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The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for March 19, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Roambi adds app publishing tool to analytics lineup
The iPad's ongoing march into the enterprise means that sales, presentation and analytics apps are perpetually hot on the App Store and in business deployment plans. The make-the-numbers-shiny analytics crowd has gravitated towards apps like MicroStrategy, QlikView and IBM's Cognos Mobile to help translate raw data into comprehensible and actionable information. One of the leaders among the BI app contenders is MeLLmo's Roambi, with a slick set of interface presets, a comprehensive list of data origination points (SAP, Google Docs, Salesforce.com and many more) and a free version to let prospective buyers kick the tires. The Roambi platform has evolved quickly, adding more views and features to satisfy users; last year, the company introduced a publishing platform (Roambi Flow) to let enterprise users deliver interactive documents from their business data, and Roambi Present to add dynamic content to Keynote or PowerPoint decks. Now Roambi is taking the next step by giving customers the opportunity to publish their own standalone iPad apps with the Roambi visualization engine. Roambi ESX is the new offering, and it allows Roambi licensees to package their data, static content and those pretty dynamic graphs into apps of their very own. The App Store revenues, if any, go to the publisher (after Apple's 30% cut); the app itself will be "gray label," carrying the branding of the source firm and a "powered by Roambi" notice. Roambi's plan for this meta-platform is to empower the traditional publishers of business data -- who still send out a lot of CDs and flash drives laden with Excel spreadsheets, PDFs and PowerPoint decks -- to move a part of their business onto the App Store and the iPad. The existing barriers to custom app development begin to fall away when publishers don't have to hire Xcode-savvy developers just to get their existing products into app form. The pricing for the Roambi ESX platform isn't public yet, but like most of the company's offerings it is likely to be scaled appropriately for big business rather than consumers. Interested potential ESX customers are encouraged to contact the company directly for more details.
MeLLmo's Roambi Flow will create interactive business documents for iPad
We've taken a look at MeLLmo's Roambi in the past and were fairly impressed with the instant interactive visualizations created for business data and statistics. With Roambi, you import data created in another program or system (often Excel or another CSV-based spreadsheet program for personal data, or large-scale business analysis systems in enterprise use), and the app generates the dynamic charts using that data. The free Roambi Lite service works with Excel files; Roambi Pro adds on-demand connectivity to Google Docs and Salesforce CRM; and Roambi ES3 links to IBM Cognys, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP business systems. MeLLmo is adding new capabilities to the product line with Roambi Flow, a new app and content system which will create original documents using Roambi from the ground up. It's the sort of process imagined when the iPad was first conceived. Imagine creating a business analysis and having your static graphs spring to life. In theory, it could be used for anything from a science paper to a full corporate annual report; putting the deeper analysis of the Roambi graphs into the narrative content means that readers can construct their own interpretations of the data along with the conclusions or observations in the digital publication. The point-and-click interface is simple enough that most people will be able to create an elegant, interactive document either on the iPad or from a desktop browser. The initial version of Roambi Flow will be available in June working with the Roambi ES3 enterprise system, which costs hundreds of dollars per user seat. Later in 2011, the Flow product will extend out to Roambi's software-as-a-service offering for non-enterprise customers. In the meantime, to give the basic Roambi visualizer a try, check out the free app on the App Store.
MeLLmo's Roambi delivers business intelligence on the go
When talking iPad with enterprise users, one of my favorite show-off apps for the iPad is MeLLmo's Roambi. It's a little hard to explain what it does, but once they see it in action, they know they want it. Roambi (free on the App Store, pro/enterprise plans available) gives you instant, easy dashboards for your data on your iPad, and it lets you share your numbers in striking visual form. With the free Roambi plan, you can quickly import your Excel or CSV data into the app and pick from four dashboard displays: CataList, PieView, SuperList, and Trends. In the pro version (US$99/user per year via the Google Apps Marketplace) you can add connections to Salesforce CRM and Google Docs for live online updating; the ES3 enterprise version gives access to high-end business intelligence systems from SAP and IBM, along with device-lock security and remote data wipe options to protect your key info. The enterprise version also provides access to Flash/browser versions of the same dashboard displays, in case you need to show your stuff sans iPad. The graphs and dashboards themselves are a visual treat. You can easily drill down into your data with a few touches, or bring up a trendline or sparkline to make a clear point. If you've got a view you want to return to quickly, you can bookmark it for instant access; you can also easily send screenshots of a particular view. It's not an app for everyone, but if your day includes explaining numbers to others, you need to give Roambi a shot. It's also available in a free iPhone edition.
