cxair technical overview

Technology Overview

Introducing CXAIRThe Power of Search, The Insight of Business Intelligence

CXAIR has been built speci�ically as a ‘next generation’ BI tool. The product utilises the raw power of search technology in order to ‘assemble’ data for querying/reporting purposes.

CXAIR Technology Overview, Connexica Ltd. 1

Simple QueryingMost people are familiar with search engines and use them to explore vast amounts of information available on the Internet. Using CXAIR, users are able to use the same ‘natural language’ queries and experience the amazing speed and simplicity of search engine technology across data contained in their operational and back-office data stores.

CXAIR provides users with the ability to rapidly filter results by simply clicking on values on the screen or generating range filters, allowing the user to choose the data they want without having to rely on running pre-canned reports or SQL queries.

The product has been designed around 3 core principles: speed; flexibility and performance. CXAIR is designed for use by everyone, not just analysts, and knocks down many of the barriers prevalent in traditional BI technologies to finally make reporting, ad-hoc analysis and dash-boarding as easy and as straightforward as searching the Internet.

Providing a Consolidated View of your DataA common and increasing problem in small and large organisations is the proliferation of data contained in multiple and often unconnected data stores and systems.

Whether you have implemented a data warehouse or continue to try to join up the data manually, CXAIR provides an extremely simple and easy to use method of bringing data together into a single coherent search engine that can be used to provide consolidated reporting and analysis from a single point of access.

Visualise Your DataThere are many powerful visualisation tools available within CXAIR that can be used in real-time by business users as well as analysts and IT technicians. Users can filter data to provide business focused subsets of data that can be printed or exported into EXCEL, Crosstabs and Charts, Interactive VENN diagrams and even dashboards with only minimal training.

Drill-down into the DetailUnlike many traditional BI tools, CXAIR does not store any of its indexed data in a pre-aggregated form. This means that data is either rolled-up dynamically or presented back to the user at transaction level when queries or reports are generated.

Storing data at transaction level means that it is always possible to drill down from a total field, chart or VENN segment into the underlying records that make up the total with sub-second response times.

An obvious advantage to storing data at transaction level is that users can see the provenance of a total by being able to crosscheck against the original data. Ensuring business users are confident in the data they see returned by a query or report is critical to them taking up BI and it becoming a key part of their daily processes.


Venn DiagramsVenn diagrams has always been an extremely useful way of demonstrating relationships in data, however very few products have been developed that support the generation of Venn diagrams in a dynamic environment.

Traditional database technology is not fast enough due to the complexity of the calculations required to total up the various elements of the Venn over what can be huge volumes of data.

Due to the speed of querying in CXAIR, users are able to generate and manipulate Venn sets over huge data sets in an extremely simple and easy to use interface, providing unparalleled insight into data relationships through the ability to dynamically segment data down to any level of detail.

Venn sets are able to display simple record counts, calculations or distinct counts based on specific business criteria enabling you to analyse information in many different ways and identify clusters of data that can then be drilled into at transaction level for further analysis.

“Due to the speed of querying in CXAIR, users are able to generate and manipulate Venn sets over huge data sets in an extremely simple and easy to use interface…”


CrosstabsOne of the most powerful features of CXAIR is the ability for business users to produce multi-dimensional crosstabs on top of your filtered data. Users can nest multiple fields as rows or columns, select multiple measures and calculations, apply traffic lighting and field formatting on any data contained within the search engine and produce tables of results in real-time.

As in all areas of CXAIR, users can drill down from a total to the underlying data and drill back up to the original crosstab without any pre-configuration of the data.

Users can add charts alongside the crosstab simply by selecting a set of pre-defined chart types that are automatically selected based on the shape and size of your current crosstab.

Unlike pivot table services in EXCEL or reporting over OLAP data sources, crosstabs run in real-time across the actual event level data and produce results in seconds without the need to pre-aggregate or perform any pre-configuration.

“Unlike pivot table services in EXCEL or reporting over OLAP data sources, crosstabs run in real-time across the actual event level data and produce results in seconds…”


DashboardsEvery BI tool has dashboards however few tools provide facilities as flexible, simple and comprehensive as CXAIR that are usable by business users as opposed to analysts and technical IT resources.

Users can easily design and build dynamic and highly visual dashboards that provide high-level overviews of tabular and cross-tabular data. Using the in-built search and filtering, generic dashboards can be created that provide simple overviews of data that change depending upon user-defined filters and search terms that narrow down or extend the range of data reported on at any one time.

By defining a layout that applies to all of the data as opposed to a pre-defined subset dramatically reduces the number of dashboard views an organisation needs to produce, simplifying the administration process of publishing reports and saving many hours and days of unnecessary man-time in cloning and customising reports.

In addition to crosstabs, charts, lists and Venn diagrams, CXAIR allows organisations to generate pictorial maps using in-built flash-based templates as well as integration with Google maps without the need to purchase a full-blown GIS system.

Dashboards can be extended to include embedded HTML, text, and images as well as reference external web pages or local intranet web pages and can be customised to use your own corporate logos, fonts and colour schemes.

Once built, dashboards can be saved and published to user groups to be viewed across the organisation either directly through CXAIR or through a simple “report viewer” interface. The Report Viewer provides a simplified user interface that is ideal for users who simply want to view and print pre-defined reports and dashboards.


Secure Information AccessCXAIR includes many powerful security features to ensure that information presented is relevant and secure across the organisation including single sign-on, realm based security and integration with Windows security for Windows based implementations.

Data contained within CXAIR can be automatically filtered to restrict access at document, row and column level for groups or individual users with only minimal configuration.


“CXAIR includes many powerful security features to ensure that information presented is relevant and secure…”

NetSearch Technology Overview, Connexica Ltd.

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Connexica is a software house that specialises in Information Access solutions. We offer organisations the fastest and most intuitive enquiry solution available on the market today.

Our powerful querying and analysis products bridge the gap between BI and Enterprise Search and provide end users with the ability to connect with their organisation’s information quickly, easily and securely from any location. NetSearch has been particularly successful in CRM and Direct Marketing.

The VENN Enquiry Facility has liberated marketing staff from unwieldy SQL driven solutions. It helps them understand their customers better and enables them to make better use of the latest communications technology for direct marketing campaigns.

About ConnexicaConnexica is a software house that specialises in Information Access solutions. We offer organisations the fastest and most intuitive enquiry solution available on the market today.

Our powerful querying and analysis products bridge the gap between BI and Enterprise Search and provide end users with the ability to connect with their organisation’s information quickly, easily and securely from any location.

ContactConnexica LtdUnited Business Centres16 Parker CourtStaffordshire Technology ParkStaffordST18 0WP

Tel: +44 (0)1785 246777Fax: +44 (0)1785 250284Email: [email protected]

www.connexica.com