• What is Guide+.Net?
• How is Guide+.Net different from other information tools?
• Who can use it?
• What will Guide+.Net do for me?
• What kind of business can use Guide+.Net?
• What size company uses Guide+.Net?
• How much time and effort is required to implement Guide+.Net?
• What makes Guide+.Net stand out?
• Can't I do the same thing with Microsoft Access?
• Can't I do the same thing with Visual Basic?
• We have an Intranet using HTML pages. Why do I need Guide+.Net?
• I have an OLAP tool that can slice and dice information. Isn't Guide+.Net
much the same?
• I have just spent $2 million to install a new ERP system. What can Guide+.Net
do for me?
• What operating enviroments does Guide+.Net work in?
• What kind of files can Guide+.Net access?
• How does Guide+.Net connect to files?
• Can Guide+.Net access more than one file type at a time?
• Does Guide+.Net run on the Internet?
What is Guide+.Net?
Your Enterprise Portal for the Information Millennium
Guide+.Net is a multi-faceted, feature-rich information delivery engine that combines the power of the Internet with exceptional data harvesting, synthesis and presentation capabilities to provide an unparalleled Enterprise Information Portal.
Guide+.Net provides a personalized desktop that makes it easy for you to see just the information you want - from any place within your organization and from anywhere around the Internet world - with the touch of a button, at Internet speed. Guide+.Net's powerful, flexible data collection engine gathers raw data in any format from different incompatible systems across your enterprise and over the Internet. Guide+.Net has built-in intelligence that then takes the raw data and synthesizes it into meaningful business information that is delivered directly to your desktop or even your browser in sophisticated graphical form.
Guide+.Net is designed to help your organization quickly and cost-effectively meet
your information-based application needs. Guide+.Net is ideally suited for delivering
high-powered Enterprise Information Portal solutions as well as Business Performance Management (BPM), Business Intelligence (BI) and advanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, and much more.
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How is Guide+.Net different from other information tools?
Guide+.Net information delivery goes far beyond web pages, OLAP screens, ERP reports, spreadsheets and all of the other common information tools. On a single screen, you can have windows into all of the different facets of your operation to get the whole picture at a glance, with just the touch of a button.
Guide+.Net is designed for high-powered, sophisticated Enterprise Information Portals that collect and synthesize raw data into meaningful information and display it in screens custom-tailored to meet the needs of each individual or designated group of users. It is also ideal for creating applications that require on - demand transformation of raw data into business-relevant information at the summary level, such as enterprise-wide views of customer information for customer relationship management and customer service or support operations. At the same time, Guide+.Net provides multi-level drill down options that let you dig as deeply into the details as you need to, when you want to.
Guide+.Net is also an excellent tool for applications that need to manage the information flow that supports business processes. It can capture and retain historical information for trend comparison, automatically flag irregularities, and drill down to quickly identify the source of anomalies. This makes it a perfect fit for applications like cost-of-sales management, budget tracking, inventory control, performance measurement and highly cost-effective targeted marketing.
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Who can use Guide+.Net?
If you can turn on your PC, you can use Guide+.Net. The information delivery screens are so simple and intuitive that just about anyone - even the seriously computer illiterate - can use Guide+.Net with little or no training. Guide+.Net features intuitive point-and-click navigation and drill-down to information using the visual displays you are most comfortable with: spreadsheet-style layouts, columnar reports, tables, organizational charts, maps, scenes and other familiar objects.
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What will Guide+.Net do for me?
Deliver whatever information you need, where you need it, when you need it. Because of its inherent flexibility, Guide+.Net has hundreds, even thousands, of possible uses. In fact, we've barely scratched the surface in identifying all the ways Guide+.Net can help businesses run better, but we can offer a few examples:
Business Performance Management
• Executive dashboards highlighting key performance indicators
• P&L performance for product lines and operating units
• Balanced scorecards for your company and business units
• Cost analysis and control
• On-the-road reporting and presentations
...and many more!
Sales Management
• Sales performance monitoring and ranking by product, territory, season
• Forecasting by product, region, manager, salesperson
• Salesperson performance
• Sales process management - leads, prospects, sales
...and many more!
