Panorama Business Intelligence

A lot has been said and mentioned on our recent announcements about our new platform and BI applications in Google apps. Some very smart people have written some very interesting blogs. there are probably dozens of blog posts out there but I selected my personal favorits.

Stay tuned for more announcements from our side in the next few weeks

http://bobjblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/google-working-with-panorama/

http://www.biguru-online.com/2008/03/28/google-bi/

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single10597

http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2008/03/27/why-microsoft-might-bid-for-bi.aspx

http://performanceguys.blogspot.com/2008/03/panorama-and-google-apps-end-of.html

http://cwebbbi.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!7B84B0F2C239489A!1664.entry

Wow, what an amazing launch day. I was always told that launching with Google gets you some great exposure but I didn’t expect this!

The Google launch team was fantastic (Thanks JR, Nir, Mary, Rob and Yoach J ), not only they helped us make this solution work in the past few months, but also made sure the launch went smoothly and greatly coordinated!

 

I had a chance to talk to customers, partners, press, analysts and here are my key takeaways from the first day:

• Google docs users really want Pivot Tables!! The amount of feedback and comments we got was mind blowing. I actually got emails from people telling me that “now that Google docs has Pivots I will start using it”. there is no better feeling than shipping something that is so high in demand.
• Enterprise customers think that with BI in Google apps they might give it a shot as a good alternative to MS Office (we got some specific request for some very cool features and capabilities that will make available in the news few months). As a side comment I must admit I was surprised by the caliber of some of the companies that are looking at Google apps…..
• Companies such as Cap Gemini who have been leading the way with Google apps see BI as a major turn point for Google apps adoption.
• Analysts believe what we did with Google is probably the smartest thing we could have done
• Our partners have already started building solutions for Salesforce and Netsuite which means that basic pivot table functionality is just the beginning.

 

But the thing that generated the most interested today was our announcement of a new analytical platform – PowerApps. For those who did not read or see the press, we’ve basically built a powerful SaaS based analytical engine for ISVs to use to extend their solutions with BI capabilities. ISVs can use our new platform to build their own SaaS BI solution and expose it through the Google application platform. So for example a company like Netsuite or Eloqua can now use our new APIs to build their own solution, tailor it to their needs, build templates, brand it as their own and make available through iGoogle and Docs.

 

In the next few weeks we will officially release PowerApps so ISVs will start taking advantage of it.

 

Keep sending me your feedback and comments. Would love to hear what your thoughts are on this move.

Today we announced the joint release of our first analytical solution for Google apps and Docs.

To get the latest on this initiative you can subscribe to our blog http://google-pivot-tables.blogspot.com/
we are looking forward to hearing your feedback about our first release.

Pivot Table Functionality Adds World-Class Analytics, Reporting To Online Spreadsheets in Google Docs

TORONTO, ON (DATE) – Panorama Software, a global leader in Proactive Business Intelligence solutions, today announced the launch of the Beta version of a new analytics, reporting and data visualization solution for Google applications: Panorama Analytics for Google Docs. Panorama’s Software as a Service (SaaS) solution integrates with Google to provide Google Docs users with new capabilities for advanced analytical, reporting and data visualization functions, all at no cost. Focused on pivot table and charting functionality, Panorama’s solution is a high-value capability that makes spreadsheets in Google Docs and dashboards in iGoogle even more useful.

“The debut of pivot table functionality is great news for Google Docs users, whether they are businesspeople or consumers,” said Oudi Antebi, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for Panorama Software. “The Panorama solutions for Google Docs are the most powerful tools of their kind; users of any spreadsheet solution can now more easily analyze their spreadsheet information at a much more sophisticated and granular level.”

“Google Docs is designed to help people generate and share information easily, whether it’s for personal or business use,” said Jonathan Rochelle, Senior Product Manager for Google Docs.  “Panorama’s solution gives our users much more analytical and reporting power through pivot table functionality – it adds a lot of value to Google Docs.  We look forward to seeing more great tools like this.”

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With Panorama SDK you can do cool stuff as I will show you in the future. Though, There are important things you must know before you start. A very common task is to change the shown view views. Note that:

If you load the view using the Parameter “Alias” with the full view path (ends with  “.xml”) you won’t be able to change the view later. Worse: The applet will not return an error. It will just won’t respond. So, if you want to enable the dynamic change of the view, in the “Alias” parameter only enter the name of the Briefing Book where the desired view is. Next, add another parameter named “FirstView” and there enter the relative path of the view, meaning that you’ll have to remove the name of the server and the briefing book’s name. Don’t forget to replace the back-slashes (\) in double-back-slashed (\\), otherwise… the applet won’t respond. Some examples:

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