In addition to consolidating the major technological and software innovations introduced in the last two years, BOARD 7.2 introduces a number of essential new features, in the form of enhanced usability for the end-user and effective construction of applications and analysis models. Once again the needs and suggestions of customers, partners and consultants have been fused with the vision of BOARD lab, culminating in cutting edge functionality that combines simplicity and effectiveness. Enhanced with important innovation and over 50 functional improvements, BOARD 7.2 offers excellent advantages to all users.
Interactive navigation
BOARD 7.2 introduces a radical change in data navigation, enabling more intuitive and immediate visualisation of information. The use of interactive objects (graphs, grids and bubble charts) is associated with a smart system of ?lters and undo functions, to make the data browsing process more userfriendly and natural. Performing analyses not only becomes much simpler, but also far more e?cient, ensuring immediate productivity and e?ciency even for users with no previous experience of using Corporate Performance Management and Business Intelligence tools.
New information display methods
In addition to o?ering improved data interactivity, BOARD 7.2 facilitates the visualisation of information by introducing three advanced display functions.
Trellis
Trellis display is an innovative data visualisation framework in which a given variable (e.g. sales) is shown via the repeated creation of analysis objects whenever a dimensional factor (e.g. areas) changes. The end result is a grid or trellis consisting of numerous graphic objects, one for each of the constituent elements (e.g. areas) of the analysis dimension. All of the main objects in BOARD 7.2 can be displayed in Trellis view, namely graphs, data views, cockpits and bubble charts.
Tile view
BOARD 7.2 offers a new and dynamic graphic container which makes it possible to organise objects in ti le mode, giving end users a modern method for interactive navigation between data views, graphs, cockpits, bubble charts and, more generally, between any BOARD report.
Cell tooltip
The tooltip is a graphical element which appears when the mouse pointer hovers over a particular object and is normally used to display comments and information. In BOARD 7.2 the tooltip can be implemented at cell level and associated with di? erent information columns: in this case the information shown in tooltip mode will only become visible during mouseover on associated cells. The new tooltip function is particularly useful when used in connection with blob cubes, because it enables the display of not only comments and text, but also images, Excel attachments and, more generally, any ? le associated with the speci?c cell.
Blob cubes
BOARD 7.2 enables any type of ?le (e.g. Word, Excel, Power Point, PDF, RTF, images) to be associated with an individual cell, in order to qualify the numeric or textual information contained in the cell itself. In fact a new type of cube, called the Blob Cube, enables each file to be treated like a piece of data, storing it and managing it in a multidimensional way. For example, it is now possible to manage files correlated to different versions of a product in a product/month cube.
BOARD 7.2 also enables the information contained in files to be updated in the same way as a traditional data entry, based on user security profiling. Last but not least, the association of blob cubes with the new tooltip function provides an intuitive and immediate method for visualizing information, which is particularly useful for managing images, notes and summary explanations. From a functional standpoint it is easy to see the importance of blob cubes for managing information at single cell level, both in planning, budget and consolidation processes (sharing of comments regarding data, explanations, Excel attachments, Word documents etc.) and, more generally, in all cases in which associating an image or text to the data can make it easier to understand or use.
Report sharing
BOARD 7.2 introduces the option to export any report to PDF and XPS format. Further enhancing the software's native broadcasting capability, this new function also makes it possible to automatically distribute static PDF and XPS reports to any user, scheduling their transmission and defining their content based on different security profiles. Thanks to this important new feature, BOARD 7.2 offers a complete report sharing platform, integrating with the capabilities already offered by BOARD 7.1 for the creation, scheduling and broadcasting of dynamic interactive reports in Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats.
Globalisation
BOARD 7.2 is designed to meet the linguistic needs of businesses operating in the international marketplace, supporting globalisation on two diff erent levels:
User interface
The BOARD 7.2 user interface is now available in English, Italian, Spanish and German. Furthermore thanks to the innovative architecture, which enables the simple adoption of any language, provision for additional languages is planned for the near future.
Database
BOARD 7.2 makes it possible to display the same occurrences of a word in different languages, based on the logon language. This means that in the context of an income statement, for example, the item income can be displayed as ricavi for users who log on in Italian and as ingresos for users whose working language is Spanish.
Enhanced BOARD Silverlight client
BOARD 7.2 incorporates a Silverlight client which has been considerably upgraded in terms of both performance and functi onality. In addition to a new traffic compression mechanism which significantly speeds up response ti mes, BOARD 7.2 enables procedures to be executed on-line, includes a new printing function and offers Excel and XML data export formats.
Interoperability has also been improved thanks to enhanced mashup support: with BOARD 7.2 it is not only possible to make BOARD input available to external applications, but also to acquire input from external applications, without having to build integration adaptors. This important new feature, combined with an extension to the Single Sign One web client, enables BOARD to be integrated even more easily with any company portal.
In addition to improving the usability of the Silverlight client, this set of functions ensures web support for any Corporate Performance Management application and in particular all budgeting, planning and consolidation solutions. In this respect, the possibility of using the full spectrum of Internet technologies across a geographically dispersed userbase represents an important operational efficiency factor.
BOARD for mobile
BOARD 7.2 provides a web-based platform which makes BOARD analyses available on smart phones and mobile devices. For the first time, BOARD reports, graphs, cockpits and bubble charts can be clearly displayed on iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Symbian devices, as well as on other common mobile operating platforms. A configurable start menu provides easy access to the different analyses, which can be correlated to an annotations page displayed via an innovative flip-transition mechanism.
Enriched application building environment
BOARD 7.2 also offers substantial improvements for the benefit of application consultants and the most advanced users, who can use it to build sophisticated CPM and BI applications.
Procedure debugger
The possibility of setting breakpoints inside procedures has been introduced to temporarily stop execution at the desired point, so that correct operation can be verified step by step.
Capsule print template
BOARD 7.2 enables the creation of capsule print templates, with configurable headers and footers.
Block formatter
The option of formatting rows has been incorporated into BOARD 7.2 from the block formattIng function.
Search in layout
An automatic full text search facility has been introduced at cube level.
ROLAP create table
During ROLAP cube creation, this new function makes it possible to generate a table directly in the relational database.
Another 50+ functional improvements make BOARD 7.2 more comprehensive and user-friendly than ever. These include:
Multi-threshold alert
BOARD 7.2 introduces multi -threshold alert management with the option of personalised management in the available colours.
Total & alerts in collapsed data view
Collapsed data views now show totals and, if alerts have been configured, highlight in graphic format the number of rows per alert.
Selector restyling
The new version introduces a horizontal selector, with optional display of inactive occurrences and different formatting for header fonts and items.
Chart
It is now possible to modify graph margins and alter the position of legends.
Row formatter extension
The row formatter functionality has been extended to Silverlight Client and Office and Word Add-in.