Customer Relationship Management
• Customer satisfaction and product status
• Contract administration
• Incident tracking
• Call center efficiency and service improvement
...and many more!
Targeted Marketing and Sales
• Customer profiling
• Customer purchasing patterns
• Pattern - based segmentation for new product receptivity
• Customer profitability measurement
• Pinpoint marketing campaigns
...and many more!
Human Resources Applications
• Staff Planning
• Employee orientation
• Employee training
• Employee services and benefits
...and many more!
Item Location and Tracking
• Document management
• Administration of libraries and collections
• Equipment tracking and allocation
...and many more!
Business Process Management
• Delivery processes - Commitments, production, inventory, delivery
• Recruiting processes - Applicants, documents, offers, acceptances
...and many more!
Specialized Reporting
• Government reports
• Industry reports
...and many more!
Information Applications
• Visual tours
• Customer kiosks
• Help desks
...and many more!
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What kind of businesses can use Guide+.Net?
If you need timely information to run your business, make better, faster decisions and take better care of your customers than your competitor will, your business can benefit from Guide+.Net. Companies in any industry, educational institutions and governments at all levels can get the information they need with Guide+.Net.
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What size company uses Guide+.Net?
Any size company that wants its employees - from the CEO to a department manager or even the receptionist - to have fast, easy access to better information. Guide+.Net delivers value to virtually any size company or organization, from a company just starting out, to a small department within a large company, to a huge multi-national conglomerate.
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How much time and effort is required to implement Guide+.Net?
Most Guide+.Net applications take a week or two to create at most. Prototypes can often be ready for trial use within days. This is a fraction of the time required by even the most advanced development tools.
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What makes Guide+.Net stand out?
Guide+.Net has several major strengths:
Powerful data navigation and presentation capabilities
SmartCharts, TimeTravel, and SmartTables organize information in logical, intuitive displays geared to match the way you view your operation.
Wide range data gathering, including the Internet
Extensive capability to bring together data from many diverse sources: flat files, databases, ERP systems, data marts and warehouses, reports, spreadsheets, remote systems at regional offices, at business partners, etc., and from anywhere
on the Internet.
Elegant yet highly intuitive user interface
Anyone can use it - even without instruction.
Very rapid application development
Quick to learn. No programming required. Create great solutions in days, not
weeks or months.
Unique portability
At the press of a button, take your information with you on the road - no
connection required.
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Can't I do the same thing with Microsoft Access?
There are many products, such as Microsoft Access, that offer some of the same features as Guide+.Net, such as the ability to design your own screens. However, Guide+.Net has significantly more functionality built in - not just to access critical information but to cleanse and synthesize it to bring it more clearly into focus. Some examples are:
Consolidation - A single Guide+.Net screen can create and display multiple tables, giving the results of queries from any number of different files.
Tables - Statement tables provide for well-organized presentations of complex information, such as financial statements where data is posted to specific lines as opposed to being rolled up.
Rich drill-down - You can carry out a wide range of actions - go to other screens, Internet sites or reports, play videos, etc. - when you click a table line or button. As you drill down, the form of information presentation can be completely different at each level.
SmartCharts - SmartCharts present universally understood objects such as your organizational chart. Select and click on a point on the chart, and you are presented with a list of reports, screens, etc. from which to choose that let you see information on that part of your organization. SmartCharts allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the chart so that you can easily maneuver around even very large organizations, product lines, business units, remote offices, etc.
Intelligent navigation - As you move through SmartCharts and information screens, Guide+.Net keeps track of where you have been and automatically selects the appropriate data to present. You never need to know or enter selection criteria to get the exact information you want.
Time Travel - Use a convenient calendar to move backward and forward in time. Your screens will present data that corresponds to the dates you select.
Virtual navigation - Navigate through scenes, maps or any other graphic presentation to have a more realistic and intuitive access to information. For example, visually enter a factory and move to different points along an assembly line, looking at operating information at each point.
Comprehensive data access - Pull information from many different sources including enterprise systems, departmental files and legacy files. Mine data from reports and spreadsheets. Harvest data from the Internet. Guide+ DataExpress will clean, convert and consolidate data from incompatible systems.
No programming required - Guide+.Net does not require you to write software programs or macros.
