GBI lowers cost of analytics with new Hyperion Essbase 7

Hyperion`s newest version of its Essbase software, Essbase 7, offers an advanced analytic environment for developers; more power, flexibility, performance and scalability for business analysts and other end-users, and fuels comprehensive analysis for improved performance.

Hyperion is distributed locally by Global Technology Business Intelligence (GBI), the business intelligence subsidiary of JSE Securities Exchange-listed Global Technology.

Essbase 7, a key component of the new Hyperion BI platform, debuts new capabilities designed to deliver information to a broad class of users accountable for business performance, including executives, operational managers and front line workers.

Johnson Matthey, an international leader in precious metals and chemicals has used previous editions of Hyperion Essbase and has noted a number of improvements.

"Hyperion Essbase 7 supports multiple servers, and checks and validates calculation scripts," says Johnson Matthey group systems development manager, Tony Whitby. "There are improvements in performance, particularly with compression algorithms, and integrated security is an important new feature.

"We originally chose Hyperion Essbase as we needed a platform that required little or no IT maintenance, that integrated with existing systems in the various divisions, and would be around for the long haul," Whitby says.

Hyperion has made advancements with this release to meet customers` needs for powerful, scalable solutions that can be easily deployed across organisations, says Marc Scheepbouwer, CEO of GBI.

Essbase 7 lowers the total costs of ownership for analytics and it offers an ideal environment for developers, with flexible, open technology for creating innovative applications.

Predictive analytics empowers users to evaluate the past, model the future and predict business outcomes. A comprehensive set of interactive alerts and triggers flags issues in real-time, alerting users to issues such as low supply levels, increases in supply costs or spikes in demand.

"Hyperion is the first business performance management (BPM) vendor to offer end-to-end support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, giving customers a robust and reliable operating environment for dramatically lower total cost of ownership," Scheepbouwer says. "Hyperion proved it delivers more performance for less hardware investment with the publication of the Analytical Processing Benchmark (APB), as outlined by the OLAP council, in December 2003."

Cross-platform support for Web services via XMLA (XML for Analysis) gives customers anywhere, anytime access to data via the Web, improved deployment capabilities and easy integration of business intelligence (BI) and business performance management (BPM) data with corporate portals and other Web applications.

Support for Unicode enables developers to build applications once, and instantly deploy them across any platform, any environment and in several languages.

Essbase 7 offers support for MDX (multidimensional expressions), a sophisticated query language that enables users to conduct complex product mix, market analysis and detailed customer analysis.

"Hyperion continues to evolve Essbase to meet the changing needs of its customers," says Mike Schiff of analyst firm Current Analysis. "Essbase is already recognised as a leading OLAP engine and the new capabilities can only serve to further enhance this well deserved reputation and benefit organisations that choose to deploy it."