With pending implementation of Dodd-Frank Act provisions, virtually every aspect of financial services will face increased requirements for data and risk management. Organizations will require tools that enable them to cut costs and be more agile in unsettled economic times.

Sybase Inc.’s new Sybase PowerDesigner 16 improves the alignment between business and IT, the company says. Its information architecture capabilities make it possible for companies to affordably implement required data governance best practices by managing the flow of information between all phases of IT and business.

The latest release of PowerDesigner offers a model-driven approach to empowering and aligning business and IT, with features that address the growing information architecture market. PowerDesigner 16 establishes cross-discipline business and technical definitions for a single version of accurate, key information assets. The integration of business and IT metadata managed in a single tool streamlines an organization’s data governance, business intelligence, integration, and consolidation efforts. Coupled with PowerDesigner 16’s new repository-based enterprise-wide impact analysis, organizations will significantly reduce the time, risk, and cost associated with change throughout the entire information architecture.

“Key growth drivers for the worldwide modeling and architectural tools market include aligning IT with the business,” said Stephen Hendrick group vice president of Application Development and Deployment Research at IDC. “Products such as PowerDesigner 16 are very effective at supporting this alignment when they employ an enterprise glossary and a user interface that can be completely customized by role.”

“The real value of PowerDesigner 16 for information architecture is the combination of the Portal and the Glossary, which allows subject matter experts and stewards to take control of the definitions that really matter to them,” said George McGeachie of Metadata Matters, LLC, a Sybase PowerDesigner customer and a co-author along with Steve Hoberman of the upcoming book, Data Modeling Made Simple Using PowerDesigner.”

McGeachie added, “What's impressive is the fact that PowerDesigner 16’s Glossary is not merely documentation, it is an important tool that makes it easier to follow naming conventions, and to cross-reference definitions with the organization’s semantics.”

“We’re supporting an evolution taking place where data architecture is no longer enough,” said David Dichmann, director of product management at Sybase. “The need to create a connection between business and IT is driving today’s better [business intelligence] initiatives and the need to architect the information environment. The information architecture features found in PowerDesigner 16 allow for easy communication between business strategies and IT implementations, empowering enterprise architects to bridge the gap between the data and the enterprise.”

New features of PowerDesigner 16 include:

•    Support for over 80 relational database management systems.

•    Role-based user interface based on Windows 7 standards for improved usability and management.

•    Enterprise Glossary features to ensure business terms and definitions are established and consistently managed throughout all models.

•    Improved Link & Sync technology ensures users are gathering all the connections throughout the entire enterprise to provide mission critical decision support.

•    Power Designer Portal ensures all users have full thin-client access to all authorized metadata including graphics and full element definitions and descriptions for metadata sharing to broaden stakeholder communication and involvement.

•    The Portal Composer allows for a broader community of users to make edits to key information directly through the web interface.

http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1094778