|
|
|
|
|
UNICOM®
Systems, Inc. has announced the release of Focal
Point version 7.8 Focal Point is a
comprehensive
portfolio planning solution that
market-driven teams use to make
collaborative, objective decisions to deliver
products, projects and services while offering
the highest customer and business value. Focal Point
reduces the complexity of managing information
from various sources such as emails, documents
and spreadsheets and provides a collaborative
centralized environment for requirements,
products and project data.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Focal Point 7.8 - What's new in
this release?
|
|
|
|
|
Focal Point 7.8 introduces significant architectural modernization,
advanced user experience layers, real-time data integrity mechanisms,
and strengthened enterprise security features.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Major Platform Upgrades
|
|
|
|
|
Focal Point has transitioned its core runtime environment from Java 8 to Java 17. Upgrading leverages advanced G1 and ZGC garbage collectors, delivering significant throughput improvements and a reduced memory footprint, while removing outdated APIs and introducing modern cryptographic protocols to minimize the system attack surface.
Concurrent with the runtime evolution, the primary web server has been upgraded from Tomcat 9 to Tomcat 11. This aligns the platform with Jakarta EE 11 standards and introduces native support for virtual threads to enhance scaling, HTTP/2 protocol handling, and lightweight concurrency.
To align with cloud-ready deployment frameworks, this release officially discontinues support for IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS). In its place, Focal Point now supports Red Hat JBoss EAP 8.0, offering a lightweight alternative fully optimized for Java 17.
This comprehensive upgrade drives infrastructure cost savings by maximizing hardware utilization, lowering operational latency, and ensuring architectural stability for enterprise cloud migrations.
|
|
|
|
|
Enhanced User Interface Themes
|
|
|
|
|
Focal Point 7.8 release introduces three professionally curated UI themes: Arctic, Azure, and Graphite. These environments move beyond traditional light and dark modes, offering tailored color palettes designed to maintain high data density while reducing eye strain during extended work sessions.
The Arctic theme provides a clean, high-clarity baseline for standard office environments, while Azure offers a modern, authoritative hybrid design that balances a dark command header with a streamlined workspace. For power users, Graphite delivers a technical dark mode specifically optimized to ensure data remains sharp while minimizing visual fatigue.
This UI overhaul ensures a seamless experience across all platform layers, from the Portfolio Overview to detailed Attribute Statistics. Global navigation elements and sidebar ergonomics have been refined to provide better visual separation between high-level command areas and the primary data workspace.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Real-Time Data Refresh & Conflict Prevention
|
|
|
|
|
To ensure complete collaborative data integrity, version 7.8 introduces an automated mechanism that instantly notifies users via the UI the moment the data element they are actively viewing or editing is modified in the background.
These background updates may stem from concurrent team edits or automated server-side processing, such as background expressions and business rules. The new real-time notification layer mechanically prevents users from operating on stale information and effectively eliminates "last-save-wins" conflict scenarios.
By providing immediate visibility into team-wide changes and automated background processes, it ensures a more collaborative and accurate editing experience. The mechanism functions continuously without requiring manual browser or page refreshes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Automatic LDAP Verification
|
|
|
|
|
Focal Point 7.8 bolsters enterprise authentication security by embedding an automated verification process that synchronizes user records directly with central LDAP directories upon every successful login.
While the application has long supported LDAP authentication and manual directory syncing, this updated capability ensures that role-based access controls, permissions, and account restrictions are validated and updated in real time.
Any changes made in the central corporate directory – such as an update to user roles or login access prevention (disabled accounts) – are immediately forced down to the active user profile within Focal Point upon login.
This feature reduces compliance exposure by guaranteeing that deactivated employee accounts or sudden role demotions are enforced instantaneously across the portfolio management system without requiring manual IT administrative syncs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token for "Friend" Connections
|
|
|
|
|
Outbound connectivity has been significantly hardened with the introduction of OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token support for defining "Friend Connections". Users can now select "OAuth 2.0 Token" as a core authentication type when configuring outbound enterprise integrations.
This enhancement allows seamless integration with external platforms like Jira. By accepting Personal Access Tokens (PAT) or Bearer Tokens, Focal Point natively communicates with external systems that have deprecated traditional, high-risk Basic Authentication methods.
This shift to "password-less" integration modernizes the system integration framework. It eliminates the security risks associated with storing or transmitting static credentials across third-party applications.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Miscellaneous Enhancements
|
|
|
|
|
Beyond core features, version 7.8 introduces key usability and database updates. A primary addition is official compatibility with PostgreSQL 18.3, ensuring support for modern open-source database backbends.
The release also optimizes the internal LDAP batch update engine. This results in significantly faster and more reliable data replication for enterprise environments managing large-scale user directories.
|
|
|
|
|
Focal Point™,
along with System Architect®,
is a key player in the Enterprise Architecture
and Product Portfolio Management domains while
helping customers make strategic decisions at
the enterprise level and provide increased
business value at delivery. Additionally, UNICOM Global®
has the Universal Gateway (UniGW®),
a management dashboard designed to provide
real-time views into operational business
performance that complements Focal Point.
This approach enables strategic decision making
and correlates the massive amount of data
erupting from new technologies such as big data,
video analysis and IOT.
To request this new release of Focal
Point, please log in or register on the UNICOM
Customer Portal, or email to focalpoint.support@unicomsi.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At UNICOM, our commitment is to ensure that
ongoing research and development continue for
all UNICOM software solutions and to maintain
the highest standards of technical support for
you, our customers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
