Microsoft puts more muscle into BI

Redmond giant bulks up its business intelligence portfolio

Microsoft has bulked up its business intelligence (BI) portfolio by launching PerformancePoint Server (PPS) 2007 to offer large enterprises a complete performance management system.

The package features key BI elements such as scorecarding, analytics and forecasting, integrated with Microsoft staples such as SQL Server and Office Excel. “Traditional BI systems are made up of around 10 to 12 different products, which offer different views of the organisation and are expensive to maintain,” said Renaud Besnard, Microsoft UK’s Office Business Applications product manager. “PPS 2007 provides all the performance management functionality required in one integrated application, optimised for SQL Server.”

Microsoft also plans to use the system to add tools such as financial analytics to its Dynamics apps range.

Rival BI vendors claimed they were not threatened by the release. SAS argued that Microsoft “does not have the intellectual capital, experience or technology to do true BI”.

Helena Schwenk of analyst Ovum pointed out that many firms already own performance management products. “It is unlikely that large firms will rip out their existing BI system and replace it with Microsoft in the short term,” she argued.

However, Schwenk said in the long term, the integration with Excel and future developments to PPS could make it attractive to large firms.

PPS 2007 will be released in beta in the autumn, and should be generally available in mid-2007.