Business Intelligence from Microsoft

PerformancePoint Server 2007 will be the focal point for Microsoft's BI technologies, returning performance data to Excel and SharePoint Portal using SQL Server's Analysis and Reporting services.

PerformancePoint Server 2007 is a management application and a strategy and activities evaluation tool that will focus on data analysis, planning, budgeting, and forecasting future development capabilities.

In the end, PerformancePoint will cover a large area of options from financial performance management to monitoring and managing operational, marketing, and sales performance.

For this new application, Microsoft will partner with Panorama Software Ltd, the Canadian Business Intelligence leading vendor. But PerformancePoint is the result of Microsoft's acquisition of ProClarity, another BI developer, and indicates an aggressive move on the Redmond company's behalf on the BI market, which grew nearly 10% last year, reaching 5.5 billion dollars.

In a Panorama Software press release, the Canadian company said that its BI applications will be based on the similar Microsoft platform, including future products as Microsoft Office PerformancePoint 2007, in order to offer best in class solutions for business performance improvement, by gathering all relevant data from the different systems of the enterprise that will lead to a comprehensive insight indicating the best course of managerial actions.