priority 10

Remarks A key point regarding the WebFOCUS development direction is that it is Powered by WebFOCUS Customers, (i.e., via a series of input channels, WebFOCUS customers influence the new development priorities so that the program services the needs of thousands of customers who expect incremental new features for the core product areas). This is accomplished via our standard process for tracking and evaluating the steady stream of new feature requests that are logged via our customer support service infrastructure. The WebFOCUS Advisory Council is another means by which strategic customers can request new capabilities. Information Builders provides complete documentation for all its components. It includes technical manuals and complete reference guides for the development and deployment of reporting solutions. Information Builders Documentation Services has a complete library of printed and PDF documentation available. Information Builders provides OEM strategies and partnerships. In fact, WebFOCUS has already been integrated into several Fidelity solutions, including Streetscape and WealthCentral. As mentioned previously, WebFOCUS has already been integrated into several Fidelity solutions, including Streetscape and WealthCentral. Further timelines can be determined once we have gathered the appropriate information and requirements. In order to provide specifics as to how our solution can affect XTRAC's competive differentiation in the market, we would need additional information. However, we have found that the flexibility of WebFOCUS allows for many variations of competitive differentiation. Fidelity, as a member of the WebFOCUS Advisory Council, already has input on product direction.

Response SUP

Documentation

Provide indepth documentation for XTRAC to be self sufficient in integrating and enhancing the solution based on future needs Ability to adopt an OEM strategy Typical timelines to support such an product integration Does it affect XTRAC's competitive differentiation in our market?

SUP

OEM Timing

6 10

SUP SUP

Maintaining competitive differentiation

SUP