StrikeIron Announces Beta Release of OnDemand Web Services for Excel
Four additional financial Web services broadens access to the most up–to–date financial information
Research Triangle Park, N.C. — November 16, 2004 — StrikeIron Inc., developer of the innovative StrikeIron Web Services Business Network (WSBizNet) to simplify working with Web services, announced the beta release of StrikeIron OnDemand Web services for Microsoft Excel. This product connects Excel users to the on–demand world of Web services and begins the process of bridging software to the model of software–as–service. In a separate release today, StrikeIron also announced the addition of five financial management Web services to the WSBizNet.
“OnDemand Web Services for Excel is the first simple, easy to use, drag and drop add–in solution for integrating Web services directly into Excel spreadsheets,” said Richard Holcomb, CEO of StrikeIron. “Users can now take advantage of building real–time, on–demand access to data utilizing Web services without any programming knowledge.”
By working with a familiar spreadsheet environment, OnDemand Web Services for Excel uses Web services to let you connect to real–time data and processes; a process that previously would have been extremely costly and require time consuming importing, exporting and formatting with each update.
Technical issues such as finding, understanding, accessing and integrating Web Services into Excel are eliminated by OnDemand Web Services for Excel. The product takes advantage of the StrikeIron Web Services Business Network and StrikeIron’s powerful underlying “dynamic invocation” technology that requires no compiling, no programming and no additional software.
Features
- Simply drag and drop Web services operations directly into cells in your spreadsheet.
- Automatically drop operation labels into the spreadsheet or customize your own labels.
- Flexibility to perform any Excel calculation or function on the output of the Web services.
- Secure Invisible Link option that erases the data for security to prevent viewing by unauthorized users.
- Simple “word” search available with access to almost 1000 Web services through the StrikeIron Web Services Business Network to find the best Web service for your needs.
- Direct access to WSDL locations in UDDI registries for internal development.
- Integrated access to the StrikeIron Web Services Business Network for enhanced graphic Search services, Web Services Knowledge Base, Web Services Analyzer and the Premium Web Services.
Benefits
- Improve business decisions as a result of real–time access to critical data.
- Improve productivity and lower costs by eliminating unnecessary steps in data management and distribution.
- Save IT time and cost of supporting specialized data access applications.
- Reduce Excel application development time and expense.
- Increase flexibility for future changes with the utilization of Web services.
- Improve security of data through the Invisible Link option.
- Assure reliability and security of the StrikeIron Premium Web Services.
- Greater productivity with on–demand integrated access to the break–through graphical tools and Web Services directory of the StrikeIron Web Services Business Network.
Pricing
The beta is available for free. Downloads and beta instructions are available at http://www.strikeiron.com/tools/tools_ondemand.aspx.
About StrikeIron
StrikeIron is the leader in providing innovative solutions for delivering data
over the emerging Internet. The company’s innovative Web Services Marketplace
provides a technology platform, micro-transaction management and a consistent
interface across many XML-based Web services from multiple, diverse sources.
This allows business users, application developers and enterprise IT
professionals to customize and integrate external data sources and additional
external functionality into enterprise, Web, and composite applications.
Currently, StrikeIron provides over 100 live data sources and business
functions from organizations such as Cortera, D&B, Gale, MapQuest, Midnight Trader,
Tax Data Systems, The Sports Network, and Zacks.
StrikeIron also offers IronCloud™, the only comprehensive Web services delivery
platform that opens up new channels for data distribution and consumption
through Web Services. Enterprises of all sizes can now reduce the cost and
complexity of managing the challenges of data distribution which include
leveraging an existing external hardware and software architecture, controlling
and metering access and usage, external monitoring for 24x7 reliability, full
usage analytics, as well as multiple authentication scenarios and instead
concentrate their focus on making information easier for partners, customers,
and distributed business units to access and use. StrikeIron delivers value to
over 1,500 customers and partners such as Avaya, BEA, Delivery.com, IBM, Honda
Europe, D&B, Siemens, Nike, Swarovski, ShoeBuy, and Exclusive Resorts. For
more information, visit www.strikeiron.com.
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