At the JavaOne conference in San Francisco Monday, Actuate Corp. unveiled a Java spreadsheet application that gives business users the functionality of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet when viewing Web-based data or data culled from a business reporting server.

Actuate acquired Formula One for Java 9.0 by buying Tidestone Technologies. The spreadsheet reporting software maker is the first product Actuate has released since buying the Kansas-based company. The $10.6 million all-stock deal closed May 31.

Formula One's compatibility with Excel spreadsheets makes it easy to use for workers who are already familiar with the Excel interface and functions, says Actuate VP Mike Thoma. "If you are an Excel user, you already know how to use this reporting solution," Thoma says. Using Formula One virtually requires no training, he added. Formula One is currently available and is priced at $495 per developer for developer-only/non-deployment licenses, and $10,000 per CPU for deployment licenses.

Actuate plans to integrate the Java spreadsheet into upcoming versions of its E-reporting server, which builds reports based on raw data processed in data warehouses. Enhancing its Java interoperability will help Actuate gain customers among Java developers, says Joe Butt, senior analyst with Forrester. "More application servers are Java 2 platform, Enterprise-Edition-compliant, and more people are writing applications that are Java compliant," he says. "Java is slowly becoming the standard for accessing information anywhere at any time." Adding functionality to its reporting software is what makes Actuate stand out from the pack of reporting companies that are moving into business intelligence, Butt says. "They were first to push more functionality in the reporting parameter.