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Windward Arrow for SharePoint

Overview

Windward Arrow extends SharePoint to deliver a complete enterprise reporting, document management, dashboard and business intelligence system. Arrow 3.0 for SharePoint lets a community of users easily and securely design, run and share reports.

Target Users

SharePoint users looking for a powerful reporting, document generation or B.I. system need capabilities that SharePoint alone doesn't provide.  Arrow 3.0 turns SharePoint into a unified, comprehensive and easy-to-use system.
Use cases include:

• Full-featured enterprise reporting with workflow and scheduling
• Robust enterprise document generation, content management and document production
• Powerful dashboards that non-programmers can create effortlessly
• Simple-to-use business intelligence centered on the Microsoft Office user interface

In all of the above cases, users design reports, documents or dashboards in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

What Arrow 3.0 Provides:

An Enterprise Reporting System

An enterprise reporting system encompasses the processes of designing, generating and distributing reports. Reports are simply ways to present data and include items such as invoices, inventory tallies, financial statements, insurance policies, customer account summaries, product usage reports, and even certificates and letters. Arrow 3.0 is an extension of the Microsoft SharePoint System that transforms SharePoint into a comprehensive enterprise-level system for reporting, and it helps solve a need for automation that is missing in SharePoint. 
Arrow 3.0 Reporting Functionality

• Automation
• Collaboration
• Scheduling
• Version control
• Indexing
• Workflows

Arrow 3.0 Reporting Uses

• Automatically save multiple versions of templates and auto-generated reports
• Index all reports, allowing for fast searching for key phrases in documents and templates
• Apply workflows to reports and templates, which enables the ability to set up complex business rules for the lifecycle of documents and templates
• Access, update and view  all reports and templates by multiple people
• Schedule reports to be generated at specific times and tasks to be emailed at specific times
• Ensure general automation of business processes

An Enterprise Document Generation System

Document generation is an automated way of producing (i.e. generating and distributing) a document. The user creates a template; when the document is generated, specific information populates the template. Examples of documents generated include letters, forms, and contracts. Arrow 3.0 merges a template created in Microsoft Office document with data from your database or other data source and generates documents in a wide variety of formats.
Arrow 3.0 Document Generation Functionality

• Automation
• Collaboration
• Scheduling
• Version control
• Indexing
• Workflows

Arrow 3.0 Document Generation Uses

• Make documents easier to find, distribute, create, and enforce business rules upon
• Generate documents in a wide range of formats, including DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, PDF, XML, HTML and even printed hard copies.
• Automatically save multiple versions of documents
• Apply workflows to documents, enabling the ability to set up complex business rules for the lifecycle of documents and templates
• Access, update and view  all documents by multiple people
• Schedule reports to be generated at specific times and tasks to be emailed at specific times

Enterprise Dashboards

A dashboard presents information in an up-to-date visual summary, allowing you to make critical business decisions. Arrow 3.0 lets you design and preview dashboards and then display them in SharePoint.
Dashboard Functionality

• Automation
• Configuration
• Step-by-step wizards
• Sophisticated formatting

Dashboard Uses

• Design and preview dashboards in Office with AutoTag, Arrow's template-design tool
• Create dashboards without programming expertise or knowledge of software development or database administration
• Display dashboards exactly where you want in SharePoint
• Set dashboards to automatically refresh for up-to-the-moment information

Enterprise Business Intelligence

Business intelligence, commonly referred to as BI, is the information that helps a business gain insight into its operations. It includes functions such as reporting, analytics and data mining, and its goal is to support better decision making.  Arrow allows companies to harvest in-depth data and generate BI reports for internal and external use.
BI Functionality

• Drill-down capability
• Detailed Reports
• SQL, XML and .XLSX data sources
• No OLAP or pre-processing of data
• Data security

BI Uses

• Connect multiple, dissimilar data sources and quickly and simply and define the relationships between data sets, no matter how convoluted they are
• Drill in on specific data via a familiar and user-friendly interface
• Select data in a narrative style, which is natural to an individual's approach in focusing on desired data
• Present meta data as you wish it displayed and described
• Display selected data in a spreadsheet with critical numbers represented by a gauge in a summation cell for each row
• Generate reports on your schedule that can be delivered to multiple individuals in a variety of ways, including via email, a URL, or direct to a printer

Arrow 3.0 Features

Here's what you get in Arrow 3.0.

The AutoTag Report Design Tool

One of the biggest expenses in the report creation process directly correlates to the design tool's ease-of-use. Arrow's AutoTag component allows users to design templates in Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Because Microsoft Office is a suite of programs most professionals already know how to use, there's little learning curve. Windward customers report that creating and revising reports is at least 10 times faster than other reporting systems.

Data Layout

AutoTag makes data layout and source mapping trivial. Users don't need to learn complicated code, because wizards and drag-and-drop functionality connect templates to their data sources. Windward handles a variety of data sources, including SQL databases, XML files, and Excel spreadsheets.

Report Generation and Scheduling Capabilities

Users can run reports with the click of a button from within SharePoint, and they can generate documents in a wide array of outputs. Plus, a flexible report scheduler allows users to run reports whenever they are needed.

