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XTRACTION: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS OVERVIEW 1) What is Xtraction? a) Xtraction is an interactive status reporting and dashboard solution that allows the right information to be presented to the right staff. A non-technical end-user can quickly create and design an interactive dashboard via drag-and-drop, and save this to allow the broader user community to immediately access. 2) What are the benefits of Xtraction? i) Xtraction offers an easy to use and intuitive interface which requires minimal education. ii) Drag-and-drop approach to dashboard design to minimize time and effort to build dashboards and distribute to other users. iii) Interactive dashboards for drill-down to allow users to be more aware of data and access the level of information they need. iv) Light footprint and quicker install time to allow quicker ROI and leverage of investment. v) Out-of-box connectors that have tables and fields already mapped of the data sources you wish to connect to and report against. 3) Who would benefit from Xtraction dashboards? a) Xtraction provides insight to the data trapped within application databases and presents it as useful, business oriented information. As these benefits span across many areas within the organization, the value is also broad and spans across many levels of the organization - help desk, change management, asset management, auditors, operations, and senior management. 4) Who can access Xtraction? a) Xtraction is accessed via the browser which allows easy access to every user. 5) How do I create a dashboard with Xtraction? a) Creating a dashboard is done by selecting desired components and format and dragging them into the dashboard. These components can be charts or grids and can display in grouping or date oriented time spans. Anyone who can use a mouse can create a dashboard with Xtraction. There is no coding required to create a dashboard with Xtraction and it only takes minutes. 6) Can I save a dashboard and allow other users to access it? a) Yes, Designers can save dashboards into private or shared folders. These folders can also be secured or access restricted to authorized users. 7) Does Xtraction allow me to interact and drill-down through the dashboard? a) Yes, you can interact with dashboard components, see values and record lists. You can also apply filters to fine tune your search and drill-down to the underlying data. 8) What systems does Xtraction connect to? a) A full list of out-of-box connectors is available at www.hagridsolutions.com/xtraction 9) Can I connect multiple systems to Xtraction? a) Yes, you can connect multiple systems to Xtraction and control who can access the data within them via security Data Policies defined within Xtraction. 10) What is displayed in the Xtraction interface as far as data from these applications? a) Xtraction connectors are mappings of fields and tables within the data source that display the fields applicable to the application interface within Xtraction. Unlike other tools that only display the database
object label, Xtraction displays the field label as you see it in the application interface, or a modified label you prefer. This makes for easier understanding of exactly what fields are needed to build the dashboard. 11) Can I access underlying applications in context of the records after I have drilled down in Xtraction? a) Yes, where the underlying application allows, you can invoke that application in context of that record from Xtraction.
END-USER 12) Does Xtraction display real-time information? a) Yes, each time you access a dashboard Xtraction will source the required data from the data source, so the displayed data is always up to date. 13) Is there an ability to automatically refresh the dashboard? a) Yes, there is an auto refresh that can be set to update the dashboard from one to ten minute intervals. There is also a manual refresh button and you can also setup multiple dashboards to cycle through display and refresh. 14) Can I display data from multiple systems in the same dashboard a) Yes, data from multiple data sources can be displayed within the same dashboard, or even on the same chart. 15) Can data be displayed based on Date and Time? a) Yes, the Date/Time selection list allows you to choose the time frame involved for the data desired. Times range from Last 10 minutes through Days, Weeks, Months, and also Last Year, This Year. This allows for quick access to filter your dashboard to desired Time ranges. You can build a dashboard with dynamic dates, such as; Last Week, This Week, Next Month, which allows that dashboard to always display data in context of the range you are interested in, without having to readjust it each time that period runs into the next. This is also the option to select a hard coded date range. 16) Can I display comparative data from different time lines? a) Yes, time periods are provided (This Month, This Month Last Year…) to allow information to be displayed on the same chart with different time lines. 17) Can I export the dashboard components? a) Yes, a variety of formats are available to export dashboards or select components and record lists. You can even save a screen shot of a complete dashboard. 18) Can I schedule reports with Xtraction? a) Yes, scheduling of reports can be performed. 19) Can I export information from the dashboards? a) Yes, depending upon the component involved, you can export the information into HTML, XLS, PDF, PNG, RTF, MS PowerPoint, MS Word. You can also export a total dashboard or selective components to a screenshot. 20) Can I export dashboards to reports? a) Yes, the Document Designer function allows multiple dashboard components to be exported to a predefined MS Word template. The template can be pre-built with title, logos, corporate branding, table of contents etc… and loaded into Xtraction to have the dashboard components populate it when the export is generated. Documents can also be scheduled. 21) Can I build reports and export them? a) Yes, the Document Designer function allows multiple components to be placed into Document and exported to various formats.
22) Can I schedule reports? a) Yes, Document Designer allows preconfigured reports to be scheduled at desired times to ensure data is captured when needed.
