Webalo Announces BI Access Product for Microsoft Users

By David Sims

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Webalo (News - Alert) has announced that users of the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform can now "access business reports on any mobile device," making available business information "without the need to program custom products or reports."

 

This capability is made possible, company officials say, by the Webalo Mobile Dashboard for the Microsoft (News - Alert) BI suite. The dashboard is billed by the Webalonians as being able to "transform, without complex reprogramming, SQL Server, PerformancePoint, SharePoint, or Excel content into mobile displays that conform to whatever brand or model of handheld device being used."

 

According to Gartner's (News - Alert) research the 2007 market for business intelligence was just over $5.1 billion, with Microsoft BI steadily gaining market share over the past few years.

 

"Our goal is to make it possible for anybody to have access to the information they need on any kind of device," said Peter Price, president and CEO of Webalo.

 

Nils Rasmussen, founder and president of Solver, a performance management and business intelligence products provider, noted that "until now, providing access to critical business information on different mobile devices has required unique programming for each device, and for each underlying BI platform."

 

The Webalo Mobile Dashboard for Microsoft BI works on RIM operating system 4.0 or above, Windows Mobile 2003 (PPC Edition), Windows Mobile 5 (both PPC and Smartphone Editions) or Windows Mobile 6 (all versions), and Java-enabled MIDP 2.0 smartphones. It's available as a hosted service or an inside-the-firewall appliance.

 

Last month Actuate (News - Alert) Corporation announced an agreement in which Actuate will resell Webalo's "Mobile Dashboard" as part of a mobile product to deliver e.Spreadsheets and BIRT reports directly to BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian (News - Alert), or Java-enabled smartphones. Actuate will sell the customized mobile product directly to its customers.