By Chris Alliegro [bio]
Posted: Apr. 16, 2007

The following an excerpt of a Research Report published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. More samples of our content, as well as a list of upcoming articles and reports are also available.

Over the last two years, Microsoft has expanded its product lines for business intelligence (BI), the process of extracting raw data from operational business applications and databases and analyzing the data to make long-term, high-level business decisions. Ideally, BI solutions enable better decisions based on hard data already collected while doing business day-to-day. With SQL Server 2005, Microsoft substantially improved its tools for collecting and analyzing data and building applications and solutions for BI. With SharePoint Server 2007, which shipped in Nov. 2007, and the upcoming PerformancePoint Server 2007, Microsoft is also growing its presence in BI applications that help end users analyze data.

This report summarizes the recent evolution of Microsoft's BI strategy and offerings. It covers the SQL Server 2005 BI platform and explains improvements over the previous generation of the platform, and outlines the latest and upcoming versions of Microsoft's BI applications, including Excel, SharePoint Server, and PerformancePoint Server. The report will interest any organization considering or expanding BI solutions on the Microsoft platform, and systems integrators, solution providers, and software vendors who support such organizations.