Microsoft is integrating business intelligence into the
forthcoming Office 12 productivity suite in a bid to make business
intelligence "more mainstream" and available on every
desktop.
Analysts said the product would be suitable for most small and
medium-sized enterprises but was unlikely to meet the needs of
larger firms.
Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 is a
server-based scorecarding application. It extends the SQL Server
platform so that employees throughout an organisation can track key
performance indicators using personalised scorecards.
Business Scorecard Manager will compete with products from
business intelligence specialists such as Business Objects and
Cognos.
Lewis Levin, corporate vice-president of Microsoft's Office
business applications group, said, "With this new product and the
new Office features, Microsoft will make business intelligence
tools accessible to more people and more mainstream within
organisations."
Microsoft said business intelligence functions would be
integrated into Excel and Sharepoint in Office 12. The new version
of Excel will let users connect directly to enterprise data, making
a persistent connection between their Excel spreadsheet and the
data source.
Butler Group research analyst Richard Edwards said,
"Organisations will either adopt a strategic stance on business
intelligence, in which case they will look at suppliers such as
Business Objects, SAS, Hyperion, and Cognos. For the rest, for whom
business intelligence is less understood but who know they should
have a visual view of their data, what Microsoft is doing is an
ideal place to start and is moving towards having pervasive
business intelligence.
"Organisations must make business intelligence available to more
than business managers. There is no reason why people in packing
should not have a view of the business."
Server-side Excel capabilities will also be introduced to allow
users to view spreadsheets on the server via a web browser, or to
download them to desktops.
Sharepoint will become a portal for all the business
intelligence content and end-user capabilities in SQL Server
reporting services and Office 12. It will allow users to build
personalised dashboards, bringing together the data they need from
several sources.