Information Builders, a leader in business intelligence (BI), information integrity, and integration solutions, today announced new features currently available in its comprehensive BI platform, WebFOCUS, that improve security and simplify the administration of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployments.

SaaS is emerging as a popular model for organizations looking to reduce costs associated with running software in house. In the business intelligence industry, according to a recent Gartner survey, nearly one third of organizations claimed to either already use or plan to use cloud or SaaS offerings to augment their core business BI functions¹. Information Builders has provided SaaS solutions for numerous years but, to address this growing demand, augmented WebFOCUS to provide a better, more secure experience for both the service provider and end user alike.

These new features include:

• Native Support for Multi-tenancy, enabling service providers to reduce costs by securely hosting customers in a shared environment that can quickly scale to accommodate growing demand.
• Powerful Security Features, giving service providers unprecedented control of which WebFOCUS features are available to customers through customizable roles. With this model, providers can differentiate and monetize their reporting service by selectively offering features such as ad-hoc reporting, report scheduling, end-user content sharing and delegated administration.
• Tenant Onboarding Templates, an industry first, which automate the process of creating content folders, groups, roles and security policies for new customers. WebFOCUS features several SaaS templates to simplify onboarding and new ones can easily be developed to meet specific business requirements.
• New Integration Features, in which the user's role, content access and data sources can be tied to LDAP groups, providing better security controls around tenant information.
• Complete Customization, unlike other SaaS BI solutions, WebFOCUS can be tailored to mimic the look, branding and workflow of each tenant's portal as needed.

With these enhanced features, Information Builders is fostering the creation and delivery of better, more comprehensive solutions for its customers, regardless of their delivery method of choice.

"As a SaaS company, it was imperative that Chrome River's BI partner understand the economics of the SaaS business and share our commitment to high quality customer service," said Alan Rich, chief executive officer and cofounder of Chrome River. "This was a key component of our decision to select Information Builders as our partner for incorporating BI capabilities into our expense reporting and invoice automation solution and we realize the benefits of this investment on a daily basis. We're excited to continue our partnership and utilize these new features to provide enhanced expense management analytics to our growing customer base."

"For years, companies such as Chrome River have reaped the value of Information Builders' SaaS solutions," said Gerald Cohen, president and CEO of Information Builders. "Providing technology tailored to our customers' needs is something that has always set us apart from our competition, and we're continuing to innovate with this latest enhancement. As SaaS gains popularity in the enterprise, we're arming service providers with the solutions they need to reduce costs, enhance security and simplify administration."

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¹ Gartner Inc. press release, "Gartner Says Nearly One Third of Organizations Use or Plan to Use Cloud Offerings to Augment Business Intelligence Capabilities," January 2012.