Microsoft has released several cool Business Intelligence-related webcasts that target the forthcoming Office 2007. The webcasts are taken from the corresponding breakout session delivered at the Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006.
The latest research by IDC shows Microsoft is ahead of the pack in terms of growth in the business intelligence (BI) tools market. Microsoft ranked fourth in the overall market share and had the highest growth (25%) for the period 2004-2005. The release of SQL Server 2005 and the acquisition of ProClarity (evaluated separately on the report) will most likely gain additional momentum.
Just learned from the David Gainer’s post, that Microsoft has made a decision to retire Office Web Components (OWC) in favor of Excel Services. This is definitely sad news for me. While I agree that Excel Services could fulfill some of the integration scenarios mentioned in the comments for that post, I can think of at least two scenarios where this won’t be the case:
IMO, it could have been great if the OWC were replaced with a web and Windows Forms OLAP viewers similar to the VS.NET report viewers for SSRS 2005. This would have given developers a light-weight alternative for UDM application integration. Now, we have to wait for third-party vendors to fill in the void. Sigh…
These samplesThese samples will get you up and running with Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 utilizing the sample OLAP database provided with Microsoft SQL Server and Analysis Services 2005 called AdventureWorks DW. The purpose of the AdventureWorks DW database is to provide a sample database for exploring the possibilities of OLAP. will get you up and running with Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 utilizing the sample OLAP database provided with Microsoft SQL Server and Analysis Services 2005 called AdventureWorks DW.
An interesting article on TDWI about PerformancePoint Server.
As a follow-up to previous post, during the webcast Microsoft announced a new product called PerformancePoint Server due to be released in mid-2007 alongside Office 2007. PerformancePoint will be a convergent product of Scorecard Manager, ProClarity, and Biz# (yes, Microsoft finally let the cat out of the bag about the strictly confidential so far Biz# initiative). The product will be designed as a web-based portal and will offer performance management, planning and forecasting capabilities.
I personally very excited about this new product offering. PerformancePoint will definately help Microsoft to compete better with other heavy-weight BI players, such as Cognos. More information about PerformancePoint can be found on its website.
Jeff Raikes, President of Microsoft’s Business Division and Lewis Levin, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Office Business Applications Group, will present a Live Meeting webcast at 11 am (PDT) regarding Microsoft’s Business Intelligence product roadmap. Click here to register.
Microsoft has released a post-SP1 hotfix which addresses various bugs and issues in SQL Server 2005 and its add-on services.
I’ve just learned that I’ve been selected to present at TechEd 2006 US in Boston! I’ve been honored to present Reporting Services for three consecutive years at TechEd. This time, I will change things a bit and instead of focusing on the development area, I will talk about integrating Reporting Services and Analysis Services. As of now, the main topics I am planning to include are:
1. SSAS report actions
2. MDX Query Designer
3. Server aggregates
4. Building data mining reports
5. Ad-hoc reporting
6. CLR integration
See you in the “hub”!
