Today software and add-in developer OpenGate software announced the release of Report Builder for Microsoft Access, an add-in aim to simplify the creation of complex reports as well as related calculation and custom styles. The advantage of OpenGate’s approach is that it circumvents software licensing fees, taking an open approach to providing cloud services.

“OpenGate’s Report Builder wizard guides users through each step of the process, and allows customers to create custom styles that adapt a report’s look and feel to match their company’s brand. Performing calculations within a report, a difficult task to master in Access, is simplified by Report Builder’s wizard interface.”

The release of Report Builder is a very fitting addition to OpenGate’s Microsoft Access-simplifying add-ins portfolio. When used with another company product named Dashboard Builder, Report Builder reportedly eliminates the need to understand SQL and Visual basic in order to report and analyze raw Access data. Either way, the company offers its product

In 10-user and unlimited user licenses, meaning that at least on paper, a comprehensive solution bundle simplifying as many aspects of Access as possible would suit OpenGate’s demographics fairly well.

OpenGate’s Access product portfolio is focused on time saving, and in this area an ‘all-inclusive’ package will probably sell more in bulk than an incomplete add-in bundle or individual products.

The open cloud is a very active industry, beyond OpenGate as well. We covered  OpenStack’s recent 6-month anniversary and  Internap Network Services’ coinciding announcement of its new cloud storage service dubbed XIPCloud.  Another important development is IBM’s incorporation of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) into its  GPFS-SNC architecture.