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Well I guess this means Panorama wants a bigger piece of the pie. In a very impressive and interesting webcast which was given Tuesday, March 31^st, Panorama showcased Nova View 6 RC1. So what are the promises given in the webcast and what was shown?

1. Well for me, the biggest news was that from now on, Panorama Nova View will connect not just to cubes, but also to RDBMS – yes, a relational data source! And, you'll be able to create a dashboard which includes a report on both data sources. This however, was not demonstrated in the webcast so I am waiting to see it in the final release.
2. Panorama Shared Views - a chance to collaborate outside the firewall. Further enhancing their partnership with Google, Panorama will now offer its users to share reports done with Nova View, through iGoogle to other authorized users who also have a Google account.
3. Flash Analytics – Panorama has developed a new product based on Flash to develop new and better looking reports. Most of the demo was dedicated to this product. I have to say I really like what they did with the UI there, it was much better looking. First of all, they put the "Help" as a small note in the bottom of the report, which will show the relevant explanation by the part of the view that you clicked on. I think that really helps you see and understand the whole story at the same time, instead of the usual switching back and forth from the explanation to the actual part.
   You can also expand and collapse an attribute in the same pane, rather than having it open in a new window. It's like everything is finally put in one place. Flash Analytics also has a more accessible way for you to format your formulas, manipulate your threshold and more. Obviously, the new product also offers very nice flash charts. Flash Analytics can also open reports done in previous versions of Nova View.
   Flash Analytics does not yet offer the full capabilities of the Nova View Desktop client, but should offer it all by the time of the SP1 release of this version. There is a comparison between the Desktop (Java) client tool and the Flash Analytics available. The Desktop Analytics client has not been changed.
4. Another product which was showcased was Executive Dashboards which again uses flash to create templates for dashboards.
5. I also really liked seeing Panorama Spotlight, which enables you to embed KPIs from your cube and quick links to your views and that all inside your Outlook.

To have a look at the webcast showcasing Panorama Nova View 6 RC1, please write to Panorama Support, so you can either view an old recording or participate in future ones. In the meanwhile, you can read further about the new products that Panorama is scheduling for release with this version and also read in general about Panorama Nova View 6. And for a limited time only, you can also register to download Nova View 6 Release Candidate 1.
The final version of Nova View 6 is scheduled for release mid June. I think things just got more interesting :)…