Captell is a multi-user cross platform cross data source reporting solution designed
specifically for IT management reporting. Captell incorporates:
- Tables which hold your "raw" IT management data;
- Queries which summarise and subset the data;
- Parameters which control the output from queries;
- Charts to present the data in graphical form;
- Traffic lights; a simple coloured shape that changes colour based on data from the
database;
- A Word Processor to combine all the report elements into a cohesive report document;
- Data ageing which allows older unnecessary data to be summarised (rolled up) into
summary tables or culled/archived;
- Web publication to allow non-IT management staff visibility of the reports; and
- Automation facilities which are used to schedule database updates.
Captell Report Objects and Captell Reports:
Captell report objects are the atomic components that make up Captell reports. Report
objects include individual Tables; Queries; Procedures; Parameters; Charts; Traffic
lights; and Documents.
Captell Reports are the complete documents which can include other Report Objects
including other documents. Of course individual Captell Report Objects can
be published standalone in which case they are Reports too.
Captell Tables are the starting point for your Captell report. The first step in
creating a new report is to establish a source of data for the report. The
Captell Table holds both the definition of the data and the actual data. Captell
can read data from the following sources:
- Text, delimited or fixed column;
- ODBC;
- JET (MS Access;
- SQL Server;
- Spread sheet;
- From queries in the Captell database; and
- Oracle;
Table options can be set to allow:
- Culling and archiving; To control the volume of data stored in your Captell database.
Scheduled updates; To facilitate unattended loading of new data to your database.
- Data ageing; To automatically "roll" up your data creating various summary tables
as necessary.
- Automatic table partitioning; To facilitate efficient storage and retrieval of your
vast stores of capacity and performance data.
- Automatic addition of new columns from the source; simplifies changes to source
data structures (additional column or the removal of columns and their impact on
the Captell database.
- The creation of indexes on the tables; To improve overall performance of the Captell
reporting system.
Captell Queries are used to summarise and subset data contained in tables and indeed
other queries, queries can be stored as a view which makes them dynamic (i.e. they
are executed every time the data is referenced); as data which makes then static,
similar to a table, store-as-data queries can be manually refreshed or updated,
as procedures which allows for greater control over query execution and delivers
a rich programming language to the Captell system or as Macros which can be reused
in other queries.
Queries can be used to join data from different sources such as technical
response or utilisation data from your monitors with your business volume count
or transaction data. Change management data may be joined with Problem or Incident
management data to determine the relationship between changes and incidents.
A "picture speaks a thousand words" or so the saying goes; the Captell charting
engine provides a comprehensive list of chart types and features to satisfy all
IT service management charting requirements including: Line; Bar; H-bar; Pie;
Gantt; Waterfall; Donut; Point; Bezier; Area; Surface; Volume; Hi-Lo; Error Bar;
Bubble; 2 or 3D.
Captell charts:
- may be exported to JPEG, GIF, WMF, BMP;
- allow functions to be applied by the charting engine including Trend; Curves, and
moving averages;
- can include multiple axis, used to show data of different scales;
- provide Dynamic Series and Dynamic Charts capabilities;
- allow each series on a chart can have its own data source;
- provide the ability to control the colour of series through data values in the database
or through “colour mapping”.
Traffic Lights
Top...
Traffic Lights are a simple graphical representation of data; a coloured shape (circle,
square, triangle etc.) that can change colour based on a data value from the database.
Traffic lights are:
- Typically used to show key performance metric;
- can be grouped together on same web page; and
- are great for an executive summary.
Captell incorporates it's own word processor engine that brings all other Report
Objects (Charts, Queries, Traffic lights and other Documents etc.) together into
cohesive (cross platform - if required) reports.
Captell documents:
- can include other report objects such as Tables, Queries, Charts, Traffic lights
and documents by a simple drag and drop operation;
- allow text changes to be automated based on data in the database, effectively re-writing
the text of the document when the data changes;
- provide export to MS Word, PDF or RTF format;
- allow documents to be built then saved as archives;
- can include other captell documents allowing complex documents to be built from
document building blocks. This also allows for document resuse.
- Can be published to the web as PDF or MS Word documents or via the Captell dashboard
facility.
Parameters are the Captell mechanism for controlling report output, they are used
primarily in queries and documents to filter the results to a specific set of data.
Captell parameters:
- provide filtering on query results;
- basic text substitution;
- can be embed in documents;
Embedded parameters are presented to user before a document is displayed allowing
content of the document to be changed dynamically.
Report Publication
Top...
Captell reports can be published as:
- Paper based
- WORD / PDF
- WEB
Captell Service
Top...
Scheduled table updates and document builds are managed by the Captell Service.
This is a windows service that can run on the same platform as the Captell database.
The Captell Service:
- is a background Windows Service;
- handles unattended update of Captell tables through a defined schedule;
- handles server based long running processes; and
- is controlled from within Captell or through Windows Service Control interface;
To allow non-Update users visibility of the various reports Captell provides the
Captell Web interface. The Captell Web interface:
- is a simple interface to present report objects over the web;
- is controlled via windows security;
- only allows users to see report objects they have been given access to;
- causes report objects to be built on the fly when requested;
- presents documents as PDF or MS Word documents; and
- controls report output via Captell parameters, allowing the user to re-drive the
object with different parameters.
Captell comes complete with a comprehensive security facility that controls access
to the Captell programs and the report objects contained within the Captell database.
Captell Security can be controlled within Captell or with Windows User Groups and
Roles.
Controls:
- access to the programs;
- access to update report objects; and
- access to browse objects.
Each report object has a:
- Browse Access List (BAL) which control browse access; and an
- Update Access List (UAL) which controls Update access.
Both BAL and UAL are derived from database wide default lists maintained by ADMIN
users.