Transpara Corporation, a mobile business intelligence (BI) leader, today released Visual KPI version 4.0, the most significant update since the product’s introduction in 2005. A web-based software application, Visual KPI provides decision makers with real-time access to critical operations data on any web-enabled device – including iPhone / iPad, Blackberry, Android, Windows Phone, PC, Mac and more. Visual KPI 4.0 breaks away from the limitations of traditional dashboards and scorecards to now provide users with unprecedented flexibility to navigate, monitor and interact with fast moving data.

Visual KPI 4.0 has simplified how users implement and design front-end BI solutions, eliminating the expense and time previously needed for dashboard and scorecard projects. Visual KPI 4.0 is the only browser-based mobile BI solution that allows users to monitor metrics from almost any data source and on any mobile device, without coding or changing mobile security requirements. With its innovative Microsoft Excel™ -based design environment, Visual KPI can be deployed in less than a day and allows users to rapidly create KPIs, scorecards, trends and alerts in a single web-based experience to enable faster decision making from any location.

“We went from a static dashboard to a mobile, dynamic dashboard in a matter of minutes,” said Kenneth Young, Director of Asset Management for NaturEner, a renewable energy company with six operational solar and wind plants in U.S., Canada and Spain. “With our unique business model, we’re currently adapting to changes in the regulatory environment and marketplace and Visual KPI gives us the flexibility to have exactly the information we need on our mobile devices, like notifications and alarms for regulatory scores or offline turbines. Installing Visual KPI gave us easily accessible, actionable data available anytime anywhere.”

Visual KPI 4.0 delivers added power and flexibility in how users organize and model business metrics without sacrificing simplicity. New features include:

• New look – a whole new user experience improved for touch-screen devices and tablets. Clearly defined tabs and graphical representation of information offer enhanced navigation, while allowing customers to accommodate new data types.
• Attribute-driven groups with unlimited levels – Views and scorecards have been collapsed into unlimited “groups” for easy organization of KPIs, alerts and values. Visual KPI 4.0 shows a customer’s entire asset hierarchy (e.g. geographic region, business unit, equipment type) at a glance, no matter how sophisticated.
• Values – pre-defined and ad-hoc monitoring of values (metrics that lack the target behavior and defined limits of a KPI), along with mobile KPIs and trends. This creates simplified operations monitoring for any executive or operational user.
• Links – enhanced context and guidance with links to any URL-addressable system. Links can point to applications (e.g. MES, ERP, CRM) where the users will take action, instructional documents or external data sources for comparisons, all of which make Visual KPI almost infinitely extensible.
• More data sources – Visual KPI connects to almost any data source without creating a new master source to manage. This includes data historians (e.g. OSIsoft PI, Invensys Wonderware), databases, other BI or data warehouse solutions, manufacturing or line-of-business applications (e.g. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics) and web services.
• Subscription pricing and new versions: Visual KPI 4.0 is now available in Starter, Pro and Enterprise versions. It runs on the customer’s server (on-premise or hosted; physical or virtual machine), and subscription pricing starts at $19 per user per month.

“Our goal was to further blur the line between the flexibility and security of a web-based application that can support almost any device and the perceived speed and user experience of dedicated mobile apps,” said Michael Saucier, CEO of Transpara. “Enterprise customers have become very vocal against the lack of manageability, compatibility and control of the consumer mobile app store model and Visual KPI 4.0 seems to have answered their call. The response has been outstanding and we can’t wait to get it in everyone’s hands… literally.”