Microsoft Reveals BI Plans, Readies PerformancePoint Server

Microsoft unveiled its long-rumored, fledgling Biz# business intelligence product Tuesday, while announcing its road map for Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007.

The new performance-management application incorporates technology from and will supersede Microsoft's Business Scorecard Manager 2005 and software from Microsoft's recent ProClarity acquisition. PerformancePoint is intended to handle scorecarding, analytics, planning, forecasting and reporting tasks. Microsoft cast the new product as the linchpin of its business intelligence (BI) line, which also includes Excel, SharePoint and SQL Server.

"We've aligned our investment across the company to be able to deliver a complete and integrated product line," Microsoft Business Division President Jeff Raikes said in a conference call with press, customers and partners.

Microsoft plans to work closely with partners to promote its expanded BI offerings, according to Raikes. "We've really increased the partnering activity that we're doing, from global systems integrators to regional specialists," he said. "In the past nine months we've been able to train 500 partners."

PerformancePoint 2007 is slated for release in mid-2007, with a beta program scheduled to launch this fall. Customers who bought ProClarity Analytics or Business Scorecard Manager and Microsoft's Software Assurance licensing plan will receive a free, direct upgrade to similar functionality in PerformancePoint 2007, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft intends PerformancePoint to integrate with its other applications, starting with Office 2007 and eventually extending to its Dynamics ERP applications. Dynamics channel partners will be brought into the PerformancePoint fold, Microsoft executives pledged.

One early PerformancePoint tester, Combe CIO Tim Case, said he expects the application to be less expensive to deploy and support than rival products, such as those from Cognos and Hyperion. Combe, a consumer personal-care products maker, is working with Microsoft SI Altara on its PerformancePoint project.

"I believe what differentiates this solution from others is its common user interface with Excel and the extension of our current investment in Microsoft's BI tools," Case said.

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