Intelligent Enterprise

Applix, a maker of business intelligence and business performance management (BPM) software, introduced TM1 9.0, a new version of its BPM platform that enables Web-based business performance activities and reporting.

TM1 9.0 includes TM1 Web, a Web-based tool based on Microsoft's .Net architecture that's designed to let financial analysts, line-of-business managers and executives to carry out BPM tasks either locally or remotely.

TM1 Web allows the creation of Web-based worksheets, or "Websheets," that support the functions, formatting and graphic capabilities of Microsoft Excel on the Web. The .Net architecture of this new version and the product's ability to publish Excel workbooks via XML will help TM1 customers incorporate service-oriented architectures and Web services, Applix says.

TM1 also includes ad hoc capabilities to view multidimensional TM1 cubes and work with data via Web browsers. Users can revise assumptions in budgets and plans, run "what-if" scenarios, or recalculate data via their browsers.

"Business performance management tools are no longer the exclusive domain of the finance department," Applix VP of worldwide product management and marketing David Menninger said in a statement. "In the past 18 months, there has been a marked increase in demand for business performance management applications by operations, sales and marketing, and senior management."