Supply chain software maker Manugistics Group is looking to boost
the ease of use, visualisation, performance and scalability of its
analytical software by forging links with business intelligence
application vendor Cognos.
The companies have announced that Manugistics will embed pieces of
Cognos' business intelligence technology into its NetWorks ONEview
Online Analytical Transaction Processing (OLAP) product. ONEview
takes feeds from Manugistics applications, enterprise resource
planning systems and other types of software and uses it to offer
decision support capabilities throughout a company to boost
efficiency and cut costs in the supply chain.
With this latest move, Manugistics will overcome some of the
technical limitations of its ONEview product, which was originally
built around technology from nQuire Software. That relationship
ended after customer relationship management software giant Siebel
Systems bought nQuire last year.
The addition of technology from the Cognos Series 7 product means
Oneview will be completely Web-enabled. Prior to this, ONEview
customers needed client code on their desktops to interface with
the application, Lori Mitchell-Keller, senior vice-president of
market strategy at Manugistics, said. The change also means more
sophisticated visualisation capabilities and easier deployment
throughout an enterprise.
Other enhancements include support for multiple languages,
including French, German and Spanish, instead of just English as
well as support for multiple hardware platforms, including HP-UX,
AIX and Sun Solaris, rather than just Windows. New alerting
capabilities are also planned.
The integrated product will be available on 30 August. Pricing has
not yet been disclosed but Manugistics indicated that the new
software is likely to cost the same as the existing version of
ONEview.