Actuate Contributes Report Object Model to Eclipse BIRT Project; Latest Proposal for Eclipse Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools Project Now Available

Business Wire, Jan 11, 2005

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Actuate Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTU), the world leader in Enterprise Reporting Applications, today announced that is has contributed a proposal to specify the BIRT Report Object Model. The specifications, which have been made public on the Eclipse Foundation web site, are the first in a series of design documents that Actuate plans to submit in its capacity as project lead for BIRT, the industry's first Open Source Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools project. BIRT's Report Object Model proposes a schema for describing the elements that make up the design of a report in BIRT 1.0, scheduled for release in the first half of 2005, and subsequent releases.

Today, most vendor applications use a proprietary format for representing the definition of a report, making it very difficult for customers to standardize their report development and maximize productivity. In addition, this means that reports cannot be easily moved between different reporting implementations and that there are few options for choosing new tools without re-architecting existing reporting environments. The BIRT Report Object Model proposes an XML-based schema for report definition. The goal of the Report Object Model is to promote the interoperability of BIRT and commercial reporting offerings by defining a common schema that allows for the easy transfer of report definitions. This is the first specification to be published as part of the BIRT project, making it easier for those designing reports to migrate reports to BIRT.

"The knowledge gained from Actuate's ten years of BI and Enterprise Reporting experience is reflected in the proposal," said Mark Coggins, senior vice president of Engineering for Actuate Corporation and Eclipse Foundation Board Member. "We look forward to feedback from the Eclipse Community, since it is our goal to ensure that the Report Object Model is comprehensive and accounts for the needs of the Eclipse community and beyond."

"The BIRT Report Object Model will pave the way for BIRT to effectively serve the Business Intelligence and Reporting needs of developers, add-in providers and corporations that have adopted Eclipse as their chosen development environment," said Scott Rosenbaum, vice president at Innovent Solutions, a member of the BIRT Project Management Committee. "We hope that the proposed report schema provides the foundation for a standard report definition; one that covers the full range of reports from simple listing style reports through complex, highly formatted reports."

More Information

Those who wish to view the BIRT Report Object Model or wish to provide feedback to the BIRT newsgroup can do so by visiting http://www.eclipse.org/birt/index.html.> About Actuate Corporation

Actuate Corporation is the world leader in Enterprise Reporting Applications that ensure 100% adoption by users. Actuate's Enterprise Reporting Application Platform is the foundation on which Global 9000 organizations (companies with annual revenues greater than $1 billion) and packaged application software vendors develop intuitive, Web portal-like reporting and analytic applications that empower 100% of users with decision-making information. These applications are deployed inside and outside the firewall to improve corporate performance across a range of business functions including financial management, sales, human resource management, and customer self-service. When tested against other business intelligence products, Actuate's Enterprise Reporting Application Platform has been proven to offer industry-leading scalability and the lowest Total Cost of Ownership. Actuate has 2,900 customers globally in a range of industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and distribution services, as well as the government sector.

Founded in 1993, Actuate has headquarters in South San Francisco, Calif., and has offices worldwide. Actuate is listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol ACTU. For more information on Actuate, visit the company's Web site at www.actuate.com.

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