Information Builders WebFOCUS Magnify
January 22, 2010
I wrote about Information Builders in my report for the Gilbane Group a couple of years ago. I was updating my files, and I wanted to pass along a bit of information about this product. Information Builders is a vendor of enterprise solutions. The company spans data management, business intelligence, and dashboards. You can get basic information about the firm’s products on the firm’s Web site. There are some diagrams showing how Information Builders’ software “snaps in” to most enterprise computing infrastructures.
Information Builders rolled out more than 100 changes to its WebFOCUS product line. According to TDWI, there have changes to the dashboard and the predictive analytics. For search, TDWI says:
“WebFOCUS Magnifyƒz a search navigation tool that dynamically categorizes search results and supplements them with analysis and reporting capabilities, has been updated with new features designed to enhance both usability and security. Highlights include:
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- Collections, enabling users to select a collection that narrows their search to a specific part of the index, prior to their submission
- Magnify iWay Wizard, helping users to quickly set up a Magnify environment, instructing them how to handle each field when transforming a record into a search result
- New security features including single sign-on integration, multiple credential support, the ability to hide entire results and parts of results, and present alternate-result rendering as well as a security API”.
The search product indexes content, using what the company calls “real-time transactional indexing method”. The results list provides relevance ranked output plus facets to allow point and click navigation. The screenshot below shows one possible results display. The system is fully customizable, so you can create the look and feel you want.
If you are an Information Builders’ customer running the company’s business intelligence system, the search system (WebFOCUS Magnify) integrates with that Information Builders’ product. The company says:
A user’s inquiry does not end with search results. Those results will often lead to new questions, which, in order to be answered, require numbers analysis, aggregations, and value comparisons that can only be achieved through business intelligence. For example, a search for a bank account may lead the user to want to know more about its cash flow patterns, expenditures by time frame, and other transactions. Magnify allows a user to drill down directly from search results into the reporting system, so any natural language search can be instantly expanded to include numbers analysis. Search terms are fed to the WebFOCUS platform as parameters that automatically trigger the generation of reports or guided ad hoc forms that can be used to further refine report content.
The company added support for Web content three or four years ago. You can read about this aspect of WebFOCUS in “Information Builders Google-izes BI.” The company has been surfing on Google for a couple of years. You can get an overview of Information Builders’ Google components on the Google Solutions Marketplace.
I have never been able to get a firm grip on the Information Builders’ pricing for its search and content processing technology. I did learn that the WebFOCUS Intelligent Search component for the Google OneBox for Enterprise is free. You can learn more about this product from the Google Solutions Marketplace. You can read about this “surf on Google” play in the March 2006 Computer World article “Information builders, Google Build Corporate BI Search Tool.” I just haven’t heard much about the success of this software component.
Stephen E Arnold, January 22, 2010
Okay, here’s the scoop. A freebie. I will report this to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an outfit that combines work and data analysis. That’s the oversight group for me.
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