Actuate adds non-techy query tool

Acuate on Monday announced an update to its data-analysis software designed to appeal to people with little or no training with the application. Version 7 of Actuate lets business people make queries to corporate databases, leaving the more technical aspects to IT professionals. Earlier versions were geared primarily towards IT professionals only. With the update, the technical specialists can construct "information objects"--prewritten database queries--that are stored on Actuate's server software. This will allow non-technical users, such as sales people, to search data on the Actuate server via a Web browser application or Excel spreadsheet, the company said.