Information Builders UK Ltd is offering an executive information system designed to extend the use of its fourth generation-based information control system, Focus, to top-level management; the company has also announced its first fully object-oriented applications development system, for Microsoft Windows 3.0. Focus EIS – EIS being Executive Information System – was developed in the UK and is described by corporate marketing manager Ian Bramley as providing an environment for decision-making on analytical platforms. This it does through tabular reports, text formats and a variety of graphics representing factors such as time, product, budget, geographical variants and so on. The mouse-driven operation uses icons and graphics to proceed through a variable menu. For each display of information, red, yellow and green colour coding can be incorporated to highlight exceptions and variances from a set norm; each screen takes its information from the same Focus report, so that actually building and maintaining the store of data that Focus/EIS uses is more simple. Running on a standard 80386-based MS-DOS personal computer, the system comes with automatic connection to a shared host Focus/EIS application on IBM 3090, DEC VAX or on a local area network; relational database management systems such as DB2, Oracle, Ingres, Rdb and SQL are all supported, along with other older systems and file types. A Focus/EIS starter licence for 10 workstations costs UKP20,750; this will include five days’ training, five days’ consultancy and 12 months training and hotline support. The Level5 Object knowledge-based tool was developed over a period of three years in what Bramley calls an attempt to exploit the advantages of Windows. Users are often confused in their perception of what knowledge-based system business tools like Level5 actually are: in essence, the objective of such software is to enable users to develop applications specific to their line of business – preferably as free from complicated programming techniques as possible while still having the capacity to support more complex applications development once the user becomes more familiar with it. Information Builders reckons it has achieved this balance by using an interface such as Windows in conjunction with object-oriented techniques, which it claims offers a richer variety of information. This information can be processed in a number of ways: what is known as the goal-driven, backward chaining technique pursues a specific goal and searches for preconditions that support it; conversely, the forward-chaining method starts with sets of data and moves to a conclusion by using demons, which are intended to highlight imperceptible trends and put them to use – either one or both chaining techniques can be implemented. External database files such are automatically incorporated. The Microsoft Windows version of Level5 Object ships this month and will cost UKP2,160 including 12 months maintenance and hot-line support; an OS/2 Presentation Manager version is also being developed, as are packages for IBM mainframes, DEC VAX/VMS, Sun workstations and the Apple Macintosh.