Report Design	Data Layout	Report Generation
Report design in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint – the logical place to design in SharePoint Version control, permissions, and folder capabilities Full-featured charts, graphs, and other visuals	Easy access to data for non-programmers Capable of handling data from a wide range of sources, including Excel spreadsheets, XML files and SQL databases Preserves security features of existing database provisions	Reports run at the click of a button from within SharePoint A powerful and flexible automated report scheduler A  wide array of available outputs, including DOCX, PDF, RTF, HTML, XLSX and PPTX

Related Products

Windward Reports' AutoTag Max

AutoTag Max is a stand-alone desktop reporting system separate from Arrow. An enhanced version of AutoTag, AutoTag Max does everything AutoTag does. It also lets users:

• Schedule reports to be run automatically and on your timetable
• Email up-to-date reports to customers, clients and colleagues
• Save unlimited iterations of a report, automatically

The Windward Reporting Engine

The Windward Reporting Engine connects a template to its data sources. It is similar in functionality and capabilities to Crystal Reports and SSRS but has additional functionality. It generally runs as part of a server-based application and can produce hundreds of thousands of reports per day on a single server.

• Java reporting engine
• .NET reporting engine

Arrow 3.0 System Requirements

System requirements include:

• SharePoint
• IIS

About Windward

Windward Reports was created by Windward Studios and both companies were named for founder David Thielen’s childhood home on the windward side of Oahu, Hawaii. It is headquartered in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. In 1994, Windward Studios was an innovative game development studio. Its first product was the popular and highly-rated real-time strategy game Enemy Nations, which is now offered for free. The Windward Reports' suite of reporting software programs was released in 2002.

Windward Reports' user group now spans 65 countries and all continents except Antarctica. It has more than 500 customers whose applications include financial statements, inventory reports, product-usage reports, purchase orders, invoices, training certificates, timesheets, and licenses.

You can learn more about Windward at our Reporting Blogs.

External Links

• Business Week - Make Some Noise
• Java Reports - Report Writing Simplified
• eWeek - Windward Aces Reports
• DevSource - Windward Reports Simplifies Your App's Reporting
• BCBR - Windward #3 In Fastest Growing Small Companies
• YouTube - Cubicle War video
• Windward Reports
• Arrow Documentation
• Arrow Ideas & Suggestions
• Windward Support Forums

I hate Camtasia

I try not to over-react but I have come to detest Camtasia. Every time anyone at my company creates a video and puts it up on the web, it does not run in Internet Explorer. And then 2 people have to spend several hours figuring out how to make it work.

Every single time.

The original version we bought years ago (which you can no longer get) worked great. But since then - nothing but problems. Including some versions where the video would take 45 seconds to start playing. Do you wait 45 seconds for a video? 

Anyone know of a product that works? Because we can't afford to use a product that requires this level of effort to produce each video.

Verizon & Blackberry == awful squared

My wife decided to get a new Blackberry phone. We have Exchange at home (what can I say, I'm a nerd) and so she told them on purchasing that it must connect to Exchange's ActiveSync so it synchronizes her email, contacts, and calender. And at the Verizon store they said - yes, no problem.

1. So I go to options to set email and... no option for Exchange. I call Verizon and get passed to two different people where I'm told to use IMAP. When I explain that no, we want ActiveSync we get passed over to BlackBerry where after a longer wait I am told that you don't set up ActiveSync connections in email btu instead in advanced options. Ok, so 25 minutes and 4 people to find that out.
2. So I try that and this is where I start to learn that BlackBerry essentially has no error messages. It tries to connect and if it fails, after 25 minutes, pops up a message saying there was a problem and see your system administrator. I am my system administrator - what earthly use is a message like that?
3. So call Verizon again where we are passed through to BlackBerry where they then dive in and discover... that my wife's account did not include enterprise access. So the idiot at the Verizon store (is "idiot" redundant?), told that she wanted enterprise access, did not include it in her plan. And the idiot at BlackBerry (redundant again?) the first time did not notice that she did not have enterprise access on her account.
4. So we get all that set and now we're going to... Get the same stupid error again. Ok, this time I get forwarded to BlackBerry tier 2 support (which means an additional 38 minute wait) because tier 1 support has no idea what to do. And tier 2 support, after 10 minutes of asking me a bunch of questions and checking some stuff then tells me that... We have to install BlackBerry software on our server.

Yep, that's right, BlackBerry requires software on our mail server. Which I then have to learn how to configure & administer. And assuming that it is as poorly written as their setup code on the BlackBerry, that could end up being a full-time job.

So I figured that instead we will go with a company that understands how to write usable software. I connected my iPhone and my daughter's iPod to Exchange in under 2 minutes each. My wife will return the BlackBerry to Verizon on Monday and switch to an iPhone & AT&T.

And to the CEO at Verizon who has that nice message at the start of the customer service call - no I did not get what I needed. Not once in any of the 4 calls. If you want to get enterprise level customers, get an enterprise quality product. And that is not BlackBerry.

Got an opinion on charting UIs?

If so, please go to my post asking for suggestions on how to improve the charting UI in AutoTag.

thanks - dave

XmlZipResolver - an XmlUrlResolver for files in a zip file

moved to Useful XML .net utilities

Opening an XML file that requires a username & password

moved to Useful XML .net utilities

Get all types a COM object implements

Now at Get all types a COM object implements.

Great Windows programming resource

The Microsoft support team in China has started a really good code snippet site at http://www.codeplex.com/helloworld Just 3 examples so far but if they run with it this may become step 1 for finding out how to do something in Windows.

Named Pipes in .NET

Moved to: Named Pipes in .NET