Data warehousing software house Microstrategy Inc has announced the latest tool for its online analytical processing engine DSS Server, enabling users to receive personalized warnings about their data. DSS Broadcaster, which is currently in beta, is a broadcast server designed to deliver actionable analysis about data held within an organization’s server, which should prevent problems such as stock shortages. The company is confident that the majority of its existing DSS Server customers will want to implement the new tool, which forms one of the most significant product additions in the company’s history. DSS Broadcaster is likely to be best received in the retail and financial sectors, where it is important to monitor continually changing data. Users are automatically warned of changes or potential problems via electronic mail, which can be extended out to fax machines, pagers and mobile telephones. But Microstrategy product manager Neil Deakin is quick to emphasize that the company’s latest offering is not push technology, because the data sent is selected and personalized in a controlled manner, moving away from the mass-sent data and junk mail often associated with push technologies. The personalization element of the product insures that users only receive the information they need, in the format they desire. To run DSS Broadcaster, which is based on Windows NT, the user must have the DSS Server and its architecture in place. At the moment the privately held Vienna, Virginia company conducts around 70% of its business in the US, and 30% in Europe. Deakin believes Broadcaster has come at a perfect time to enable the company to grab new business in the data warehousing space. Deakin also claims the technology involved in DSS Broadcaster is far more sophisticated than rival offerings from the likes of Brio Technology Inc and Business Objects SA. The product will be available on an international basis in the third quarter.
