We continue to improve eMpower Lite Reporting based on customer feedback. Here’s a little shot of how we integrated trend lines with our application.

When you’re viewing raw data in a chart like this:

Just click the trend button, and you get a chart like this:

Trend analysis doesn’t get much easier than that, does it?

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For eMpower Live, we have to generate convincing data for a 1000 slot casino, for one year. This is harder than it sounds. Here’s a neat picture of a diagram we created during the process of generating the data for eMpower Live. Stay tuned, and see you June 6th.

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A lot has happened since the blog entry. However, our web page and the video have not reflected all the new things eMpower Lite Reporting can do. We’ve taken feedback from the system in the field, at the Gold Rush Casino and Hotel in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and we’ve improved the system enormously. The main features we’ve added for version 2.0 are:

* Trend Lines - Any chart now produces trend lines. Just click “trend” to see the trend, and “raw” to go back to the raw data.

* Cartographic Visualization - Map Charts. Where a game machine is on the floor matters. Now you can easily visualize trends with Map Charts.

* Excel Export - We now export data right into Excel, where you can continue your analysis.

We could be spending time making a new video to show you all of this. But we add new features so often, this quickly becomes tiresome. So instead, we’re doing one better: we’re putting the entire application up on the web. Anyone can try it. You can try it. Its called eMpower Live.

eMpower Live begins June 6th. Please come by and give it a try to see what we can do for your casino.

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This box is Lucision Box Number One, the first eMpower Lite Reporting server to hit the wild. We’re a young company with our first product, and this is the first solution we’re shipping out the front door. We are very proud of Box Number One. (As per Sun’s request: This is a Sun Server. Lucision does not make or sell servers. Sun Microsystems makes Sun servers, including the x2100 depicted in this picture. Lucision makes software that is deployed on servers, and in this case that server is a Sun.  This in no way implies any relationship whatsoever between the two companies.)

Due to some excellent customer feedback, eMpower Lite Reporting continues to improve. We’ve added group summaries and charts to our grouped tables, and we’re adding better exploration of individual machine’s performance. When ease of use is your goal, you have to be careful when adding new features not to over-complicate the user interface, but I think we’ve kept the system very easy to use. Ease of use in our interface and clarity and accuracy in our visualizations will continue to be a priority as we add predictive modeling, and cartographic charting (maps) in the coming months.

One thing you may notice about this server rack is this: there’s not a lot there. A battery backup, a network switch and a single 1U Sunfire server. Why not more heavy iron? Quite simply, because we don’t require it. We were fortunate enough to go with a set of tools in developing this system that consume little overhead: Apache and MySQL. Both free (or cheap, for a commercial license from MySQL AB) and open source software. Someone asked me today, “Why did you go with MySQL instead of something more advanced?”

Well, quite simply: MySQL 5 is more advanced than most people realize, and it allows us to do what we need faster than SQL Server would, for less money. Which is why that server rack isn’t full, and is why eMpower Lite Reporting is so affordable. MySQL’s feature-set, stability and reliability are on par with expensive closed source solutions, and its performance is unmatched. In short: we don’t ask it to do anything it can’t do, and ask us for more. MySQL provides superior value to our customers.

I would go further and say that it is Lucision’s ability to harness the power of open source software that allows us to out-pace the competition in this industry, which is traditionally closed-source and Microsoft oriented, and allows us to innovate at a rapid pace. Microsoft missed the boat on web services, and is still playing catchup with the open toolkits that we use. Which is what our customers are going to see, as we rapidly implement their feedback on version 1.0 of eMpower Lite Reporting. But… alot of that has to do with the open source application framework we use, which I’ll be talking about next time.

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One of the things that has always bothered me about the gaming industry on the systems side of things is how secretive all the companies can be about their products. Not about what they are up to in R&D, but what they actually have, right now. To me this means one thing: they aren’t innovating fast enough. If you have to defend the feature-set you’ve got right now with secrecy, then you are moving too slowly. After all, what does it matter if the competition knows what you’ve got right now if… you’ll have something new tomorrow? If you’re moving fast and leading the pack, then you’ll always be one step ahead. Thats why we’ll be telling you about all the new features of eMpower Lite Reporting right here. In this blog.

We would rather make our product known to all, and to get customers involved in the development process through open communication like this blog, than be secretive and closed. Because we’re an open company. Open minds using open source tools to bring solutions to an industry that is typically five to ten years behind the rest of IT.

I look forward to keeping you all updated with what Lucision is up to. We are very busy, and we hope you’ll stop by once in a while to see what we’re up to, and to let us know what you’d like to see in our software by commenting.

Here’s a look at our booth at G2E. The space was humble, but we like to think we filled it with enthusiasm, and a great product. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Your enthusiasm made our day, and your feedback was invaluable.

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