INTALIGN blog

On January 26^th Microsoft has announced major adaptations around its Business Intelligence (BI) platforms: the move is a significant step towards it's "Business Intelligence for the Masses" strategy. Since entering the BI arena Microsoft has changed prevailing paradigms by adding previously separate and costly capabilities like extraction transformation and loading (ETL) services, multidimensional analysis (OLAP) and reporting into the existing SQL Server database offering.

At the beginning of this month this strategy was further extended by announcing that the previously separate scorecard, dashboard, and analytical capabilities of Microsoft Office PerformancePoint® Server will be consolidated into Office SharePoint Server Enterprise as PerformancePoint Services.  This means that customers who already own SharePoint Enterprise Server will be able to use the comprehensive analytics functionality of PerformancePoint without further license investment cost. In addition this is also a very interesting incentive for new users to consider an implementation of the SharePoint collaboration platform and benefit from the free inclusion of one of the most powerful BI analysis tools (formerly ProClarity).

Alongside this move Microsoft also announced that the development of the PerformancePoint Planning component will not be continued after a service pack (SP3) release scheduled for later this year. It was ultimately concluded that the "dedicated depth planning functionality and products ultimately appeal to a limited set of users within an organization, and providing such functionality is not central to our vision of delivering broad-based BI capabilities across the entire organization." 

This of course presents a significant change for organisations that were evaluating this feature now that Microsoft has decided to leave the market for standalone enterprise planning and consolidation applications.

What do those changes mean for your organisation?

1. For existing SharePoint Enterprise customers that Dashboard and Analytics functionality is available immediately and enables you to deploy performance management processes and analytics throughout the entire organisation. Capabilities that are of particularly importance in the current adverse business environment were informed decisions and the transparent monitoring of corporate strategy, objectives and costs are essential.

2. New customers of the SharePoint Enterprise Server product that combines extensive functionality for document management, collaboration and workflow will also be able to benefit from the added performance management components with a minimal investment.

3. We advise for organisations that are interested in planning and budgeting components to review the market for specialised vendors in that area. INTALIGN has always focused on providing clients with independent advice in regards to "best fit for needs" as opposed to a single product or vendor and will continue this strategy. Currently we offer technology expertise with two specialised solutions on the Microsoft platform (Carpio and PMone) and we are in negotiations with additional providers to extend our service offering.

In light of those changes INTALIGN's principals offer free consultations to discuss the effects of these announcements to clients and interested organisations. Alongside this session there is also the opportunity to benchmark your current Business Intelligence processes against the outcomes of the 2008 Business Intelligence survey. Please contact: marketing@intalign.com to arrange an appointment.

4. For further details and the official Microsoft Q&A document please refer to: PerformancePoint Q&A

We will also be hosting a series interactive webcasts in the upcoming months.