According to reporter Jennifer deJong, "The Power Users are back. This time they are younger and more tech-savvy-and they are rolling their own applications in greater numbers than ever before." They're no longer satisfied to be limited to just the programs provided by your company or their IT department. They want software that does what they want to do, and they know how to find it.

DeJong calls them "Power Users 2.0."  They know where to look to find just the right application from the cloud of web applications.  They know how to plug a widget into their blog or web site.  How to use any number of SaaS applications to create documents, web sites -- even their own applications that do useful things. They're not satisfied to sit at the desk using "1.0 software" that doesn't quite give them what they want.

And that begs the question:  Isn't it about time your software product got on the 2.0 bandwagon to deliver more than yesterday's "canned" approach to answering user questions?

Since the early days, business software products essentially have done one important thing for their users: They allow users to ask questions, and then dispense answers. Questions like - "How do sales this quarter compare to last quarter?"  The output comes in the form of a table, chart or graph. 

But in the "1.0 world," users are restricted to asking only certain questions -- the questions you, the developer or software product manager, have allowed them to ask.  "How are sales this quarter versus European sales 5 quarters ago?" is usually not on the list of standard reports. (And that's one reason why people use countless hours importing into spreadsheets from diverse programs, all the while trying to find answers to questions their regular software doesn't give them.)

 The "2.0 Power User" expects that your software will let them ask the question they want to ask. Not the ones you, after lengthy discussion and design time, have concluded are the most important.

Izenda Reports is a "2.0 solution." You can build it into your .NET software product.  In fact, into any .NET application. When you do, your users will start asking questions you've never thought about.  Questions they need to answer to keep up with the pace of business.  And with Izenda built-in, they'll start getting the answers they need. It's rewarding to hear from some of our ISV partners who have already integrated Izenda Reports into their products.  In the last 30 days alone we've been told--

·         "We are experts at gathering the data our users need. We rely on you [Izenda] to be the experts who can deliver it in the form users want, ad hoc and on demand." ~ from an ISV whose software  supports service companies

·         "We just finished a major demo with a good prospect. When they saw the self-service reporting we can give them now, they got excited.  They scheduled a second demo to come back and explore all those new features which, by the way, our competitors don't have." ~ from an ISV supplying software to the HR vertical

·         "I went through your video and actually tried your online demo - and find the product relatively easy to use. In my career, I've often used and attempted to define a better query builder - and this is one of the best I've seen; simple and powerful." ~ from an ISV evaluating Izenda Reports for the first time.

 Take a few minutes to watch that video.  After the one minute introduction, you'll see how a business user creates a very sophisticated report, from scratch, in about 3 minutes.  You'll see that he's asking a question about sales.  You'll also see that he could have asked any of dozens of otherquestions.  And he's doing all this on his own. With no programmers, no database experts.  This user and his data are emancipated.

Putting these powerful "2.0 features" into your .NET product is easy.  Click the "Download" link and begin using it on your data. Give us a call if you want help. You should be able to run your first report within a couple hours of completing the download.

Can't find SD Times from March 1 at your office?  Read the deJong's entire article online here. 

Alternately, some ISV's sell their product and install it directly onto the customer's server.  In this case it's necessary to isolate different employees, accounts, departments or groups within the organization so that each has access to the data needed, but no more.  For example, a sales rep in the Omaha office must be able to see her own pipeline, but not that belonging to the sales rep in New York City.  Likewise, the Regional Sales Manager must be able to see the pipelines of all the reps in his or her geography.

Both of these situations involve groups that must be isolated and prevented from seeing one another's reports or data. These are usually referred to as "multi-tenant environments."  Izenda Reports provides this security in numerous ways. In fact, you can find an entire article here, within the Developer's Zone.

Using Hidden Filters is a big part of the solution to isolating and securing data in a multi-tenant environment.  Izenda Reports supports the unique feature of being able to hide report data on-the-fly on a per user basis. Consider this scenario, Bill, Mary, and John are all sales people. You want to generate the same report for each of them, but with different sales territory data. With Izenda Reports, simply generate one report, give each user a link to that report and change the hidden filter for each user to show the specific sales data.

Izenda Reports provides a highly customizable security model that fully addresses these issues. Typically, there are different levels of security and most ISV's use multiple layers. Izenda Reports separates security on the basis of which layer it affects the most. The most common layers of security are all supported by Izenda Reports:

·         Database: the first layer of security, integrators can define what database the user in the connection string has access to.

·         Data Source: the integrator can define what tables and views the user in the connection string has access to, Izenda Report also provides a method for filtering the tables and views returned to the user.

·         Report: Izenda Reports can filter the reports which are displayed to users

·         Field: Izenda Reports provides methods for filtering columns which contain information which users should not see.

·         Record: Izenda Reports provides methods for filtering rows which contain information which users should not see.

For more detailed information on how Izenda Reports inherits the security you have built into your application, please visit the Developer Zone or contact our Tech Support team.

We're here to:

• Help software companies empower their end users, while reducing the workload associated with the busy-work of report writing. 
  
• Help Sales and Marketing software professionals gain competitive advantage by giving users the reporting capability they need to make better business decisions.
  
• Help business users own and use their data to make better business decisions.
  
• Build win-win partnerships with forward-thinking software development and software marketing professionals.

According to IDC, over one million databases are installed each year at a cost of $16 billion -- a lot of money. But what's worse, companies spend another $8 billion just to extract the information in those million databases so their users can make intelligent, timely business decisions!

There is a better way. Emancipate that data! Give users ownership of their data. Stop asking developers to build every new report or "tweak" to an existing report. It just makes sense.  We're here to help you make that happen.

When you integrate Izenda Reports into your .NET web application, you're empowering your users, gaining competitive advantage and reducing time to market.  You know your users want and expect to have the information they need -- right now.  You can deliver all that and more when you tap into the technology that is Izenda Reports.

www.Izenda.com

Izenda Recognized for Innovation

Izenda has been recognized for the second year in a row as a Top 40 Most Innovative Technology Company.  TAG, the Technology Association of Georgia, based their decision on a number of criteria including degree of innovation, scope and financial impact of the innovation, as well as promotion of Georgia's innovative efforts nationally and internationally.

Companies selected to be in the Top 40 also participated in a showcase exhibit at the Georgia Technology Summit on February 27, attracting some 800 of the state's technology leaders.

"For the second straight year, Izenda is honored to be recognized for its innovative software solutions," said Izenda CEO, Sanjay Bhatia. "On behalf of all of our team, partners, and customers, we appreciate the continued leadership  of TAG in  promoting the growth of Georgia's technology community."

Izenda Reports, the company's flagship product, enables independent software vendors to add self-service reporting and business intelligence to their current applications with reduced cost, and increased speed to market.  Izenda Reports, when embedded into an application, gives end users the ability to create and customize reports from SQL databases ad hoc, on demand, with no need for programming or database knowledge.