June 2008 Monarch Report eNewsletter [Archive]

Mike Urbonas

June 18th, 2008, 05:03 PM

<TABLE style="FONT: 12px arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff" width=880 align=center border=0> </tr><tr><td colspan="2"><H1 align=center> <img src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Monarch_Report.gif" alt="The Monarch Report"></H1></td><tr> <TD width=540> June 2008 The Monarch Report informs users of our Monarch-powered solutions of the latest product news, tips, user stories, upcoming events and more. This newsletter is sent to our online subscribers and anyone who has purchased or expressed interest in Datawatch products. </TD> <TD style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" rowSpan=14>Read More About our Solutions... <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_overview.php" target=_blank>Monarch</A> is the de facto standard in Report Mining, trusted by over 400,000 users to easily mine data from reports, PDFs and more into live, actionable data without programming and without IT help. <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_data_pump.php" target=_blank>Monarch Data Pump</A> is a server-based enterprise reporting and data ETL solution, creating and delivering customized data across your organization, at a fraction of the cost and time of alternative solutions, with no new database programming. <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_rms.php" target=_blank>Monarch|RMS</A> is a web-based report mining add-on solution to Datawatch|BDS, turning archived reports into a programming-free new source of business intelligence. <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/datawatch_es.php" target=_blank>Datawatch|ES</A> uniquely leverages existing reports as a source of web-enabled enterprise business intelligence, providing enterprise report management, online data analysis, MS Excel integration and more, at a fraction of the complexity and cost of other solutions. <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/datawatch_bds.php" target=_blank>Datawatch|BDS</A> (Business Document Server) is a high speed, high volume document archive system, archiving text, images, intelligent data streams and unstructured content, complete with file compression. Unlike other document archive systems, Datawatch|BDS also offers advanced business benefits, including optional automatic email notification to end users of newly archived documents, as well as optional web-enabled transformation of reports and PDF files, into customized data using Monarch|RMS. <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/datawatch_mailmanager.php" target=_blank>Datawatch|MailManager</A> is a highly scalable e-mail management solution that provides complete lifecycle, compliance, and storage management for Microsoft Exchange environments. Datawatch|MailManager captures internal, outgoing and incoming email correspondence, indexing it and managing its retention based on your corporate policies. In the case of audit or legal discovery, related e-mail can be instantly and accurately retrieved for rapid response.
</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f00"> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD> <H3 style="COLOR: #f00">An Exciting Agenda with Southwest Flair: Another Successful Datawatch User Conference!</H3> Over 120 Datawatch customers convened in Phoenix in May 4-7, 2008, for another highly successful Datawatch User Conference; our second highest attended conference ever. Longtime repeat conference attendees and first-timers alike were delighted by a fresh conference agenda featuring plenty of brand new content and special guests, a friendly and accommodating conference venue, and an exciting evening social event that drew rave reviews! <a href="#article1">Read More...</a> </TD> </TR>
<TR> <TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f00"> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD> <H3 style="COLOR: #f00">Monarch Pro Spins PDFs into Actionable, Programming-Free Accounting Data</H3> Gale Bridgeman, CPA, is Systems Manager for the Office of Cindy Boudloche, a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustee for the Southern District of Texas. Gale has used Monarch for years in a variety of industries, and has reaped the business benefits of Monarch all along the way. <a href="#article2">Read More...</a> </TD> </TR>
<TR> <TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f00">  </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD> <H3 style="COLOR: #f00">Datawatch Success in the Press...</H3>
Datawatch - and its customers - has earned recent attention from the Business Intelligence technology press. Find out how Monarch customers are "saying goodbye to BI complexities with Report Mining" and how Datawatch|ES has "proven its BI mettle"! <a href="#article3">Read More...</a> </TD> </TR>
<TR> <TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f00">  </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD> <H3 style="COLOR: #f00">Go to the Head of the Class with Monarch & Monarch Data Pump Training</H3> We invite you to join the ranks of Monarch training 'raving fans'! Regardless of your Monarch skills, we have a training class that will fit your needs and empower you with skills you can put to immediate use. We offer a wide variety of two-day Monarch training classes, organized by your Monarch skill level. <a href="http://www.datawatch.com/_services/training_overview.php" target=_blank>Visit our Training homepage...</a> </TD> </TR>
<TR> <TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f00"> </TD></TR> <TR> <TD> <H3 style="COLOR: #f00"><a name="article4"></a>Monarch Haiku!</H3> <img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1256/1217997945_28240be2c0_m.jpg" hspace=10 align=left>Finally, we recently challenged members of the Monarch discussion forum to combine their Monarch skills with the simplicity of haiku to share some poetic pearls of Monarch wisdom. You can check all of the submissions <a href="http://www.monarchforums.com/blog.php?b=12" target=_blank>here</a>, and please don't hesitate to add your own!
 
