New Generation Software, Inc. (NGS), a developer of IBM System i business solutions, has announced distribution of Release 6.50 of its NGS-IQ business intelligence solutions. This release, which includes enhancements in both the host and the client modules of the product line, provides NGS-IQ customers with increased flexibility and functionality in responding to the diverse reporting requirements of management and users. At the same time, the company announced it has begun shipping release 4.50 of the NGS Business Performance Dashboard, an integrated module of the NGS-IQ solution
In IQ Server (the native System i query engine for NGS-IQ) results of report break summary and new field calculations are now assigned their own, individual, XML tags when users output to XML. This new capability provides greater flexibility when generating XML files and simplifies the development of dashboards with the NGS Business Performance Dashboard solution.
IQ ServerÆs enhanced ASCII output now gives users the option to indicate whether field names or column headings should be inserted into the first row of the delimited or text output file. This capability makes it much easier for those receiving these files to understand their data.
NGS-IQ Release 6.50 offers more options to work with dates and times. Users can create date new fields from existing date fields, character fields, literal, or system values, and output the date new fields in a variety of formats, including MM/DD/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, DD.MM.YYYY, YY/DDD, and more. Forward slashes, hyphens, periods, commas, or blanks can be assigned as the separator in the new field. Users can also create time and timestamp new fields from existing character values inside a character field, literal, or system value.
Spreadsheet users will appreciate an added function in the seamless interface between Microsoft Excel and Qport Access, NGS-IQÆs client module that allows direct data output to MS Office applications. The new enhancement allows users to instruct Qport Access to retain leading zeroes in an alphanumeric field when outputting a NGS-IQ query to Excel. This capability is important for companies that enter zeros at the beginning of account numbers, part numbers, customer ID codes, or other important fields and then need Excel to understand that these values should not be treated as numeric values when output to the spreadsheet.
Release 6.50 of NGS-IQ also provides enhanced security, supporting the use of long and mixed case passwords when connecting from Qport Access to the System i and when attempting to invoke the FTP and Remote Network Output file functions. This enhancement dramatically increases the number of passwords that can be assigned, thereby reducing a companyÆs vulnerability to unauthorized user access.
Release 4.50 of the NGS Business Performance Dashboard includes additional charting features, new presentation and delivery methods, and improved integration with NGS-IQÆs query engine, IQ Server. IQ Server now assigns results of report break summary and new field calculations their own, individual XML tags when users output to XML. This new capability provides greater flexibility when generating XML files and simplifies the development of dashboards.
NGS Business Performance Dashboards can now be exported to Microsoft Word as dynamic and interactive visualizations, and users can export a copy of the original Excel file that had been imported into the visualization. The software, which leverages Adobe Flash Player, continues to support numerous other export formats, including Power Point and HTML. Visualizations can be distributed via e-mail and published on any Web server.
Release 4.50 includes a new panel set component consisting of framing options that enable users to easily navigate between files in a presentation, embed .jpg or .swf files into the frames, and adjust formatting features to customize the look of the component in their visualization. Users can now add animation to their chart components (with the exception of area chart components); so bars expand and shrink and points grow to full size in chart components when the underlying data changes and visualizations are run.
Candlestick and OHLC chart components are now available to display stock data. Line markers on a chart and colors on a candlestick correspond to the open-high-low-close price of the stock. In addition, this release of the NGS Business Performance Dashboard also includes three new skins: graphite, halo, and Windows classic.
The NGS Business Performance Dashboard is a complete information delivery solution that lets managers and users view, present, and interact with live business data in a flexible, graphical format from their Web browser. To facilitate implementation, 150 dashboard templates are standard components of this product. These include KPIÆs in the areas of sales, finance, inventory, production, customer service, customer relationship management, and human resources. Dashboards can be updated as required by using IQ Server to refresh the underlying XML files.
With over 20,000 System i users throughout the world, NGS has been an industry leader since 1982 in developing field-proven software for business intelligence and financial management. Both NGS-IQ and the Concert Series Financial Management System are recognized by IBM as ôServer Proven Solutions.ö NGS is an Advanced Member of IBM PartnerWorld for Developers.
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