Everyone Drives Performance with Views 8

Actuate Spans Strategic and Operational Performance Management by Tightly Integrating BIRT and Actuate Performancesoft Views


San Mateo, Calif., – August 4, 2008 – Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTU), the leader in delivering Rich Internet Applications Without Limits™, today announced the latest release of Actuate Performancesoft Views 8. The release represents the latest step in Actuate’s core technology strategy to leverage its BIRT–based solutions, that adds value to the technology developed by the Eclipse Foundation’s open source BIRT project, to address the challenges of true operational performance management initiatives. Views 8 combines and applies Actuate’s best of breed Performance Management, Business Intelligence and reporting technologies to align all operations with a top level strategy for effective Performance Management.

High performing organizations recognize the need to deploy Rich Information Applications as an integral part of their Performance Management strategy to improve decision making and execution at all levels to ensure higher operational and corporate performance. Views 8 is the only integrated and flexible approach to Performance Management that shares a common infrastructure with a sophisticated platform for deploying rich, interactive reporting and analysis applications that scale for use throughout an organization.

Actuate has identified that one of the barriers to enterprise-wide participation in Performance Management is the inability of traditional systems to distribute strategic initiatives into actionable operational measures and link to the operational data that these measures are based. Views 8 as part of the Actuate Performancesoft Suite addresses this issue by:

* Ensuring that performance measures are easily structured to meet the needs of any operational process or function.
* Providing an application that is easy for everybody to adopt and use, regardless of whether they are operating in a strategic or operational capacity.
* Delivering on the requirement to provide operational performance measures with access to critical underlying operational detail to facilitate root-cause analysis.


“Presbyterian has targeted the gap between strategic and operational metrics as an area in need of improvement,” said Molly Payne, Performance Management analyst at Presbyterian Healthcare Services. “The organization has already established a Performance Management paradigm that addresses the influencers of critical measures and creates action plans based on those drivers. With the release of Views 8, Presbyterian will be able to perform root-cause analysis much more easily, and the connection between operational and strategic metrics will be considerably more robust. This will vastly increase our ability to achieve national excellence according to the Malcolm Baldrige criteria.”

Views 8 is the first Performance Management application to deliver rich, interactive Performance Management visualizations that facilitate the investigation and analysis required for performance improvement. Stakeholders are able to review information in their preferred format. For example managers who oversee numerous functions and business processes may select the briefing book format, whereas operational staff may find rich interactive web pages or dynamic spreadsheets more appropriate for their role and responsibilities. Catering to all formats, roles and requirements, Views 8 is able to help organizations adapt to evolving Performance Management requirements as well as users’ evolving demands of their business performance management systems.

In addition to rich visualization, including a Flash-based scorecard and map designer, Views 8.0 has been designed to be adaptable to the evolving requirements of today’s Performance Management initiatives. The latest version provides secure, direct access to application data, as well as the flexibility and control through a full set of Web Services APIs and Information Objects that allow the incorporation of performance data with underlying operational detail from any enterprise data source.

“Our research on Operational Performance Management finds that organizations struggle to provide simple and interactive methods to apply technology to improve Performance Management processes throughout the diverse needs of age groups and competencies from operational management to mangers”, said Mark Smith CEO & EVP Research, Ventana Research. “Actuate Performancesoft Views 8 uses Internet technologies like Flash and Web 2.0 capabilities to engage business users who need highly interactive Web technologies as well as management who likes traditional formatted briefing book user interfaces to provide the right capabilities needed to maximize the results from Operational Performance Management processes.”

“Views 8 allows for the flexibility of a top down or a bottom up Performance Management approach, depending on organizational preference,” said Richard Stark, director Performance Management Solutions, Actuate. “The power to span and proactively manage strategic and operational performance using a single solution will be appealing to organizations as they distribute accountability and keep pace with rapidly changing business conditions. By combining strategic and operational Performance Management, customers can address all of their needs including sales management, marketing management, human capital management, customer service management and a host of other Performance Management challenges that have traditionally been the domain of niche Performance Management providers.”

Views 8 includes the Actuate iServer, 21 reporting Web services, 20 Information Objects, a new reporting user interface, 8 pre-built BIRT and e.Spreadsheet reports, a new Flash-based Map Designer, enhanced map shape controls, Microsoft Vista support and enhanced Microsoft SQL Server support.

Availability and Pricing

Views 8.0 is expected to be generally available in September. To learn more about the product call 800-449-3804 or email PMinfo@actuate.com.
About Actuate Corporation

Actuate Corporation is dedicated to increasing the richness, interactivity and effectiveness of enterprise data, for everyone, everywhere. Actuate delivers the next generation RIA-ready information platform for both customer and employee-facing applications. The Actuate platform boasts unmatched scalability, high-performance, reliability and security. Its proven RIA capabilities and highly collaborative development architecture are backed by the world’s largest open source information application developer community, grounded in BIRT, the Eclipse Foundation’s only top level Business Intelligence and reporting project.

Global 9000 organizations use Actuate to roll out RIA-enabled customer loyalty and Performance Management applications that improve customer satisfaction and employee productivity. The company has over 4,200 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas including financial services and the public sector, many of which have a long history of deploying Actuate-based solutions for dozens, or even hundreds of their mission-critical applications. Founded in 1993, Actuate has headquarters in San Mateo, California, with offices worldwide. Actuate is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol ACTU. For more information on Actuate, visit the company’s web site at www.actuate.com.