Feature Pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign Solution Available to Midsize Companies
Enhanced Business Functionality of On-Demand Solution Allows Complete Insight for Better Decision-Making
SAP AG announced the availability of the latest update – feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign(TM). Specifically designed for midsize companies, SAP Business ByDesign is a comprehensive, fully integrated on-demand solution that helps customers gain a higher degree of visibility across their enterprise in order to make more informed business decisions. In addition, the on-demand delivery model of SAP Business ByDesign helps reduce overall operational IT costs associated with infrastructure, equipment and software management, allowing midsize companies to maintain a competitive edge. The new feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign significantly expands functionality and provides more value to customers by offering business support for 35 end-to-end process scenarios. Managed, monitored and maintained by SAP experts in world-class hosted data centers, SAP Business ByDesign delivers the best of SAP technology, on-demand. Currently the solution is available in China, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“We are currently implementing SAP Business ByDesign and expect to gain clarity across our entire business, which will help us remain competitive and make fast, well-informed decisions,” said Patti Charlton, CFO, ResearchPoint. “We are excited about the capabilities we have seen in the feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign and believe that it offers significant benefits to service companies like ours. Through the new release, we expect to benefit almost immediately from the new capabilities, such as business analytics, project profitability and automated project billing that the feature pack offers.”
As companies carefully examine current and future investments, those in the small and midsize enterprise (SME) market need business models that reduce investment risks while simultaneously assisting users in managing the entire organization. The new feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business ByDesign provides midsize companies with many additional functions to help them make better business decisions and gain clarity into their operations. With the feature pack 2.0, customers can achieve:
- Complete insight for better decision-making. Through the integration with software from the SAP BusinessObjects(TM) portfolio, including Crystal Reports software and dashboards from Xcelsius software, executives of midsize companies can benefit from increased transparency into their business operation and can utilize comprehensive analytics to make decisions that can improve their business performance. Executive dashboards provide key performance indicators such as cash and liquidity management and sales projections. In addition, through customizable key performance indicators executives can control their key corporate measures.
- Streamlined processes and faster execution. Feature pack 2.0 for SAP Business byDesign provides services and manufacturing companies more mission-critical business processes in a single, integrated solution. Designed to meet the needs of high growth services companies, feature pack 2.0 integrates customer relationship management (CRM), order-to-cash with automated billing, project profitability and resource management, time and expense reimbursement, procure to pay and service and repair. The solution also helps significantly reduce administrative overhead for services companies by offering a reduced per-user fee for consultants who only need to access the system for time and expense entry. Manufacturing companies will have complete visibility across their supply chain, including suppliers, customers, manufacturing and logistics. They can directly impact their bottom line by managing strategic procurement via an automated request for quotation (RFQ) process, as well as reduce recalls with integrated product engineering and quality management tools. The new feature pack can impact manufacturers’ top-line by having visibility into customer and product profitability using the built-in analytics and drill down capabilities.
- Enhanced user productivity. With feature pack 2.0, companies can collaborate more effectively internally-as well as with customers, suppliers and partners — through new groupware integration with Microsoft Outlook and MS Office. Companies can achieve higher productivity by utilizing improved personalization features and a series of new third-party Web services that are now available in feature pack 2.0.
“With the availability of the feature pack 2.0, we significantly increase the value that our midsize charter clients are receiving from SAP Business ByDesign,” said Hans-Peter Klaey, president of SME and corporate officer of SAP AG. “Our charter client program for SAP Business ByDesign is a leading program to ensure close support and collaboration for innovative companies that want all the benefits of the only comprehensive and fully integrated on-demand solution dedicated to midsize companies.”
Current SAP Business ByDesign customers are notified about updates in the “What’s New” section within the solution to help them start planning for adoption of the new features at their own pace. Topics in the section enable customers to learn more about the value of new and enhanced features. In addition, customers will also receive new or updated learning courses that can be accessed in a personalized manner within SAP Business ByDesign. Further guidance will be provided on how to configure the solution to activate the new features when users are ready.
The online SAP Business ByDesign(TM) Business Center is the single place to go for information about SAP Business ByDesign and allows collaboration with SAP and its partners. Once in the business center, interested parties can access online product information, demos and role-based videos. Visitors to the center can contact SAP directly via phone, e-mail or online chat. The center also provides charter clients with access to the SAP Business ByDesign community.