A small prize was promised for the "best" submission. In the end, among many good submissions, we decided we especially liked this Monarch career-boosting testimonial haiku from longtime Monarch forums member Nick Osdale-Popa, so Nick can add an Amazon e-certificate to his new wealth, courtesy of Monarch!
 
Monarch helps your job
Data wrangled, analyzed
New pay raise is here!
 
Many thanks to all who participated, but again, if inspiration hits you, <a href="http://www.monarchforums.com/blog.php?b=12" target=_blank>please submit your haiku now</a> -- we reserve the right to commit a new random act of reward if a haiku causes us to laugh while trying to drink our morning coffee! Please join the Monarch and Monarch Data Pump community, become a member of our <a href="http://www.monarchforums.com" target=_blank>online forums!
 
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<TR> <TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f00"> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD> <H3 style="COLOR: #f00">An Exciting Agenda with Southwest Flair: Another Successful Datawatch User Conference!</H3>
<img src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/dw-2008-uc-logo.jpg" align=left>Over 120 Datawatch customers convened in Phoenix in May 4-7, 2008, for another highly successful Datawatch User Conference; our second highest attended conference ever. Longtime repeat conference attendees and first-timers alike were delighted by a fresh conference agenda featuring plenty of brand new content and special guests, a friendly and accommodating conference venue, and an exciting evening social event that drew rave reviews!
 
"I can't say enough about this conference," praised Michael Shane, a first-time conference attendee and Controller for Gila River Casinos. "This is the standard by which all conferences should be judged."
 
The user conference "is a great balance of learning, sharing…and fun," said Gina Krieger, Checker Distributors, attending her fourth event. "Keep this up for the next conference!"
 
Attendees enjoyed the fine conference facilities and accommodations of the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. It will shock no one that each morning brought with it plentiful sunshine for attendees to enjoy delightful outdoor breakfasts, as well as very pleasant evenings to enjoy an outdoor welcome reception Sunday evening, May 4, adjoining the resort's impressive wave pool and private water park. Ideal evening weather helped ensure an exciting social event at the Corona Ranch on Tuesday night, May 6, but more about that later!
 
The conference officially kicked off Monday morning, May 5, with greetings from Datawatch President & CEO Ken Bero, and John Kitchen, Chief Marketing Officer. John emphasized, and Datawatch VP of Product Management Harvey Gross later reinforced, the unique positioning of Datawatch as an Enterprise Information Management (EIM) software vendor. EIM, as envisioned by Datawatch, is the convergence of the traditionally disparate worlds of content management and business intelligence. Using its Monarch report mining technology, Datawatch can dramatically simplifying access to information, from wherever it resides, to help companies do a better job of capturing and understanding data quickly, and benefit from the right information, in the right context, at the right time, without requiring any changes to their existing systems.
 

<img src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Datawatch-2008-User-Conference-01.jpg" alt="Datawatch User Conference 2008">
Datawatch President Ken Bero welcomes a packed general assembly, marking the official start of the 2008 Datawatch User Conference. 

Mindful that virtually all Monarch users export their data to Microsoft Excel, plus integration with Microsoft solutions is critical for most organizations, Datawatch welcomed guest speakers with expertise in the latest Microsoft solutions.
 
For the first time ever, Datawatch welcomed a Microsoft Excel expert as its keynote speaker. Kicking off the Tuesday, May 6 session was Curtis Frye, Excel consultant, author and Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional), who led a well-received keynote presentation on the advanced BI capabilities of Excel 2007. Datawatch also welcomed Doug Mahugh, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation, who led a presentation on the benefits of the new Open XML spreadsheet format introduced in Excel 2007 and supported by Monarch V9. Carlo Malaguzzi, Information Worker Business Group Director, ISV Strategy, Microsoft Corporation, presented on the many different uses for SharePoint and Microsoft’s plans for SharePoint, in tandem with a presentation led by Gareth Horton, Datawatch Product Manager, on how Monarch technologies effectively interact with and extend the power of SharePoint. These sessions were especially well attended.
 
