Information Builders Delivers Next Generation of Location Intelligence

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - September 5, 2007) - Information Builders, the leader in production business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced the availability of a WebFOCUS integration solution for ESRI's ArcGIS Server, extending the robust reporting capabilities of its BI solution through the power of geographical information systems (GIS).

With the rapid advances of satellite mapping technology, geographical business intelligence systems, also known as location intelligence, remain a major emerging market for Information Builders. Building on a successful partnership with ESRI, the world leader in GIS, the new WebFOCUS integration offering leverages the power of ESRI's ArcGIS Server 9.2 to deliver location intelligence complete with tabular, graphical, and dashboard-based views of geographic information. The resulting solution gives users unprecedented capabilities to absorb information in the most intuitive formats.

ESRI's ArcGIS Server is a complete and integrated server-based GIS. It comes with out-of-the-box, end user applications and services for spatial data management, visualization, and spatial analysis. With the new integration solution, Information Builders now provides a single-vendor solution for companies that want software to visualize the spatial component of their business data. In addition to the new offering, Information Builders will serve as an authorized reseller of ESRI's ArcGIS Server and provide tier-one customer support services.

"The seamless integration of WebFOCUS and ArcGIS Server improves decision-making and responsiveness, while extending the reach of GIS to address a wide range of business applications," said Gerald Cohen, CEO of Information Builders. "Our solution allows us to help customers move any data into their geospatial database for reporting and analysis. This caliber of location intelligence has been a powerful tool in public safety, law enforcement, human services, and supply-chain applications."

Geographical mapping of business data provides a more intuitive way for processing and comprehending certain business information, enhancing the ability to analyze and discern critical trends and patterns. Users can aggregate real-time information from disparate databases and spreadsheets, build individual ad hoc queries and formatted reports, and then instantly transform their results onto geographic maps.

Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission Plots Future With WebFOCUS

With help from Information Builders and WebFOCUS, the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission has improved the way it handles building permits and related data for 14 jurisdictions in Kenton and Campbell Counties, Kentucky.

WebFOCUS dashboards are linked to a GIS, enabling users to pull up parcel maps along with the associated permits. Through the dashboard, users can dynamically change graphical views by selecting, zooming, pivoting, or re-coloring the images. This functionality gives them a myriad of tools for uncovering new relationships within the data. Users can also drill down to gather details about a particular property via links to the Pentamation application. Soon WebFOCUS will also be used for budgeting, zone-change applications, and subdivision plat submittals.

"Our agency faces numerous challenges as we strive to serve multiple legislative bodies," says Michael Schwartz, deputy director for Current Planning at the planning commission. "We needed a way to report on parcel and permit data individually for each city. WebFOCUS enabled us to create a customized reporting environment that streamlines the entire process. We can use WebFOCUS to access any database and leverage our GIS system to geographically display the results."

About Information Builders

Information Builders' award-winning combination of business intelligence and enterprise integration software has been providing innovative solutions to more than 12,000 customers for the past 30 years. WebFOCUS is the world's most widely utilized business intelligence platform. It provides the security, scalability, and flexibility needed at every level of global extended enterprises. Its simplicity helps create executive, analytical, and operational applications that reach dozens to millions of users. Information Builders subsidiary iWay Software provides state-of-the-art, multi-purpose integration engines that address all SOA, application, data, and information management requirements. Its integration adapters have been adopted by the leading software platform providers. Together, these products give Information Builders' customers the ability to live up to the company motto: Your business. No barriers.

Information Builders' customers include most of the Fortune 100 and U.S. federal government agencies. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,600 people and has more than 350 business partners.

Contact Information: Press Contact: Kathleen Moran Information Builders (212) 736-4433