Quartet FS has opened access to its ActivePivot in-memory analytics engine by adding support for a number of non-proprietary front-end user interfaces to the software. As an alternative to the Quartet FS Live interface, the company is offering access to ActivePivot through visualisation tools that are compatible with the Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) query language for online analytical processing systems such as ActivePivot and the XMLA communication protocol. These include the Tableau and Spotfire visualisation tools from Tableau and Tibco, as well as Oracle’s Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013.
Quartet FS says its delivery of a more flexible and open platform is a response to customer feedback and builds on the development of sophisticated visualisation technologies and increased provision and implementation of MDX-based database solutions over the past couple of years.
George Bory, co-founder and managing director of Quartet FS, explains: “This gives clients the best of both worlds. They can carry on using the interface of their choice while taking advantage of ActivePivot’s features, such as incremental updates of data and the ability to integrate custom business logic at any step of the aggregation process. Clients can also build innovative analytics applications based on ActivePivot while leveraging existing investments in visualisation technologies and ensuring continuity in users’ working habits.”
Access to ActivePivot using MDX-based interfaces is available immediately, with financial services firms expected to lean towards solutions from the likes of Oracle and SAS Institute in the first instance as solutions such as Tableau and Spotfire gain traction. While unwilling to be drawn on forthcoming developments of ActivePivot, Bory expects the next deliverables from the company’s R&D programme to be introduced at the ActivePivot user group in June.
