"We incorporated SimbaProvider SDK technology into MIS Alea to give our customers a greater selection of Business Intelligence tools to choose from. By leveraging the capabilities of SimbaProvider SDK, we are able to offer our customers industry-standard OLE DB for OLAP and, in the near future, XML for Analysis interfaces. As a result, our customers have a greater selection of BI tools to choose from and we have added significant capabilities into our consumer products."
-Chief Technology Officer, MIS AG
The business objective of MIS AG was to obtain an open interface on MIS Alea to ensure that they attain optimal value from their technology investment, while continuing to develop their products to meet the demands of the marketplace. MIS AG needed rapid time to market, such that they could incorporate the OLE DB for OLAP connectivity into a soon-to-be released version of MIS Alea and meet the expanding needs of their customer base. Moreover, MIS AG needed to ensure it could continue to meet the connectivity needs of its customers by planning for future connectivity to Business Intelligence tools offering support for XML for Analysis.
MIS AG licensed SimbaProvider SDK and integrated its OLE DB for OLAP connectivity into version 4.0 of MIS Alea, launched in July 2002. Version 5.0 of MIS Alea will be upgraded to incorporate the XML for Analysis capabilities of SimbaProvider SDK.
Simba Technologies has been successful working with MIS AG to support their development and testing of an open connectivity solution for MIS Alea. This has resulted in MIS AG allowing their customers choice and flexibility regarding the type of third-party Business Intelligence tools they could employ while using MIS Alea. Also, by attaining an open interface on MIS Alea, MIS was able to use this single interface to access its family of analytical tools, thereby reducing maintenance costs and achieving an immediate Return on Investment (ROI).
MIS AG is the leading European provider of business intelligence solutions and services, providing development, implementation, and service of systems for budgeting, reporting, consolidation, and analysis. MIS AG products include industry and platform independent software for efficient corporate controlling.
The company's software, MIS AG DecisionWare, delivers integrated solutions businesses, coupled with consulting, training, and support. MIS Alea is a member of the MIS DecisionWare product family that provides for business intelligence planning, reporting, and analysis.
Simba Technologies offers SimbaProvider SDK, a toolkit that provides OLE DB for OLAP and XML for Analysis connectivity to proprietary multi-dimensional data sources. This toolkit contains a proven MDX engine and is a best-in-class product that has been used to build the majority of OLE DB for OLAP Providers in the Business Intelligence marketplace today.
MIS AG licensed SimbaProvider SDK and integrated its OLE DB for OLAP connectivity into version 4.0 of MIS Alea launched in July 2002. Version 5.0 of MIS Alea will be upgraded to incorporate the XML for Analysis capabilities of SimbaProvider SDK.
MIS AG required a single open interface so that it could integrate its family of analytical tools to MIS Alea and attain native connectivity with a variety of third-party analytical and reporting applications. After reviewing the options available to them, MIS AG chose to license SimbaProvider SDK. MIS AG made this decision for the following reasons.
- Using SimbaProvider SDK to develop an OLE DB for OLAP Provider would reduce their development time significantly and thereby allow them to achieve a much faster time to market.
- By leveraging Simba's proven technology, MIS AG could minimize development risk and ensure creation of a quality Provider.
- MIS AG wanted to utilize the expertise and development assistance of Simba Technologies and obtain on-going support, which would include upgrades to SimbaProvider SDK that would keep the product current with relevant open standards.
- Simba Technologies was planning to extend this product to incorporate XML for Analysis capabilities, which MIS AG viewed to be a strategic open interface going forward.
MIS AG's business objective of MIS AG was to obtain an open interface on MIS Alea to ensure that they attain optimal value from their technology investment while continuing to develop their products to meet the demands of the marketplace.
MIS AG needed rapid time to market such that they could incorporate the OLE DB for OLAP connectivity into a soon-to-be released version of MIS Alea and meet the expanding needs of their customer base. Moreover, MIS AG needed to ensure it could continue to meet the connectivity needs of its customers by planning for future connectivity to Business Intelligence tools offering support for XML for Analysis.
MIS AG leveraged Simba's core competency in data connectivity to ensure that the capabilities of MIS Alea were enhanced in a manner that met their business objective.
The solution that Simba Technologies provided to MIS AG involved the following activities.
Development and Testing of OLE DB for OLAP Provider
Using SimbaProvider SDK, OLE DB for OLAP Providers are generally built in a period of 6 to 12 person months. MIS AG created a fully functional OLE DB for OLAP Provider for MIS Alea using SimbaProvider SDK at the low end of this range in only seven person months. To ensure proper functionality of the Provider, MIS AG conducted extensive testing that involved ensuring a successful implementation of OLE DB for OLAP within the Provider in relation to a variety of Business Intelligence tools.
Development and Testing of Beta XML for Analysis Provider
SimbaProvider SDK was upgraded to incorporate XML for Analysis capabilities in April 2003. Correspondingly, MIS AG created a beta XML for Analysis Provider for MIS Alea using SimbaProvider SDK in only three days.
In November 2002, Simba Technologies hosted an XML for Analysis InterOperate Workshop during which MIS AG was able to successfully test this Provider with consumers from a variety of leading Business Intelligence vendors that participated in this event. MIS AG was able to test with BI tools that they had never worked with before - and it worked out of the box!
Ongoing Support
Simba Technologies continues to support MIS AG for both its shipping OLE DB for OLAP Provider and its beta XML for Analysis Provider.
Simba Technologies has been successful working with MIS AG to support their development and testing of an open connectivity solution for MIS Alea. This has resulted in MIS AG allowing their customers choice and flexibility regarding the type of third-party Business Intelligence tools they could employ while using MIS Alea. Also, by attaining an open interface on MIS Alea, MIS was able to use this single interface to access its family of analytical tools thereby reducing maintenance costs and achieving an immediate Return on Investment (ROI).
Moreover, by extending the capabilities of MIS Alea to XML for Analysis in the future, MIS AG will allow these customers to employ a distributed web services query model that will allow them to leverage the capabilities of MIS Alea over the Internet.
As a result of this project, Simba Technologies and MIS AG have developed a strong relationship and, as a result, Simba Technologies continues to work with MIS AG to address certain specific data connectivity challenges.
Simba Technologies Inc. is the recognized world leader in standards-based data access products and solutions. Simba works with the world's leading software companies to deliver first class data connectivity solutions.
Simba is a pioneer in ODBC, MDX, ODBO and XMLA. Since 1991, Simba has developed advanced data access solutions for thousands of end users. Today, more than half of all MDX providers have been built with Simba technology, and through a partnership with Microsoft, Simba's SQL technology has been installed on more than 30 million desktops worldwide.
Simba's firm commitment to delivering the highest customer value through innovative solutions and expert support has gained the company a reputation as the industry leader for data connectivity solutions.
For more information about Simba's data connectivity products and services, visit www.simba.com or call 1.604.633.0008.
The MIS AG name and logo and the MIS DecisionWareä and MIS Aleaä names are trademarks of MIS AG. Additional product names indicated herein may also be registered trademarks of other companies.
