I am preparing a document on WebFOCUS vs Business Objects and I wanted to know what are the reporting tools in WebFOCUS? As in Business Objects, we have Web intelligence rich and thin clients for reporting and Dashboard design tool for dashboarding purposes. Any help with giving me few names and their functions in WebFOCUS, would be very much appreciated!
I don't want to interfere in a community discussion, but I need to note that the information posted by Nurul Haszeli isn't good to work from. The Microstrategy brief is old and contains statements that were badly inaccurate even when it was created. The Summary of New Features document is for WebFOCUS 5.2, while the latest release is WebFOCUS 8. The technologyevaluation.com link is from 2000. WebFOCUS Express is not the full product. The NCAT document is for an old version as well.
Please disregard the content provided in that answer. Current information is available from www.informationbuilders.com./
Disclosure: I work for Information Builders
I have not used BusinessObjects since the acquisition by SAP, but had experience using Crystal Reports and been\seen many SAP presentations regarding BusinessObjects.
Big positive and negative for WebFOCUS is that everything is programmable, we used it in a procedural language type of way and everything can be a variable which is nice when you need to program a complex solution. Can be a real headache when you need to debug/troubleshoot/maintain.
The FocalPoint community for WebFOCUS is very strong and probably IMHO one of the greatest strengths for WebFOCUS.
Weaknesses, the toolset has not kept up with other IDEs in regards to change management, version control and DEBUGGING - most times at our company, you are better off programming in Notepad and keeping copies of the file and "print out" a debug statement.
That's from experience. From a tool vs. tool perspective, I'd say they are very close.
What might put you in favor of one over the other will be BusinessObjects. If you have an SAP ERP - likely you have a jumpstart with pre-delivered content that you can build upon or enhance.
From WebFOCUS - customization and freedom in development (programming flexibility, D3, jquery integration)
I have to apologize as I don't have experience using WebFocus.
However, I did find a few articles that you might find interesting (related to WebFocus):
1. www2.microstrategy.com/download/files/whitepapers/open/MicroStrategy-9-vs-Information-Builders-WebFOCUS-8.pdf
2. ikax.net/fiqus/ibi/doc/IBI_WF52x_Summary_of_New_Features.pdf
3. www.technologyevaluation.com/research/article/Information-Builders-Announces-New-Release-of-WebFOCUS.html
4. www.webfocusexpress.com/
5. www.ncat.edu/divisions/doit/faq/webfocus.pdf
Yes, I can help you. Feel free to send me a message.
I can provide some feedback on WebFOCUS, and have SOME experience in BO. What questions can I answer for you?
I could answer the Business Objects questions ... Webfocus is not my expertise.