Data-analysis specialist plans giveaway
QueryObject Systems Corp. is giving it away.
In a promotion aimed at broad Web-based OLAP deployments, the company plans to announce Oct. 5 that it will provide a free front-end query tool with purchase of its online analytical processing server.
The giveaway accompanies an upgrade to Version 3.1 of the QueryObject Server, now shipping, that adds a wizard to ease server-based OLAP data mart deployments.
The new Design Wizard automates identification of source data, population of metadata into a QueryObject repository, and "data hygiene" and classification, said QueryObject officials in Uniondale, N.Y.
The giveaway is being packaged under the name QueryObject Analyzer -- a version of the QueryObject Server OLAP engine tuned to support a front end and a lightweight Java query tool that runs in a browser.
QueryObject licensed the tool from InterNetivity Inc., an analytic software provider in Ottawa.
Target: casual business user
QueryObject is the second data analysis vendor to offer a front-end giveaway in recent months. Seagate Software Inc. unveiled a similar promotion this summer.
Those two companies and others are seeking to win business in an arena in which Microsoft Corp. is increasingly viewed as a major player, with its OLAP Services engine bundled into its SQL Server 7.0 database.
With Analyzer, QueryObject is aiming at the casual business user.
"Eighty to 85 percent of potential business intelligence users out there will never be heavy-duty OLAP users," said Matt Doering, QueryObject's senior vice president of software products. "There is a very large population out there not serviced by BI vendors."
QueryObject positions its server as adept at analysis of large volumes of granular data with many dimensions, such as customer data and call detail records. Its target market consists largely of companies in the telecommunications, finance and insurance industries.
QueryObject Analyzer supports Windows NT, HP-UX, Solaris, Tru-64 and OS/390. CPU-based pricing for the engine begins at $50,000. It will be available next month.
QueryObject is at www.queryobject.com.