OPUS is a new age business intelligence and reporting tool designed for use by business people who need to share information from a multitude of disparate data sources across the intranet or Internet.
It is so simple to operate that a businessperson, familiar with Microsoft Office, can generate meaningful and timely Web-reports, without training ... in a matter of minutes. Yet it is powerful and scaleable, providing access to a multitude of simultaneous data sources, even the most complex of enterprise software systems.
Unlike enterprise business intelligence (BI) systems, OPUS is designed and priced for the individual or small business entity. It is simple to use and does not require major IT support. Unlike legacy reporting tools, OPUS is not a product converted from, nor based upon, the hard-copy reporting paradigm, but rather designed with the latest Web-object metaphors to provide business analysis and reporting to anyone
Most of the existing business intelligence tools and report generators have been written with large companies and organisations in mind. Consequently, the programmes are expensive, complex in application and require IT expertise at a fairly high level to implement and operate.
Supervisory staff, management, executives and their assistants typically require reports, ironically these very people are not in control of the information they need, or the way in which they are getting it. OPUS gives control back to these individuals, simultaneously doing away with the unnecessary requests and loads usually placed on IT departments or other service providers.
OPUS's primary objective is to supply information to the people who need it, easily and cost-effectively and to simplify reporting structures. The package is both straightforward and powerful and, to a very high degree, scaleable. Reports can be generated which are either very simple or highly complex, sourced from any number and combination of available data resources, and represented in a format and layout that makes sense to the user. This ability to plug-in from any data source as well as mix and match information on final documentation is unequalled.
The system's open structured architecture allows plug-ins from any data source, this makes it ideal for any business or industry requiring information collation and summarising. Literally from process control to finance, even retail and auditing, in fact any industry or business across the board can put this product to effective use, simply and quickly. The OPUS developers have created an easy-to-use interface (both client and server) as a core product or engine, around which different report elements could be added. The objective being that any or all of these elements can be extended.
More importantly, configuration can be done remotely. Although this may sound trivial, as soon as organisations start to communicate 'over-the-Web', intranet, local network, wide area networks and the Internet, security becomes the number one issue. OPUS overcame some very interesting challenges regarding browsing, accessing data sources as well as being able to deliver the reports over the Web. The OPUS report generator is different to all its competitors in that it's Windows based, allowing access and configuration of reports to take place through a normal Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. This makes access to its reports immediately available, globally. Added to this, the tool has been programmed with the familiar Windows format in mind, making it a simple matter to both learn and use, for those at any level of experience.
Users, once logged by the IT department, can access and maintain reports from anywhere over the World Wide Web. They are then empowered to define and schedule reports to be run at specified times, the results may be saved or e-mailed to the relevant recipients and viewed through their browser. Drag and drop capabilities allow users to easily determine which items to include from data sources, functions they would like to use, constraints and parameters, as well as the layout and final look of documents.
Lookup tables generate automatically, giving the user previews of the available data in the source that they are interrogating. This, along with drag 'n drop capabilities, makes it a simple matter to draw up even complex reports and information, making it well suited for unusual situations such as auditing and forensics.
As a Web-based business intelligence tool, OPUS is essential software for professionals. Its versatility and power make it the appropriate tool to use in high pressure, time constrained situations where assessment is crucial, allowing management and staff to make fast and informed decisions based on data from many sources.
The software has been designed with globalisation in mind, hence its look and feel based on the popular Windows model. In addition, OPUS is designed with multi-language capability, and simply editing an Excel spreadsheet and typing the language equivalents to the Standard English key phrases can create a new language version. This is then imported into an Access database and when new users are configured with the new language, they automatically get the new language for all the dialogue boxes as they log-on.
As far as platform is concerned a Pentium 4 with 1 GB RAM would be adequate as a server where 50 reports could be generated by up to 20 users. Where a higher number of reports and users are required, we prefer to consult with clients prior to implementation. For client machines where report configuration and generation are handled, an entry level Pentium with 128 MB RAM, Windows 98, 2000, ME or XP, with IIS5 and Microsoft Excel 2000 (which is necessary for the spreadsheet component) would suffice.
The product is typically licensed according to number of seats (or users that can generate reports) needed, and the number of reports that can be generated. Being produced locally means that its author has been able to price the system to the rand pocket. This makes enterprise software possible at desktop prices.
All reports are saved as XML structure, using SOAP for configuring reports across the Web, that is to say, for communication between the configurator (user) and the OPUS server. As the product is Internet based, its creators have standardised on IIS (Internet Information Server) Ver.5 and up, and for communication between IIS and the OPUS server, Winsock. ActiveX controls are used for add-ins presently, although the software house is already considering the possibility of moving to .Net as a solution.
Despite its apparent simplicity, OPUS is powerful and scaleable and information can easily be accessed simultaneously from a variety of standard data sources including standard databases - such as Access and SQL Server, OPC (Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control), scada, XML and Excel. If these do not satisfy the user's needs or the business environments are unfamiliar, the object oriented OPUS framework will allow the user to build their own data sources and simply 'plug' them into their own OPUS environment.
For more information: Karin Fouché, OPUS Technologies, 011 781 3665, [email protected], www.opusoft.com
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