Palo Alto, CA and Copenhagen, Denmark - Apr 22, 2008 – Kapow Technologies today introduced Kapow OnDemand, giving companies the ability to create powerful enterprise mashup applications that provide structured "web intelligence" in a matter of minutes. The company's new hosted service is the fastest way to deliver real-time data from the web into Excel® spreadsheets.
Kapow OnDemand is based on the Kapow Mashup Server which is deployed at more than 300 companies across the globe including Audi and Simply Hired. While there are a lot of different tools available today that visually compose mashup elements, Kapow OnDemand is the only enterprise-class solution on the market that provides access to the underlying data sources and services to be mashed up. In addition to Excel spreadsheets, companies can also import web data into existing applications and IT infrastructure via XML.
"Obtaining access to data, converting unstructured data formats and IT governance are among the top issues hampering enterprise mashup deployments today," said Jason Bloomberg, Managing Partner at advisory firm ZapThink. "Kapow OnDemand removes these barriers. Business analysts now have the ability to create automated robots that collect and integrate Web data directly into Excel, which is one of the most pervasive desktop environments in use today. Meanwhile, IT departments have a solution that gives them more control and choice in their level of involvement with mashup and Web intelligence projects. It's the best of both worlds."
Introducing the Kapow Connector for Excel
In conjunction with today's Kapow OnDemand announcement, the company unveiled Kapow Connector for Excel, which greatly improves the productivity of today's knowledge workers. When used in combination with Kapow OnDemand or the Kapow Mashup Server Web 2.0 Edition, Excel users can find and execute web services that deliver a wealth of data directly to their spreadsheet.
Compared to traditional cut-and-paste methods of web-based data into Excel, the Kapow Connector for Excel automates and extends the value of spreadsheet-based applications. It is now feasible to collect and analyze web intelligence in real-time at the user's desktop — and on an unprecedented scale. Analysts can automate the combination of massive amounts of market data related to competitive pricing, product mix analysis or financial metrics, with the ability to act quickly on the data when it's fresh and most valuable.
"Before Kapow OnDemand, a competitive intelligence mashup of a dozen external data feeds would have taken several days or longer," said Stefan Andreasen, CTO of Kapow Technologies. "Now, our customers can complete this project in as little as 30 minutes, allowing business analysts to spend valuable time on improving their models for making more timely and better business decisions. In addition, IT departments benefit greatly from a rapidly deployed hosted service that gives them flexible deployment and minimized infrastructure management requirements."