Business Scorecard Manager Ships

Tracking business performance is the goal of the Business Scorecard Manager 2005, released Nov. 2005. Formerly code-named Maestro, this Web server application enables business performance analysis using scorecards, in which a business unit evaluates itself over time against a consistent set of metrics (e.g., average revenue per user, subscriber churn, employee retention rates). Scorecards help organizations track progress toward goals and identify problem areas quickly. Because scorecards are widely used and industry-independent, Microsoft hopes Business Scorecard Manager will spearhead further expansion into business intelligence applications and drive demand for the many Microsoft products that it requires.

Driver for SQL Server, Windows Server, Office

The heart of Business Scorecard Manager is a set of scorecard components for Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), the document-sharing and data-sharing service of Windows Server 2003. These components summarize data from a variety of sources (including SQL Server databases), calculate values for the scorecard metrics, and present scorecard views that combine reports and charts. A Business Scorecard Builder client application enables chart and report layout for scorecards; the resulting scorecard charts and reports are accessible from a browser.