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WebFOCUS Quick Data for Excel

Brian CarterTechnical Manager

April 21, 2023

Excel users continue to stand firm when it comes to replacing Excel with a BI reporting tool, despite the challenges involved with accessing data within the Excel environment. WebFOCUS has responded to these demands and challenges with Quick Data, a WebFOCUS Add-in for Excel. Now users can access and analyze all of their enterprise data without leaving their preferred environment. This session will walk you through all of the latest enhancements to Quick Data and even show you how to call your own structured ad-hoc forms right from within Excel.

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Abstract

Excel in the Enterprise

Reasons for using Excel:

Intuitive interface Extremely powerful and flexible Ubiquitous within business/user community

Reasons for using Excel with WebFOCUS:

Access to all enterprise data sources Secure integration Metadata Control Excel chaos

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NewNew

Server generated worksheets: Data is pushed out in canned Excel document

Server driven templates: Data is embedded into an existing template

Excel driven Add-in:

Data is pulled into

worksheet in native

Excel environment

WebFOCUS approach to integration

Business case for Quick Data

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Excel’s built-in data access is confined SQL, Access, ODBC, OLEDB, or… COPY/PASTE!!!

Data connection setup required

Limited metadata information

Query creation is somewhat

restrictive

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Stand-alone Excel Reporting is Challenging

Simplify with Quick Data

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Access to all enterprise data

Business rules and

metadata handled

by WebFOCUS

No additional data

connections required

Report Assistant

offers more query

options

Secure access

Create, edit, and save

queries

Automatic Refresh of data

Format and style query data with WebFOCUS engine

Automatic Named Ranges and Formulas

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Additional Benefits

Quick Data applications

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Applications: Excel Dashboards

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Dashboards/scorecards easy to create with release of Excel 2007

Ribbon interfaceBuilt-in visualizationThemes 1M rows 16K

columns per sheet 16M colors

Be sure to check outWinter 2007 WF Newsletter!

Be sure to check outWinter 2007 WF Newsletter!

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Demonstration

Future Direction

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7.6.5 Integration with MR securityStructured Ad-hoc from within Excel JOINUpload/Sharing of Quick Data workbooks in MR

7.7Extend to other Office applications – PPT, Word