The state of Washington is investing $180 million to build a new data center.  The new facility will also serve as the for the state’s Information Services division.  Whilst no one knows why exactly this decision was taken and with cloud computing on the rise, my thoughts immediately went to Apsona’s flexible architecture.

Apsona can be hosted in the cloud. Most users are going in for hosted solutions  these days. Cloud computing is certainly on the rise.  With Apsona a user can set himself up in a few hours. All he requires is an internet connection and a browser. He can import his data and start enjoying the benefits of the application immediately.

Yet, Apsona’s development team also  kept in mind users who are still wary of cloud computing. Security and outage issues are still concerns for many. So to cater to this segment, the design choice is such that users can install Apsona behind a firewall. So the data now resides on the user’s server and not in the cloud. This feature is not offered by most hosted applications. Even better, a user can start of using Apsona hosted and later decide can have it installed on his server.

True portability anyway you want it. Either way the user is the winner!

In version 1, Apsona had multi table reporting with visualizations like bar charts and matrices. Now, the application also has calculated fields in reports. The calculated fields are based on javascript.

Example: : $r['Final Selling Price']+$r['Shipping Price']-$r['Landed Cost Price']-$r['Shipping Cost']

To use the feature:

* Click the add column drop down in the report wizard and choose the field calculated value.
* Change the column name for the field to match the calculation. Example: Profit or totals and so on.
* In the calculation box enter the calculation. Syntax for the fields are : $r['fieldname']. The field name should be the exactly the same as chosen for the report.
* Choose the result type of the calculated field from the drop down, depending on the data type you want the calculated field to render.
* Click OK. Save and run the report and the report will have the calculated value.

Since the calculated fields are javascript based , users can now run complex reports with ease . Dependence on IT teams is a thing of the past, and quick, fancy reports can be run in minutes.

Try Apsona reporting  and experience its power. Feedback will be welcomed.