"I attended the 2007 conference, so I was not sure if I would come away with as much new knowledge as last year. I was wrong!" said Michelle Click from AAA Texas. "I really enjoyed [learning] the way Datawatch and Microsoft [solutions] worked together to bring new ideas and present shortcuts with [Excel 2007] in conjunction with Monarch. Great job, Datawatch!"
 
"Outstanding!" said Trent Richardson, Professional Management Group, praising the demonstration of Monarch and Monarch Data Pump integration with Microsoft SharePoint. "[This] will make a huge difference at our company."
 
Following each morning's general assembly presentation, attendees had the opportunity to attend Monarch and Monarch Data Pump training seminars as well as breakout sessions for all products, including Datawatch|ES, the web-enabled report archive and BI solution; Monarch|RMS, providing automatic web-enabled report mining and BI for existing document management solutions, notably Hyland OnBase and IBM Content Manager OnDemand; Datawatch|BDS, the company's enterprise document archive solution; and MailManager, providing enterprise email archive, retrieval and e-discovery. Each attendee could build a personalized daily agenda that best fit their needs and interests.
 
"The hands-on training was great; [other] user conferences a lot of the time are [only] presentations," said Grant Dwyer of Fortis Properties, who thanked Datawatch for "truly valuable training provided by amazingly knowledgeable presenters and supplemented by user feedback and questions from a group of loyal end users."
 

Here too, Datawatch offered some brand new training opportunities, led by a very well-received new Monarch Functions training seminar. This session provided a more deeper dive into effectively creating Monarch expressions using the Monarch library of functions, including building your own user-defined functions, an exciting new feature of Monarch V9. "I learned many new ways to use Monarch functions and expressions," said Wes Stawrowski, Showtime Networks, Inc. "Now I will apply these new ideas and approaches to my workplace and teach co-workers to use Monarch more efficiently."
 
Interest in Monarch Data Pump, the automated enterprise information delivery solution from Datawatch, may well have been at an all time high throughout the conference, with training sessions at or near capacity, filled not only with existing Monarch Data Pump users, but also Monarch users eager to gain an understanding how Monarch Data Pump automatically mines data from reports and other data sources to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time and the right format.
 
Phil Storey, senior Datawatch consultant, led the Monarch Data Pump training sessions as well as a new "Voodoo Monarch Data Pump" advanced workshop, featuring innovative combinations of Monarch modeling techniques and VB.NET scripting within Monarch Data Pump to achieve some exciting new results, including dynamic, on-the-fly creation of field names in a Monarch model and dynamic building of filters based on the actual values in a field; sending text and IM messages from a Data Pump process and much more. "I loved Phil Storey's down to earth [presentation] approach. A great overview of why I should have Monarch Data Pump!" said Gina Krieger.
 
Many more breakout sessions were led by Datawatch personnel, as well as by special guest end users who responded to the Datawatch Call for Presentations) and by Datawatch personnel. We wish to extend many thanks to everyone who kindly led an end user presentation!
<ul>
<li>Sandy Cavalaris, Financial Reporting Analyst, Earth Tech Canada, Inc.</li>
<li>Ben de la Cruz, Senior Help Desk Support, Citizen Watch Company</li>
<li>John E. Kee, Manager, Information Systems, Fort Campbell Federal Credit Union</li>
<li>Gina Krieger, IT Director, Checker Distributors</li>
<li>Joe Lovati, Network Analyst, Option One Mortgage Corporation</li>
<li>Linda Philipp, Systems Programmer/Analyst, Radiology Imaging Associates</li>
<li>Trent Richardson, Director of Information Management & EDI, Professional Management Group</li>
<li>Joe Salvatore, Business Intelligence Architect, Cizer Software Corporation</li>
<li>Patty Stoddard, Technology Support Analyst, Accounting, Elizabeth City State University</li>
<li>Bryan Wiederspohn, Data Analyst, Seattle Children's Hospital</li>
</ul>
Throughout the conference, attendees could also bring copies of their most stubborn reports for hands-on Monarch consulting assistance with the Datawatch team in the Solutions Lab. Other attendees enjoyed an opportunity to meet with the developers of Monarch, Monarch Data Pump and the entire family of Datawatch solutions, to discuss and help direct the future of Monarch and other product development. "The Datawatch staff was very engaging and genuinely interested in our Monarch needs and challenges," said Stacey Watkins, Showtime Networks, Inc.
 
