Microsoft BI Strategy Update April 2009: SharePoint, PerformancePoint and SQL Server
By now you've likely seen the announcement from Microsoft regarding its Business Intelligence platform, PerformancePoint. The company is reconfiguring its product mix and will now bundle PerformancePoint Server with SharePoint. We agree with Gartner's assessment that this is a smart move for Microsoft and has the potential to provide significant benefits for Microsoft --and our clients!
Here is what Microsoft said:
"Microsoft's strategy is to deliver BI to everyone in the organization through the broadly adopted tools of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office Excel, and build on the scalable Microsoft SQL Server BI platform. Based on customer feedback, we are moving the scorecard, dashboard, and analytic functionality from Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server into Office SharePoint Server Enterprise, making these capabilities available throughout the organization at a lower total cost of ownership."
With this move, Microsoft is taking a major leap forward in terms of creating Collaborative Business Intelligence and making it affordable.
- It allows us to fully mix monitoring & analytical components with traditional collaborative components such as discussion boards, task lists, document libraries, and more.
- It creates "actionable dashboards" to help team members in an organization take immediate steps to solve an issue or take advantage of an opportunity presented by the information.
- Millions of SharePoint Enterperise CAL license holders just gained instant access to BI capabilities through PerformancePoint. In other words, if you own SharePoint with eCAL licenses and Software Assurance, you will be able to start a BI initiative without purchasing additional software.
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