Altair launches Altair Monarch, a major new release of its powerful and intuitive data preparation solution. Marking the 30th anniversary of Monarch’s original launch, the new version strengthens the ability of users to extract and convert data automatically from sources including Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, and text-based files, and prepare it quickly and precisely for efficient data analysis and machine learning predictions.
By converting data from any source into rows and columns without any need for coding, Monarch quickly generates clean and accessible reports. More than 80 pre-built functions are available, enabling laborious and error-prone manual data preparation tasks to be fully automated. Reports that previously took hours or even days to create are now completed in minutes. As a result, users are free to focus on value added data analysis that supports better decision making.
Key features new to Monarch include:
- Excel trapping – This unique feature enables users to deal with complex Excel inputs. Rules can now be utilized to extract and add structure to data and metadata from workbooks that are either designed for reporting or incorporate multiple worksheets.
- Improved PDF extraction – By identifying graphical elements such as rectangles and lines on rendered PDF page images, Monarch accommodates the diverse range of report styles employed in this format. Any combination of font and background colors can be extracted successfully.
- Support for Altair Units – Altair’s flexible licensing model allows customers to pay only for what they need; when they need it.
“With a global user community in the tens of thousands, Monarch encompasses our long experience of helping customers overcome complex data preparation challenges,” said Sam Mahalingam, chief technical officer, Altair. “Thirty years to the day since the original launch, it is entirely appropriate that we now offer even greater freedom to transform data from multiple sources into a powerful business asset.”