ADMINISTRATION 23) Are there different levels of access within Xtraction? Can I restrict who can create and who can view dashboards? a) There are five levels of user within Xtraction; Administrator, Enterprise Designer, Designer, Private Designer, Viewer. Designers can build and View dashboards, Viewers can only view and interact with existing dashboards. The allocation of this access is completely at the discretion of the client and does not affect pricing and licensing. 24) Can I customize the Xtraction interface? a) Customization of colors and column display fields settings can be addressed at two levels i) Group level – by an Administrator. ii) Personal level – by end-user. These settings override the group level settings. 25) Does Xtraction cater for users in different time zones? a) Yes, the Administrator will define a group wide time zone, and users can also manage their own time zone individually. Data is presented to users in context of their time zone. 26) Is there an audit trail for updates made to folders and dashboards by Administrator level users? a) Yes, every insert/update/delete on the dashboard database is logged. The details are not stored in a user readable format though (Not stored like "User, user1, added X to dashboard y" or anything like that). 27) Where are users authenticated? a) Users can be authenticated against the Xtraction user table within the database or against an Active Directory installation within your environment.
SECURITY 28) Can I restrict what dashboards Viewers can see? a) Yes, dashboards are saved into secure folders that are only accessible by users, or groups of users, with associated access. 29) Can I restrict the data users can see within dashboards? a) Yes, Data Policies allow control of what fields and tables the Viewers can see within the dashboards. These are defined by the Xtraction Administrator. 30) Can I restrict what data sources Designers can build dashboards from? a) Yes, Data Policies control the data that Viewers and Designers can access. If the user does not have access to a Data Source, in whole or part, that data is not presented to the user. 31) Once Xtraction is installed, what needs to be done to allow dashboards to be built? a) Once installation is complete, Xtraction spends a few minutes to run the discovery and population process of the data source and establishes the most commonly used fields for use in top 5, top 10, filters etc… Once this is done, dashboards can be defined immediately via drag-and-drop. This process usually only takes a total 10mins. 32) Can I define custom filters easily? a) Yes, this is done via drop-down and selection lists of the available fields. You can also type in text to filter against. Filters can be kept private or shared to other users.
LICENSING AND REQUIREMENTS 33) How is Xtraction licensed? a) Xtraction is offered with concurrent user licensing. Allocation of Designer access is at the discretion of you, the end-user, and does not affect pricing or licensing. 34) Are there any client requirements? a) Xtraction is fully accessible from a web browser and there is no client install requirement. The only dependency on the user terminal is that Flash Player (9 or greater) be present. 35) What web browser does Xtraction support? a) Xtraction can be accessed via major browsers. 36) What are the minimum install requirements for Xtraction?
SERVER HARDWARE
CPU - 1GHz (2GHz recommended) RAM - 1GB (2GB recommended) HDD - 100MB free space
SERVER SOFTWARE
Windows Server (2003 or greater) IIS V6 (with ASP.NET 2.0) Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Oracle Client (8.1.7 or greater) if Xtraction is reporting against an Oracle database Microsoft SQL Server (2000 or greater)
CLIENT SOFTWARE Xtraction is accessed via the web browser and there is no client software required for install. Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or greater) is required to be present on the user machine. *To ensure optimum architecture design, consideration needs to be taken into account regarding usage, data volumes, concurrent users, dedicated hardware etc…. That being said, the above is calculated based on typical install environments. 37) What platform does Xtraction run on? a) Xtraction runs on the MS Windows platform, is built on .NET technology and supports the Windows IIS web server environment. 38) Does Xtraction run on VMware? a) Yes, as Xtraction has minimal demand upon requirements, VMware is a very suitable environment to install Xtraction on. 39) Can I trial Xtraction against my data? a) Yes, a free, fully-functional, 30-day trial is offered and takes less than an hour to setup. Contact
[email protected] to request a trial.
DATABASE
40) How does Xtraction connect to service desk and other application databases? a) Xtraction uses a connection string and read-only userID to connecto to the application database. This information is configured during Xtraction install. 41) Does each database connection have it’s own user-id and password? a) Xtraction uses a separate connection string for each database connection and a user is specified during that database connection configuration. A separate user account can be used for each database, although you can use a single user account for all database connections if desired and that user account is defined on each database. 42) Does Xtraction cater for custom fields in the database – fields that have been added for unique business requirements? a) Yes, Xtraction can cater for custom fields. These can be mapped into Xtraction and presented as fields in the interface like all other fields, to build dashboard from or filter against. 43) What databases can Xtraction connect to? a) Oracle and SQL server are supported databases. 44) Does Xtraction place any overhead on the application database? a) The processing and data collection of Xtraction has been highly optimized to ensure overhead is kept to an absolute minimum. Xtraction has sub-second response and performance and can source large volumes of information without any detected overhead on the database.
MORE INFORMATION www.hagridsolutions.com/xtraction
Contact –
[email protected]
