Review: Business Tools Get Smart

Getting data out of big iron systems, spreadsheets, e-mails and all kinds of unstructured data sources and custom applications is a labor-intensive process. Many business intelligence tools are extremely difficult to learn, so companies are always looking for easy-to-use solutions.

One product that narrows the analysis gap well between unstructured data sources and packaged applications is Microsoft's PerformancePoint Server 2007. To make sense of disparate information, PerformancePoint is a fully integrated stack between Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office SharePoint Services 2007 (MOSS), using Excel and SharePoint as its primary end-user interfaces.

Microsoft also offers a larger business intelligence suite, which is a fully integrated set of tools for creating analytical charts and reports, including scorecards. PerformancePoint is narrower in scope, with prices starting at $20,000 per server and $195 per CAL. The tool performs analysis on business processes to measure performance management activities. For instance, PerformancePoint can run planning processes, financial reports for closing processes and perform financial consolidation.

PerformancePoint's dependence on Excel doesn't mean it's a bare-bones tool. It arrives with logic to provide analysis and comes with several business rules out of the box. Organizations also can create new rules using Excel MOSS services, and it integrates with SQL Server for its reporting services.

Data is brought into PerformancePoint through SQL Server Integration Services. As long as data sources from ERP, supply chain, CRM and custom applications can be collected into a data warehouse and turned into cubes, the integration services are able to deliver them into PerformancePoint.

PerformancePoint's models also allow users to view and analyze an entire organization. A model that describes different business structures such as departments and joint ownerships allows users to tailor systems to improve visibility of specific process activities. The benefit of this architecture is that it can span from the business units to entire divisions. Change management integrity and regulatory compliance also can be tracked.

For testing, reviewers examined Microsoft's demo intranet site, which features a fictitious company, AdventureWorks, and related data.

The site map breaks the intranet portal application into documents, activities and Web Part applications. Navigating to any of the main tabs on the sites activated specialized Web Parts designed for PerformancePoint.

By clicking on a Web Part, a pop-up pane provides access into ProClarity's Desktop Professional. Here, users are able to drill down into financial data, change values for key performance indicators and add new charts. The integration between PerformancePoint and ProClarity is seamless.

The Office PerformancePoint Server beta program is available to all Microsoft partners. The company makes evaluation kits and evaluation products to download free at MSDN's site. Microsoft Software Assurance is available at 25 percent of the license cost.

Unfortunately, reviewers did not get a chance to get into the tools libraries of PerformancePoint (our test site was already pre-created), but development should follow ASP.Net's convention. Nevertheless, reviewers found all of the charts and data easily manageable and configurable. Reports were integrated into Office file services. Users are able to design reports quite easily.