Clickstream

Databeacon Java-based OLAP Client Tool

I occasionally will post something about a BI product without doing an in-depth description or analysis. I read through Databeacon's PR and documentation for their "Collaboration Edition" and looked at the demo and think it's worth a short note.

Without putting the tool through its paces on my own warehouse I can't say anything about the relative goodness of the product, however there are a few things I liked about this product that make it worth investigation in the future.

What mostly caught my interest was their use of a downloadable Java applet. Vendors touted this when Java was new and not really ready for it yet. This time around it looks much better. I like having a more robust client than standard HTML-and-forms interfaces normally deliver (although DHTML has made these much more palatable too). The ability to send out the results in multiple formats is a common feature in most BI tools, but the web clients of many have seriously brain-damaged limitations and crufty implementations.

My biggest complaint on this cursory first pass is their web site. Flash intros, frames and subframes that don't render properly in Mozilla all bug the heck out of me. More on the product when I have time to do a thorough evaluation.

Posted by Mark Tuesday, June 24, 2003 8:45:00 AM | permalink |