Johannesburg, 11 May 1999
Walker Horizon has announced the availability of a web-based, OLAP (online analytical processing) reporting and analysis tool that allows users to manage company performance.
As part of the Horizon analytic application suite, OLAP Reporting and Analysis (OLAP R&A) allows finance to deliver financial reports. Integrated with leading multidimensional OLAP databases, OLAP R&A allows end-users to generate and drill down into reports to understand the underlying factors affecting business performance.
Traditionally reporting and analysis offerings have not been geared towards financial reporting, forcing customers to generate "home-grown" reports using Excel. This approach is time-consuming and lacks integrity due to the potential for human error.
By leveraging Excel and a financial data mart, OLAP R&A allows users to analyse data. In addition, OLAP R&A manages the storage and delivery of reports and allows the effective reusability of report layouts.
"OLAP R&A was designed with input from financial executives and allows users to generate and analyse complex financial reports," says Paul Lord, senior VP of business solutions, Walker. "Our goal is to enable management insight."
OLAP R&A offers two approaches for analysing financial reports. The first enables users to drill down on any cell in a report to reveal the underlying data. The second approach allows users to link reports that share related content.
For example, a budget report might be linked to others that identify supporting data, such as budgeted revenue by product, region and programme. Both approaches empower end-users and allow finance to focus more on data analysis - not data preparation. In addition, these approaches reduce reliance on IT and report designers.
Many OLAP reporting products integrate financial reporting with the corporate intranet, but do not allow users, administrators or designers to leverage the benefits of the Web. OLAP R&A is fully Web-enabled and allows:
End-users to generate and analyse reports;
Administrators to maintain users; and
Report designers to create reports, all via the Web.
"As the Web becomes the central engine for companies to manage business performance, a consistent presentation and navigation layer for data access and financial reporting is critical," says Henry Morris, VP with IDC. "Walker is capitalising on this need by offering a robust, fully Web-enabled financial reporting and analysis solution."
Walker Horizon products are distributed in South Africa by Global Technology Business Intelligence.
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