December 4, 1996 5:25 PM ET

Planning Sciences pledges support for OLAP interoperability standard
By Maria Seminerio

Planning Sciences Inc., developer of the Gentia client/server decision support system, announced at DB/Expo that it will support the MD-API developed by the OLAP Council. The council, a standards body comprising online analytical processing software vendors, launched the interface in September to create a standard data access interface between OLAP servers and clients. Planning Sciences will integrate support for Multi-Dimensional API in the next-generation version of Gentia, set to ship in the first quarter of 1997. The Gentia interface, which will function as a superset of MD-API, will permit third-party tools to access both its OLAP database and intelligent agents. The added functionality will enable business users to extend OLAP applications into data mining and other advanced analytical applications, Planning Sciences officials said. MD-API also will enable Gentia objects to be accessed from anywhere on the network, company officials said. OLAP Council members include Arbor Software Corp., Business Objects Inc., IBM's Decision Support Solutions division, Platinum Technology Inc. and Planning Sciences. Planning Sciences, based in Boston, can be reached at www.gentia.com/. Copyright(c) 1996 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. PC Week and the PC Week logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. PC Week Online and the PC Week Online logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Send mail to PC Week