Yellowfin Business Intelligence releases version 3.3

Dec. 11, 2007 - PRLog -- So what are the highlights?  These include:
•   Advanced Querying with Sub Queries
•   Enhanced KPI and Dashboard Reporting
•   Improved Chart interactivity
•   Additional Related Report options – tabbed and linked
•   SQL Reports with user prompts and source filters
•   More Flexible Data Format Options
And a whole lot more…..

Yellowfin 3.3 Making BI even easier
The biggest change in 3.3 is the inclusion of sub queries these will permit all users to write complex reports through our easy to use interface.  Beyond this the majority of changes are focussed on better data visualisation and interaction with reports and data.
Changes to the KPI tab layout make metrics even easier to interpret. Interactive charting will let your users swap metric on their charts and enable them to better compare multiple series of data.
For those SQL report writers out there we have included scripting to enable user prompts and source filters to be defined bringing the functionality to be on par with drag and drop reports.

3.3 The good stuff

Sub Query
The biggest change in 3.3 is the inclusion of sub-queries.  Sub queries permit as user to generate far more sophisticated reports.  For example if you wanted to compare the sales results of this financial year with past years you may wish to use an append query or if you wanted to determine which customers were new in a particular year you would use a minus query.  In both these examples Yellowfin is generating two distinct queries and then combining the result set to provide you with a single table of results.  With Yellowfin you can create 4 types of sub query, these are:
1.   Union – inserts new rows into a table
2.   Append – inserts new columns into a table
3.   Minus – removes data through advanced filter
4.   Intersect – removes data through advanced filter

KPI and Standard Dashboard Tabs
* The KPI style tab has been updated with sparkline trend lines and bullet charts for even better utilisation.  These two elements assist to visualise the trend (sparkline) and compare all metrics against expected performance (bullet chart).
* Another feature has been the inclusion of associated reports to dashboard tabs.  This allows you to include reports that would otherwise not fit on a dashboard as supporting reports for hat tab.

Interactive Charts
* To improve the visualisation of your data we are constantly improving the interactivity of our charting objects.  In this release we have enabled series selection for both pir and category charts.  This allows the user to flip between metrics within the same chart.

Tabbed Reports
* 3.3 includes two new types of co-display reports for linking reports together.  These are tabbed and linked styles.  The tabbed style lets you create a ‘workbook’ of reports with tabs to navigate through them.  The linked style is used for charts such as meter charts where no data is passed from one report to the other but you wish to see more detail.

Changes – the small stuff
* Below you will find a detailed account of the changes between Yellowfin 3.3 and the previous major release 3.2.

Charts
* Alerts     Inclusion of bar and background alert formats.
* Chart Formatting     Additional chart formatting options.
* Chart Interactivity     The ability to swap metrics on charts such as pie and category charts.  This allows better visualisation of data.
   
Reporting & Dashboard
* KPI Page    Changes to the look and feel of the KPI tab.
* Associate Reports     The ability to add links to non-dashboard reports to a selected dashboard tab.
* Data Formatters     New data formatters including URL links to external sites or applications.  For example Yellowfin can pass an invoice id from report into a * financial application.
* Total Labels     Being able to include labels for column summaries.
* Tabbed Reports     Create workbook style reports by creating multiple tabs
* Linked Reports     Links charts to detailed reports using as link report option.
* Suppression of Duplicates  Suppress duplicates in column based reports for clearer report output and design.
* Report Section Summary  Create section summaries and include these at the top of your report with hyperlinks to the detail.
* SQL User Prompts and Source Filters   Include user prompt filters and source filters into SQL reports via a simple script.
   
Admin & Integration
* Command Line Importer Replace   Allows you to replace reports and dashboard tabs through the command line importer.
* Source Filter Wild Card  Allows you to insert a wild card into the source filter via web services.
* Broadcast Reply to Email  Broadcast email link - make it configurable so that it goes to an OEM organisation
* Log-off Link Location  Determine the location of the logoff link
* Report URL Access     Access reports via a URL or permalink
* More Localisation     Set name, decimal and thousand separator formats.
* Popup Suppression  Allow the dashboard drill through to suppress popups and always open reports in line.
* Report Category List  Update to UI to make it easier to determine the secure and default draft folders.
* Schedule Management  The ability to view all scheduled tasks and delete them if required.
   
Source & View
* Bulk View Field Edit   Allows you to select and categorise multiple view fields simultaneously.
* Copy View   The ability to copy a view and edit a new instance.
   
Database / Platform Support
* Sybase IQ   Support for Sybase IQ
* Cache DB   Support for Cache DB
* Pervasive SQL   Support for Pervasive SQL

Release 4.0 - Its big
As part of the Beacon program all clients and partners will be given the opportunity to influence the next release cycle.  Release 4.0 is scheduled for release in April 2008
Just because Yellowfin is easy to use does not mean you have to forego the functionality you require.  So we say thankyou to all those people that provided us with valuable feedback, suggestions and support for this release and look forward to more innovative suggestions for 4.0.  
For information on how to participate please see the Beacon program for more details.

For any queries regarding functionality or if would like to include functionality on the wish list please visit: http://forum.yellowfin.com.au

Website: www.yellowfin.com.au