Attendees raved about the Tuesday night social event at the Corona Ranch, where everyone enjoyed one of the most exciting and plain fun evening events ever hosted for a Datawatch user conference. After enjoying another Phoenix sunset on the manicured grounds of Corona Ranch, complete Southwestern food and beverages while playing carnival games, including piñatas, a jalapeño eating contest (!) and the music of a real six-piece mariachi band, conference attendees were guided to the outdoor arena for an action-packed Western rodeo and Charreada (Mexican Rodeo). 
<img src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Datawatch-2008-User-Conference-02.jpg">
Conference attendees enjoyed another perfect Phoenix sunset on the Corona Ranch grounds, complete with musical entertainment from a real mariachi band.
 
The Mexican Charreada featured trick roping skills and amazing horsemanship, including precision riding drills and high-speed (and some high risk!) riding maneuvers. And who but our own John Kitchen, Datawatch Chief Marketing Officer (and accomplished horse rider), began the evening with a splash with a surprise appearance in the grand entry parade! The evening continued on with a delicious southwestern dinner buffet and dancing to the Corona Ranch grand hall band, playing country and rock hits!
 
<img src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Datawatch-2008-User-Conference-03.jpg">
Buenos Dias, Señor Kitchen, Huésped Especial of the Grand Parade!
 
There was one more surprise the following morning, the final day of the conference: Datawatch awarded its second-ever Tom Whiteside Memorial Award, recognizing the Monarch customer who has gone above and beyond to help inform others about Monarch and how to use Monarch effectively. The award is named in honor of Tom Whiteside, a prolific contributor to the online Monarch discussion forum, a two-time presenter at the 2003 Datawatch User Conference, and a lead member of the end user beta-test team that helped make Monarch the best solution possible. It is fitting to name the award after Tom, the first Monarch user who was also a true "Monarch evangelist."
 
This year's Tom Whiteside Memorial Award winner, the Monarch evangelist of the year, is Sandy Cavalaris. Sandy was honored for his numerous Monarch presentations he led this year and last year. In fact, Datawatch belatedly publicly recognized Sandy as "the hardest working man in Monarch show business," for leading and co-leading no fewer than seven presentations at the 2007 Datawatch User Conference! Sandy also publishes his own blog, <A href="http://ExcelWithMonarch.com" target=_blank>ExcelWithMonarch.com</A>, in which he shares his own tips and advice on how to best utilize Monarch as well as Microsoft Excel.
 
<img src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Datawatch-2008-User-Conference-04.jpg">
Sandy Cavalaris receives the 2008 Tom Whiteside Memorial Award as the Monarch evangelist of the year.
 
Sandy joins 2007 Tom Whiteside Memorial Winner Grant Perkins, who was honored for his "Most Honorable Monarch Guru" status on the Monarch forums, helping almost every Monarch forum member with questions and solutions.
 
"Thanks to the entire Datawatch team for hosting another tremendous conference," Sandy said. "Thank you so much for the recognition! Hopefully I can live up to expectations of being labeled a Monarch Evangelist…I think I will be in shock for a couple of days!"
 
Even before the conclusion of the 2008 Datawatch User Conference, plans already were well under way for our 2009 event! And judging from our attendee feedback, we can chalk up another very successful conference!
 
"Great job by the Datawatch staff for an informative, smooth-flowing and enjoyable conference, said Sue Seifert, Metrohealth System. "Looking forward to next year!"
 
Andy Abbott, Assistant Controller, Russell Sigler, Inc., attending his third Datawatch User Conference, summed up the conference this way: "There is a real sense of community among Monarch users, despite the diverse industries we represent, and this always amazes me. It is due, I think, to [Monarch], the product we all enjoy using, and to the Datawatch staff. As usual, the Datawatch staff was outstanding in providing a worthwhile learning experience!"
 
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<TR> <TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f00"> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD> <H3 style="COLOR: #f00">Monarch Pro Spins PDFs into Actionable, Programming-Free Accounting Data</H3>
Gale Bridgeman, CPA, is Systems Manager for the Office of Cindy Boudloche, a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustee for the Southern District of Texas. Gale has used Monarch for years in a variety of industries, and has reaped the business benefits of Monarch all along the way.
 
"Monarch is a truly powerful 'bridge' application; it doesn't matter what you bring as input or what you want on the other side as output," says Gale. "I use Monarch to easily get granular accounting data in a quick, reproducible, consistent manner, month after month."
 
