Microsoft makes big BI push with PerformancePoint Server 2007

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

The new system features key BI elements such as scorecarding, analytics and forecasting, integrated with Microsoft staples such as SQL Server and Excel.

“PerformancePoint provides all the performance management functionality required in one integrated application, which is optimised for SQL Server,” said Renaud Besnard, Microsoft UK’s Office Business Applications product manager. “Traditional BI systems are made up of around 10 and 12 different products, with different views of the organisation and different data metrics, and are expensive to maintain.”

Microsoft also plans to use PPS to add performance management features such as financial analytics to its Dynamics enterprise applications range, aimed at the mid-market.

Rival BI vendors said they were not threatened by Microsoft’s move, however. SAS argued that Microsoft “is just making a play for the hottest tech market … [but] does not have the intellectual capital, experience or technology to do true BI”.

Helena Schwenk, senior analyst at research firm Ovum, doubted Microsoft would attract much custom from large firms in the near future. “Microsoft is late to the market with its performance management solution, so many firms already have well-established products,” she said. “It will play well into the mid-market, but the target enterprise market requires a more direct and industry-specific selling model.”

Although Schwenk did not expect many large firms to switch over from rival BI systems in the short term, she said that in the long term, the integration with Excel and future developments to PPS could make it a more attractive option.

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 will be released in beta in the autumn, and is scheduled to be generally available in mid-2007.