InetSoft
Encyclopedia
InetSoft Technology Corporation is a privately owned multinational
computer software
company that develops free and commercial web-based business intelligence
applications. The company was founded in 1996, and currently has over 120 employees between its corporate headquarters in Piscataway, New Jersey
, and development offices in Beijing
and Xi'an
, China
.
The company offers various applications that focus on operational BI, enterprise reporting, data visualization
and embeddable reporting. InetSoft's solutions have been deployed at over 3,000 organizations worldwide, including 25% of Fortune 500
companies, spanning all types of industries.
), and held various technical positions at Bell Labs
, AT&T
, and Lucent Technologies
. Luke Liang had worked for Goldman Sachs
in a variety of technology and management positions and held consulting positions with both JP Morgan, Chase
and the Union Bank of Switzerland
. Both hold Master's Degrees in Computer Science
.
The company began with four employees working out of a garage in Piscataway NJ and focused on developing an open standards Java
based platform that would be fully compatible with Java
/XML
, relational databases, internet technologies and legacy systems. The initial product released was Style Report, which focused on reporting and data analysis
. Because of its Java roots and small footprint, Style Report has been used in both client-side and server-side Java applications. Over the years, InetSoft's products evolved alongside Java to become server-based Web solutions. The product line has grown to include reporting, dashboards and visual analysis.
, SOAP
, Java language, and JavaScript
. While the primary design goal is easy integration with other open standards based software, access to third party proprietary software has been added in recent years. Additionally, the company licenses by CPU rather than by named user. The history of InetSoft product development is as follows:
In 2011, InetSoft was named to Information Management's list of top "40 Vendors We're Watching in 2011" for its Style Intelligence 11.0 release and patent pending Data Block technology.
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
computer software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
company that develops free and commercial web-based business intelligence
Business intelligence
Business intelligence mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data, such as sales revenue by products and/or departments, or by associated costs and incomes....
applications. The company was founded in 1996, and currently has over 120 employees between its corporate headquarters in Piscataway, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, and development offices in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and Xi'an
Xi'an
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
The company offers various applications that focus on operational BI, enterprise reporting, data visualization
Data visualization
Data visualization is the study of the visual representation of data, meaning "information that has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information"....
and embeddable reporting. InetSoft's solutions have been deployed at over 3,000 organizations worldwide, including 25% of Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
companies, spanning all types of industries.
History
InetSoft was co-founded in 1996 by siblings Larry and Luke Liang. Prior to founding InetSoft, Larry Liang, was involved in the early research of e-commerce and interactive Web technologies and served as a research scientist at Bell Communications Research (now Telcordia TechnologiesTelcordia Technologies
Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, Inc. or Bellcore, is a telecommunications research and development company based in the United States created as part of the 1982 Modification of Final Judgment that broke up American Telephone & Telegraph...
), and held various technical positions at Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, and Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies
Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
. Luke Liang had worked for Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
in a variety of technology and management positions and held consulting positions with both JP Morgan, Chase
Chase (bank)
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase, is a national bank that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of financial services firm JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known as Chase Manhattan Bank until it merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000...
and the Union Bank of Switzerland
Union Bank of Switzerland
Union Bank of Switzerland was a large integrated financial services company located in Switzerland. The bank, which at the time was the second largest bank in Switzerland, merged with Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998, to become UBS to form what was then the largest bank in Europe and the second...
. Both hold Master's Degrees in Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
.
The company began with four employees working out of a garage in Piscataway NJ and focused on developing an open standards Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
based platform that would be fully compatible with Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
/XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
, relational databases, internet technologies and legacy systems. The initial product released was Style Report, which focused on reporting and data analysis
Data analysis
Analysis of data is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making...
. Because of its Java roots and small footprint, Style Report has been used in both client-side and server-side Java applications. Over the years, InetSoft's products evolved alongside Java to become server-based Web solutions. The product line has grown to include reporting, dashboards and visual analysis.
Product development history
InetSoft's software is based on open standards technology that incorporates XMLXML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
, SOAP
SOAP
SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...
, Java language, and JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
. While the primary design goal is easy integration with other open standards based software, access to third party proprietary software has been added in recent years. Additionally, the company licenses by CPU rather than by named user. The history of InetSoft product development is as follows:
- In 1998 Style Report was introduced. It was a developer tool that could be used as a report generation engine for both desktop Java applications and web applications. It provided support for tabular, flow, "banded" (like Crystal ReportsCrystal Reports-External links:*****Reviews:****...
), and mixed layouts. Its embedded report scripting engine was the Mozilla RhinoRhino (JavaScript engine)Rhino is an open source JavaScript engine. It is developed entirely in Java and managed by the Mozilla Foundation. The Foundation also provides another implementation of JavaScript engine written in C known as SpiderMonkey....
engine.
- In 2000 Style Report EE was introduced. It was based on the same reporting engine and provided multi-threaded report generation with caching, drill-down reports, parameter reports, and search, sort and filtering features. It also featured ad hoc query for modifying or creating reports.
