Influence Opens up Gallery for Knowledge
Most corporations have sizable amounts of data, and the data keeps accumulating at a phenomenal rate. As ERP systems continue to chug away and collect vast amounts of information on transactions, users, sales, and the like, corporations are charged with the difficult prospect of finding ways to manipulate and use this information to gain some sort of competitive advantage.
With its recently released Aperio Knowledge Gallery, Influence Software Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif., www.influence.com) has found a way to make these expanding data stores available to those who need them -- via the Internet. "We're focused on getting the right set of information into the hands of the casual business user at the right time," explains Marv Mouchawar, co-founder and president of Influence Software.
Mouchawar describes Aperio Knowledge Gallery as "a one-stop shopping place where a user can access any type of document, regardless of file type." Knowledge Gallery is a new component of Influence's Aperio 2.0 suite of Java-based business intelligence products that function via a Web browser. In addition to Knowledge Gallery, Aperio 2.0 also includes Aperio OLAP for information analysis, Aperio Administrator for managing the Aperio solution set, and Aperio Knowledge Agent for event notification and information sharing.
Knowledge Gallery, which can be used without Aperio 2.0 to store and manage information, is a source-independent central information object repository that enables users to publish and subscribe to information contained within it via the Internet. Knowledge Gallery distributes this information to users in formats such as Microsoft Word or Excel documents, database reports, Web URLs, audio clips or Java applets.
The software features security controls for managing information access to users and groups, a search engine that locates the reports, presentations and documents stored in the Knowledge Gallery, a scheduling engine that automates information gathering and reporting, and a bookmarking feature that enables users to access frequently used documents.
For users who need to access information that is much more in-depth than canned reports, Knowledge Gallery is integrated with Aperio OLAP to enable users to modify existing reports or create new reports.
According to Ron Copeland, senior analyst with networked information market analysis firm the Robert Frances Group (San Jose, Calif., www.the-rfg.com), Knowledge Gallery is a welcome addition to the Aperio solution set. "Knowledge Gallery alleviates the centralized administration associated with running corporate reports and distributes this ability to every decision maker on an intranet," he explains. "Influence is taking a leadership role in providing every end user with the ability to assimilate, analyze and distribute the information they need to do their jobs."