Business Intelligence Network - The Vision for BI and Beyond

Actuate and Webalo Make Spreadsheets Mobile

Published: October 17, 2006

The two companies will combine efforts to deliver integrated, analysis-ready, managed spreadsheets to mobile devices.

Actuate Corp. a provider in enterprise reporting and performance management applications that empower 100% of users to achieve breakthrough corporate performance, and Webalo, inventor of a new Web service, called the User Proxy, that “puts users in charge,” recently announced that the two companies will combine efforts to deliver integrated, analysis-ready, managed spreadsheets to mobile devices. 

Spreadsheets are the most popular analysis tool for business users, and the vast majority of these business users depend on a mobile device to increase their efficiency. Until now, spreadsheets have not been viable for delivery on mobile devices, because data housed within spreadsheets has not been able to be customized and presented to the masses in a scalable fashion.  Actuate 9 e.Spreadsheet and Webalo’s User Proxy work together to address the user experience and inconsistencies in spreadsheet data in reports sent to mobile devices like RIM BlackBerry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Palm Treo and Java-enabled smart phones, by combining the power of managed spreadsheets, mobile delivery and an SOA architecture. 

With this new collaboration, users of Actuate 9 e.Spreadsheet will be able to receive time-critical business intelligence wherever they are. Getting a report from Actuate 9 e.Spreadsheet to the Mobile Dashboard is achieved by answering questions in an easy online "wizard". Once this is done, continuously updated information is automatically sent by e.Spreadsheet to Webalo's Mobile Dashboard, which then delivers it to users’ devices.

Actuate and Webalo are working to maximize performance for very large enterprises by enabling Mobile Dashboard users to efficiently "pull" highly personalized spreadsheets from e.Spreadsheet on demand. The two companies are also working together to further streamline the set-up process by enabling the Mobile Dashboard to suggest options for mobile presentation based on information provided by e.Spreadsheet’s design blueprint.

“Many of our customers strive to address the issue of making spreadsheet analysis available to as many decision makers as possible to improve corporate performance, said Nobby Akiha, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Actuate Corp. “Personalized, managed spreadsheets delivered to mobile devices is the next step in ensuring users have accurate, actionable information at their fingertips. We’re excited to integrate with Webalo and feel that working in synchrony with them will deliver great value to our combined customer bases.”