- In 2004 Style Report Analytic was introduced. It was a product for operational BI that provided reports, dashboards, OLAPOLAPIn computing, online analytical processing, or OLAP , is an approach to swiftly answer multi-dimensional analytical queries. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational reporting and data mining...
, a balanced scorecardBalanced scorecardThe Balanced Scorecard is a strategic performance management tool - a semi-standard structured report, supported by proven design methods and automation tools, that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their control and to monitor the...
, and alerts. It used patent-pending Data Block technology for accessing disparate data sources, a process known as data mashup.
- In 2007 Style Scope and Style Intelligence were introduced. Style Scope was a web-based dashboard design product that used Adobe FlexAdobe FlexAdobe Flex is a software development kit released by Adobe Systems for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich Internet applications based on the Adobe Flash platform...
to deliver a Rich Internet applicationRich Internet applicationA Rich Internet Application is a Web application that has many of the characteristics of desktop application software, typically delivered either by way of a site-specific browser, via a browser plug-in, independent sandboxes, extensive use of JavaScript, or virtual machines...
. Style Intelligence offered dashboards, reporting, and analysis.
- In 2008 InetSoft began to offer BI on-demand and a Software-as-a-Service (SaaSSaasSAAS is an abbreviation for* Social Accountability Accreditation Services* Software as a service * Student Awards Agency for Scotland* Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences* South Australian Ambulance Service...
) solution for Salesforce.comSalesforce.comSalesforce.com is an enterprise cloud computing company headquartered in San Francisco that distributes business software on a subscription basis. Salesforce.com hosts the applications off-site...
. The service added interactive dashboards and visual analysis features for existing Salesforce.com users.
- In 2009 Visualize Free and Style Chart free hosted services were introduced. Visualize Free provided multi-dimensional visual analysis. Style Chart provided an embeddable AJAXAjax- Mythology :* Ajax , son of Telamon, ruler of Salamis and a hero in the Trojan War, also known as "Ajax the Great"* Ajax the Lesser, son of Oileus, ruler of Locris and the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War.- People :...
charting engine.
- In 2010 Style Intelligence 10.3 and Style Scope Free Edition were released. The updated Style Intelligence release increased geographic dataGeographic dataGeographic data is about much more than electronic pictures of maps.The geographic data that describes our world allows for city planning, flood prediction and relief, emergency service routing, environmental assessments, wind pattern monitoring and many other applications.Geographic data is...
binding capabilities and added data access for the following enterprise resource planningEnterprise resource planningEnterprise resource planning systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application...
(ERP) applications: SAP AGSAP AGSAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...
, Siebel SystemsSiebel SystemsSiebel CRM Systems, Inc. was a software company principally engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of customer relationship management applications. The company was founded by Thomas Siebel in 1993. At first known mainly for its sales force automation products, the company...
, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoftPeopleSoftPeopleSoft, Inc. was a company that provided Human Resource Management Systems , Financial Management Solutions , Supply Chain and customer relationship management software, as well as software solutions for manufacturing, enterprise performance management, and student administration to large...
. Style Scope Free Edition was a free downloadable server for dashboards and visualization.
- In 2011 Style Intelligence 11.0 was released. New features include the Style Studio which unifies the developer and administration tools for data mashups, report and dashboard design. The 11.1 release added support for Apple® iOS devices via HTML 5, as well as post aggregate computations.
Product awards
InetSoft Style Report won Best Java Reporting Tool in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, and in 2007. Also in 2007, InetSoft's Style Report Analytic Edition won Best Java Business Intelligence Tool , the first year it had been nominated and the final year of the JDJ Awards program.In 2011, InetSoft was named to Information Management's list of top "40 Vendors We're Watching in 2011" for its Style Intelligence 11.0 release and patent pending Data Block technology.
Commercial products
- Style Intelligence is InetSoft's main business intelligence platform. It provides a visualization-driven approach to reporting, dashboards, and visual analysis.
- Style Scope is an edition of Style Intelligence that includes the patent-pending Data Block technology that is focused on interactive visualizationInteractive visualizationInteractive visualization is a branch of graphic visualization in computer science that involves studying how humans interact with computers to create graphic illustrations of information and how this process can be made more efficient....
, plus monitoring and analytic dashboards.
- Style Report Enterprise is an edition of Style Intelligence that focuses on enterprise reporting. It delivers carefully formatted information to a wide business user community.
Free applications
- Style Scope Free Edition is a small-footprint server that delivers Web-based interactive Flash dashboards and visualizations that can be shared within an organization. It provides support for multi-source data mashups and full admin and permission controls.
- Visualize Free is a visual analysis application that allows users to explore their own data visually and interactively. It requires no software installation.
- Style Chart is a charting engine and JavaScript API for Web developers to embed charts and graphs in Web pages via AJAX.
Third party articles
- "InetSoft Gets Agile BI Right" - Enterprise Systems Journal, March 2, 2011
- "40 Vendors We're Watching in 2011"- Information Management, March 1, 2011
- "Flight Data Services Selects InetSoft's Business Intelligence Software" - Flight Data Services Ltd, March 1, 2011