Actuate adds more BIRT for customer communications

As cloud-based environments become richer and more complex, with many different applications and services collaborating to achieve the result users realise is of value to them, the need to communicate and report on what is happening in the collaboration process becomes more important.

This is true both for the service delivers, who need to know the status of the service and where problems may occur, and also for the users, that benefit from the richness and completeness of the reports the cloud service can then provide them.

This is where BIRT is now playing a role. This is an open-sourced, Eclipse-based set of business intelligence and reporting tools that integrates with Java-based applications to allow applications and service developers to build the reporting structures that the users require.

It is also where Actuate Corporation is carving out a niche as `The BIRT Company’ and a significant supplier of personalised analytics and insight tools.

The company has recently announced the launch of a new version of its Customer Communications Management (CCM) solution, which now integrates with the recently launched BIRT iHub 3 deployment platform.

The new BIRT Content Services 5.0 is pitched by Actuate as a holistic solution for CCM that enables end-to-end management of high volume customer communications. It enables banks and financial firms, telecommunications companies, government agencies and healthcare companies to transform, process, personalise, archive and deliver accessible customer communications across multiple channels.

As an additional resource in building rich reports, Actuate has also acquired the acquisition of the  German software firm legodo ag. This specialises in tools that help enterprises tap into and utilise data embedded in ERP and CRM applications.

Using Content Services, organisations are able to aggregate, analyse and segment customer data, and create high volume, targeted, customer communications while easily conforming to regulatory archival requirements. These communications can also be delivered to customers via their preferred channels, including email, web, print, and online on virtually any mobile or touch device.

All Actuate products are now integrated into the BIRT iHub 3 deployment platform, which delivers to any Actuate customer a common user experience and seamless interoperability with other products, including BIRT Analytics for predictive analytics self-service, and BIRT developer software. The company also plans to also integrate legodo products into BIRT iHub.

BIRT Content Services 5.0 includes new JVM support for IBM Java 1.7 and Oracle Java 1.7; new OS support for AIX 6.1, 7.1, SLES 11 SP2, z/OS 1.13; and new DB support for IBM DB2 10 and Postgres. Also included is new application server support for JBOSS 6, Oracle Weblogic 12c, IBM WebSphere 8, 8.5 and Apache Tomcat 7; as well as new ECM systems support for IBM Content Manager OnDemand 8.5, 9, FileNet P8 5.2, and FileNet Image Services 4.2.

It provides such capabilities as enhanced Accessible PDF Generation including lists and table of contents, a new image parser that supports additional image formats (JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF) and with PDF to TIFF and font mapping enhancements, added operational reports to monitor and report on Repository performance and status, enhanced look and feel of the Repository Administration Console and the Repository Console, and improved searching across multiple applications within the Repository Console.