Source: SAP AG
Panorama Software debuts NovaView Version 6.0 with new analytical application, data connector and collaboration module
New Paradigms Aimed at Bringing More Users to BI, Aiding Relational Reporting and Easing On-Premise and Cloud Collaboration
Panorama Software, a global leader in proactive Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, fficially announced NovaView Version 6.0, a tightly integrated suite of web-enabled BI applications.
Like past versions, NovaView 6.0 combines the best of query and analysis, formatted reporting, performance dashboards, KPI scorecards, modeling, advanced visualization and automated report distribution. New deployment wizards and applications, as well as a more robust platform designed to bring more users to business intelligence, promise NovaView 6.0 will be Panorama’s biggest release ever.
“We are thrilled to announce a new version of NovaView to the market,” said Eynav Azarya, CEO Panorama Software. “NovaView 6.0 brings new innovations to the world of BI and data analysis as well as new levels of integration with Microsoft’s BI platform. Panorama and Microsoft are tightening the partnership to deliver an end to end enterprise BI solution that combines the best of SQL Server, SharePoint, Office and NovaView into a single powerful and innovative enterprise BI solution”
NovaView Version 6.0 features three key upgrades:
New Flash Based Analysis Application – NovaView’s new Flash Analytics client significantly increases usability for data analysis. NovaView Flash Analytics was originally developed through Panorama and Google’s partnership and included in Google Docs. The solution is currently used by more than 100,000 customers. The new client is now part of the on-premise version of NovaView
In an effort to empower casual information workers, the new solution includes self discovery for easy data navigation and exploration; on-the-spot interactive help; and animation like flashing, linking and expanding that provides hints on where to go next.
Unified Data Connector – For the first time in Panorama history, NovaView supports data stored in any source. The new Relational Data Connector offers users the ability to perform interactive data analysis on relational data just as if it was in OLAP giving relational reporting more power than ever.
The Relational Data Connector maps to any relational data source including RDBMS, Excel, CSV and existing SQL Reporting Services among others, and uses unique algorithms to model data instantly. Data sources can be as simple as a spreadsheet or as complex as SAP ERP tables.
Enhanced Collaboration Features – Panorama has combined on-premise and cloud assets into a new solution called NovaView SharedViews. Now, users can leverage Panorama NovaView for enhanced collaboration with other users inside and outside of the firewall.
With SharedViews, users can build reports in the cloud consisting of fresh data in a controlled, managed and fully interactive environment, collaborating easily with partners and suppliers that don’t have access to data inside the firewall.
Source: Panorama Software
Babylon 8 leading the world of languages
Babylon 8 Reaches a Users Download Record of Over one Million in Just Two Weeks. After Two Weeks From Babylon 8 Successful Launch, Over 1M (1,133,406) Users Have Downloaded and Tried the New Version
Babylon LTD., the leading provider of single-click translation and dictionary software, is overwhelmed with the success of the new version of its software Babylon 8. After only two weeks from its launch, over one million users (1,133,406 to be exact), who come from some 190 different countries, have downloaded the new version.
Babylon 8 has a fresh and simple new uncluttered look with less buttons, which makes Babylon even more user friendly. Moreover, a contextual awareness Globe was added suggesting the suitable translation service, spell-checker, conversion of units and other assisting tools.
Babylon 8 provides bidirectional single-click translation, in over 75 languages, from some 2,000 information sources.
Babylon 8 enables immediate translation of Web pages from and to any language.
Apart from single words, sentences and whole paragraphs of text, Babylon 8 provides translation of documents (MS Word, PDF, Text, etc.) to and from 32 languages.
Babylon 8 integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Office spellers and enhances the built-in speller by providing correct spelling and short definitions and translation enabling the user to identify and decide what to choose.
This new version enables single-click access to over 6.5 million articles and definitions from Wikipedia, the biggest multilingual free encyclopedia on the Internet, in 20 languages.
Babylon 8 delivers results from the world’s premier publishing houses, such as: Britannica, Oxford, Merriam Webster, Pons, Duden, Larousse, Langenscheidt and many more.
Bento Template Exchange showcases real-world uses and downloadable templates
Templates demonstrate the versatility of popular personal database for Mac
FileMaker, Inc. unveiled the Bento Template Exchange where Mac users can post and browse many real-world uses of Bento, the personal database from FileMaker that’s as easy to use as a Mac. People interested in Bento can even download templates and use them with a trial or full version of Bento 2 .