Gale recently led a demonstration of Monarch at the annual conference for users of the Bankruptcy Software Specialists (BSS) software system, used by Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustees. "A consumer (debtor) filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy will adhere to a 'workout' plan, in which the debtor pays funds to the Trustee and the Trustee will distribute it to their creditors according to their filed plan. The application handles all the bankruptcy cases under our trusteeship," explains Gale. "All the posting of dollars in from debtors and dollars out to the various creditors is captured."
 
"My current applications of Monarch use PDF's generated by the BSS system. I use Monarch to create detail data files for auditing purposes each year, but the primary use is to take a detail general ledger, with all the transactions, and run that PDF through Monarch to create a file that can be uploaded into a separate software package that facilitates financial reporting. I create some calculated fields to get the data into the proper format and to combine some fields. Monarch allows me to get all the underlying detail, quickly and accurately, into the format required by my financial reporting application."
 
"Thanks to Monarch, it's easy to mine, customize and export all cash, revenue and expense transactions as they appear on the PDF General Ledger into our financial reporting package. I then prepare final monthly financial statements and annual statements for the Trustee."
 
"I've used Monarch in much the same way at several jobs in several industries; there has always been a need to turn ugly greenbar reports into beautiful data. This is the first time I've used PDF's as the source, though," Gale adds. "I have used Monarch for much more heavy-duty report mining projects, but for me, this is a great example how PDF-based information can be easily transformed into actionable data with Monarch."
 
<a href="http://www.datawatch.com/case_studies.php" target=_blank>Read more Monarch case studies.</a>
 
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<TR> <TD style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #f00"> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD> <H3 style="COLOR: #f00">Datawatch Success in the Press...</H3>
Datawatch - and its customers - has earned recent attention from the Business Intelligence technology press. Read on and discover how Monarch customers are "saying goodbye to BI complexities with Report Mining" and how Datawatch|ES has "proven its BI mettle"! 
Unstructured Data: Separating Value from Hype for Next-Generation Business Intelligence by Mike Urbonas, Product Marketing Manager, Datawatch Corporation Special article for DM Direct, the web publication of DM Review magazine, May 23, 2008As BI expert Colin White has observed, disillusionment with existing BI software is already well under way. Some companies are starting to rebel, demanding easier and cheaper BI solutions. These companies, White notes, typically have fewer IT resources and skills necessary to implement BI projects. As a result, they may be struggling to implement even basic BI capabilities.
 This demand for "disruptive" solutions challenges the long-held misconceptions about BI. Companies today must pay new attention to the overlooked unstructured sources of actionable enterprise data, which can dramatically simplify the demands of providing the right information to the right person at the right time. <A href="http://www.dmreview.com/dmdirect/2008_73/10001313-1.html" target=_blank>Read the entire article.</A>
 
Say Goodbye to BI Complexites With Report Mining by Mike Urbonas, Product Marketing Manager, Datawatch Corporation Special article for ebizQ, June 16, 2008 
After disappointing performance from a traditional BI solution, Checker Distributors turned to Monarch, a Report Mining tool that "mines data 'hidden in plain sight' in static reports to make it actionable across the organization. Leveraging the time and energy already put into reports, the tool turns the unstructured text documents into actual structured data for analysis or for uploading to a data warehouse. The solution has effectively replaced the well-known BI tool that Checker Distributors previously used." <A href="http://www.ebizq.net/hot_topics/bi/features/9753.html?page=1" target=_blank>Read the entire article.</A>
 
Datawatch|ES "Proves its Business Intelligence Mettle" By Jeff Kelly, SearchDataManagement.com, June 11, 2008 
When a merger tripled the number of facilities Fernando Gallegos was sending business intelligence (BI) reports to, the director of IT at SA Recycling (SAR) knew the scrap metal firm needed a better way to share information with its employees...Gallegos decided to tap Datawatch's Web-based enterprise content management system, called Datawatch ES, to automate report [and data] distribution. <a href="http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid91_gci1317076,00.html" target=_blank> Read the entire article.</a> 
Datawatch Mentioned in IDG Article: BI Vendors Trying to Reach the Rank and File 
Datawatch was mentioned in a recent article on BI vendor efforts to provide "pervasive BI." John Kitchen, CMO for Datawatch, is quoted on the upcoming Monarch BI Server, a web-enabled report access and BI solution targeted to the SMB space and as a departmental informational solution. <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/06/17/BI-vendors-trying-to-reach-the-rank-and-file_1.html" target=_blank>Read the entire article.</a> 
 
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