Some of these capabilities can be partially achieved in other products, but only by writing, debugging, deploying and maintaining extensive systems of programs and macros.
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Can't I do the same thing with Visual Basic?
It is conceptually possible to create your information solutions by programming them in VB or other high level languages. But Guide+.Net, which has been developed over five years, offers a feature - rich library of pre-programmed data collection, manipulation, display screen and application components to make it far faster and easier for you to create compelling information delivery applications. These components are comprised of thousands of lines of production tested and proven code. Programming the same application that can be developed in just days with Guide+.Net would take more than ten times the time and effort. Not to mention the additional time and effort to support, maintain and enhance the application over time. Why re-invent the wheel?
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We have an Intranet using HTML pages. Why do I need Guide+.Net?
While HTML pages have their place, they don't offer the sophistication or the robust user-empowering features of the Guide+.Net screens, SmartCharts, Date Navigation, etc. Additionally, Guide+.Net applications do not require the extensive work by highly trained and often scarce personnel that is needed to create and continually maintain Web page dependent solutions. Guide+.Net will complement your Intranet if you already have one. Guide+.Net gives you direct access to sites on your Intranet and the Internet, as well, that can be blended with or contrasted against your internal information viewed via Guide+.Net.
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I have an OLAP tool that can slice and dice information.
Isn't Guide+.Net much the same?
Typical OLAP programs pre-digest data into file structures called cubes that provide different views of the data in tabular form. The content of most OLAP cubes must be pre-determined before the Cube is built; adding, deleting or changing what data is included is typically a non-trivial task. Every user querying the cube is limited to just the data already in the cube. In addition, this type of presentation generally requires a good deal of data manipulation to find answers.
Guide+.Net is much different. It is directed at quickly showing users the current status of the key operating variables that are relevant to their area or level within the organization. Data is collected dynamically so it is always up to date. If there is something in question, they can choose to look at more detailed information. Guide+.Net provides screen presentations that are custom designed for use with the appropriate level of detail for each individual user or group of users, plus providing the levels of detail drill-down and analysis capabilities that are appropriate and useful.
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I have just spent $2 million to install a new ERP system.
What can Guide+.Net do for me?
ERP systems are the workhorses for computing payrolls, paying vendors, maintaining general ledgers, etc. They generate lots of data, but because most ERP systems are monolithic and self-contained, it is usually difficult to extract data and combine it with information from other systems to give executives a crisp and immediate view of their operations. Data warehouses help by gathering and consolidating information, but often information remains "locked in the warehouse". Guide+.Net delivers the essential information navigation and presentation layer that delivers the data in a useful way to its intended audience.
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What operating environments does Guide+.Net work in?
Guide+.Net operates with Windows NT/98/2000/XP, Unix® and Novell.
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What kind of files can Guide+.Net access?
Guide+.Net accesses ODBC and OLE DB data sources. This includes SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, Sybase, MS Access, FoxPro and dBase relational databases, text files and Excel spreadsheets. Using Guide+ DataExpress, data can be extracted from legacy flat files and mined from reports. Relational data repositories can be created for convenient online access. Guide+.Net will also access data in OLAP cubes using OLE DB for OLAP. Guide+.Net can gather data over your internal network, intranet or from the Internet.
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How does Guide+.Net connect to files?
With Guide+.Net, you connect to a file by simply giving it a name and specifying its type and connection parameters. In many cases, the parameters are provided for you. The entire process usually takes only a minute or two.
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Can Guide+.Net access more than one file type at a time?
Guide+.Net can access many different files at the same time and bring that data together on a single screen. It can pull related information from different databases even though no links have been specified in the database. This means you can conveniently pull together data from otherwise disconnected sources such as a text file and Oracle database table.
In addition, Guide+.Net goes far beyond the typical simple linkage of associating, for example, "Customer No." in file A with "Customer Num." in file B. Guide+.Net enables you to specify the selection on one file based on the content in another file using a full range of logical conditions involving a number of different fields. This includes extensive time period selection options.
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Does Guide+.Net run on the Internet?
Yes. Guide+.Net can be run in a browser for use on an Intranet or over the Internet. It is also excellent for creating Extranets.
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