A Bento template is a pre-designed database form, but without any data. A visitor who downloads, for example, the “My Wine Cellar” template, has a beautiful ready-to-use wine tracking form — complete with fields for winery, vintage, price and more — and can enter data for their own wine collection – or copy and paste existing information from spreadsheets such as Excel or Numbers. Plus, templates can be customized to meet each individual’s unique needs.
“Bento excels at helping you organize virtually anything. And thanks to Bento’s capability to export and share templates, the template exchange showcases a wide range of creative and productive real-world uses,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. “Whether your passion is collecting coins, selling products, organizing volunteers or planning events, these sharable templates show how you can do it better with Bento.”
Visitors to the Bento Template Exchange can browse through the most popular templates, the newest templates, or look through 15 categories including Business, Music and Movies, Finance, and Cooking, Food and Wine. Templates are also searchable by typing a phrase like “soccer team roster.”
The Bento Template Exchange includes clear instructions on how to download and import templates, and how to submit Bento templates for sharing. Bento customers are encouraged to share their templates on the Bento Template Exchange to help potential customers imagine their own uses for Bento.
Importing and exporting Bento templates requires Bento 2.
Visitors will find that downloaded templates are usable with the new Bento for iPhone and iPod touch, if they synch with Bento on the Mac.
ThinkFree Mobile Netbook for Windows, Linux and Mac Edition Now Available Directly for End User Download
Regardless of platform, users can now create, edit and collaborate on documents on-the-go
ThinkFree, Inc., a leader in next-generation office productivity solutions, unveiled ThinkFree Mobile Netbook for Windows, Linux and Mac ESD (electronic software download) version, bringing unprecedented round-trip Microsoft Office compatibility and seamless online document collaboration directly to users. Built on the robust and proven ThinkFree Mobile platform, ThinkFree Mobile Netbook for Windows, Linux and Mac ESD version delivers fast and easy-to-use word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications. Users can now purchase and download ThinkFree Mobile Netbook for Windows, Linux and Mac ESD version at http://product.thinkfree.com/mobile/netbook.
Previously available only to device manufacturers, ThinkFree Mobile Netbook for Windows, Linux and Mac ESD version comes directly to users in response to a flood of individual inquiries since the launch of the ThinkFree Mobile line of productivity suites. ThinkFree is also offering a special discount price of $24.95 for Windows, Linux and Mac suites for a limited time. Customers who take advantage of this offer will also receive an extra 1GB of online storage, bringing their online total storage to 2GB.
ThinkFree Mobile Netbook for Windows, Linux and Mac ESD version consists of ThinkFree Write for word processing, ThinkFree Calc for spreadsheets and ThinkFree Show for presentations – all of which make it simple for mobile users to browse, edit, create and collaborate on documents while on-the-go. Featuring the best round-trip Microsoft Office compatibility, ThinkFree Mobile Netbook ESD comes with 1GB of free, reliable and secure online document storage and integrates seamlessly with ThinkFree Online, ThinkFree’s already existing online service for collaboration and synchronization across all documents.
“Since the introduction of ThinkFree Mobile Netbook Edition for Windows in October 2008, ThinkFree has continuously worked to expand its product portfolio to support the latest mobile Internet devices and underlying platforms, including Intel Atom, Google Android and Qualcomm Snapdragon / ARM,” said Su Jin Kim, CEO of ThinkFree. “The ThinkFree Mobile product family has been optimized for smaller screen dimensions and limited hardware resources. As such, the user interface offers more space to work on the actual document, and the software has a very small disk footprint. With the new ESD availability, users can instantly take advantage of the most advanced productivity geared at netbooks.”
ThinkFree has also released ThinkFree Mobile for Mac, the first to deliver a suite designed for the Mac. Editing documents between Windows and Mac environments has been a real headache in the past. The larger office suites come with a high price tag, perform slowly – particularly when converting files – and the overwhelmingly extensive features go far beyond what is needed by most users.
Pricing and Availability
ThinkFree Mobile Netbook Edition for Windows, Linux and Mac ESD are available now on ThinkFree.com for end users to purchase and download. Regular pricing: $39.95. Limited time offer: $24.95; includes 1GB additional online document storage (2GB total). Enter coupon code THINKFREE during checkout.
Source: ThinkFree, Inc.