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Blog: Shawn RogersJanuary 9, 2008Bill Gates Retirement VideoYou have to admit he's a good sport. September 19, 2007Q&A PerformancePoint Launch Press ConferenceJeff Raikes, President of the Microsoft Business Division is answering questions here is an abbreviated recap: Questions 2. Tell us more about pricing - list price per user for PP is $200 per user the pricing is allowing prospects to entertain a more widely spread business intelligence initiative. 3 What are the partner opportunities around the BI offerings - Business Process consulting and deployment are great opportunities. Overall the call was very interesting and as I said in my initial posting its going to be an interesting year for pervasive business intelligence. Tags: Microsoft, Business Intelligence PerformancePoint, Business Performance Management Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007I am still in the press conference, Microsoft just introduced Ulf Hilton, Group Finance Manager of Oticon A/S a billion dollar revenue manufacturing firm located in Copenhagen with 4,800 employees with 50 subsidiaries in 24 countries. Its no surprise that Oticon saw Microsoft as a good source for business intelligence based on the extensive Office install base they had throughout the company. I really think this is the linchpin for Microsoft. They own the world of office applications they are better positioned than anyone to bring business intelligence and performance management to companies. The Oticon story is pretty good. I am sure Microsoft will have white papers available soon the project will go live in early 08. Tags: Microsoft, Business Intelligence PerformancePoint, Business Performance Management Microsoft Launches Office PerformancePoint ServerKABOOM!!! Yep that sound you heard at 10:30 AM MST was the change in the business intelligence landscape that many people have been waiting for, Jeff Raikes, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announced the launch of Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, Microsoft’s new performance management application during a press conference. It's going to be an interesting ride the next couple months as Microsoft attacks the BI space with its full line up of solutions.
I've spoken here before about my believe in pervasive business intelligence. Microsoft is going to alter the existing paradigm for business intelligence and they are off to a great start. Raikes highlighted the hiring of over 100 employees to drive the BI division as well as highlighting that they have over 10,000 customer presently enrolled the Customer Technology Program (CTP) a way for customers to preview and work with emerging Microsoft technology. Over 1,000 partners are trained and ready to support the initiative. The CTP enrollment is an interesting number when you think about the number in comparison to the install base of many business intelligence solution providers....bottom line Microsoft has more people involved in CTP that most companies have customers. I am still on the call....stay tuned for more. Tags: Microsoft, Business Intelligence PerformancePoint, Business Performance Management June 26, 2007Step by Step....The momentum behind Microsoft's business intelligence initiatives continues to move forward at a steady pace. The Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 enters Community Technology Preview (CTP) version 3 today. I haven't had a chance to see it in action yet but you can get a copy by visiting the Connect site http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=181
May 19, 2007And the winners are......Congratulations to the winners from our booth give aways at the Microsoft Business Intelligence Summit. It was great to see so many readers and fans of the Network in person. I also appreciate the kind words several of you shared with me out my blog. Microsoft Zune Winner:
February 12, 2007The Microsoft Approach to Business IntelligenceI caught up with Alex Payne of Microsoft to get more details on the announcment they made at the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit in the UK. As I mentioned in my previous post the briefing was standing room only and centered around Performance Point Server. The thousand foot view is pretty simple. Performance Point allows Microsoft to service both ends of the market. They can provide the power user with the features they need and on the same platform can provide pervasive business intelligence services across the enterprise. I think the most notable aspect of the announcement is how simple the licensing agreement is. Usually they read like stereo instructions, that isn't the case here.
No matter how you do the math this model is a far cry from the $250,000 server and $1,500 seat licenses that has been the norm for a long time. The software gives users broad access to 3 important business intelligence sets of functionality, Monitoring, Analysing, and Planning (more on the features here). The ability to customize these sets of features for a flat price will really make it easy for companies to adopt the program. I'm sure that not everyone in the space is pleased that Microsoft has lowered the pricing hurdle to this level but isn't it the missing link of truly pervasive business intelligence? This is a very disruptive and powerful play by Microsoft into the space. So what are your thoughts? Is this what is needed to fuel the growth of business intelligence? I look forward to hearing from you on this one. Nicely done Microsoft. Technorati Tags: Business Intelligence, Performance Point, Microsoft, Alex Payne, Pervasive Business Intelligence, Gartner January 31, 2007Gartner Business Intelligence Summit UK
Andreas Bitterer kicked things off yesterday and shared his latest research: Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 1Q07. The leaders quadrant continues to contain Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion, Oracle and SAS. New comer to the report is Spotfire who was included due to it's "innovative analysis capabilities and positioning".
Microsoft's Alex Payne spoke in a session yesterday to a standing room only audience as he presented the importance of pervasive business intelligence. An interesting point was discussed during the session concerning pricing. The bottom line being that low cost or "cheap pricing" doesn't always mean that a product isn't enterprise quality or feature rich. Alex drove the point home by unveiling the new pricing options available and it caused a few gasps in the room. In short, enterprise ready business intelligence at extremely aggressive pricing has officially arrived. Several people left the room in a rush after the slide went up, its possible not everyone in the space is pleased with the new pricing? I hope to have more on the Microsoft piece today. January 30, 2007Windows Vista Hits the StreetThe long awaited launch of Windows Vista is happening as you read this. Overall once the driver issues are resolved and a bit of public beta testing happens this will probably be a very strong offering from Microsoft. If your still wondering what all the noise is about and would like to see it in action without committing to a complete system install take a look at http://www.windowsvistatestdrive.com/ they have a very nice interface for looking at Vista and actually allow you to give some of the features a test drive. November 5, 2006Microsoft to work with LinuxThis story has received a ton of coverage this past week and I can't help putting my two cents in on the discussion. The rumor behind the deal according to Robert Scoble's blog is that Novell had the goods on Microsoft regarding patent infringement. The two companies who have already been locked in bitter court battles to the tune of $500 million decided to forge a partnership instead of duking it out on this one. The bottom line is that Microsoft has agreed to work with Novell to make the Windows operating system compatible with Novell's Suse Linux. Right now the two operating systems can't communicate. the new deal will allow interoperability between them. My opinion is that regardless of the motivation for this deal I am excited about how Linux is at the top of everyone's list right now. the recent Oracle annoouncement coupled with Microsoft opening up to Novell can only mean good things for everyone. If you want more on this topic here are a few good links: It tough being Microsoft, here is a comment from one of the blogs I was reading: […] Microsoft went out and cut a deal with Novell so that they wouldn’t have to go into a patent war with each other. Then, they all sang kumbaya and cooked eggs on an XBox. They felt such inner peace from the experience that they removed the transfer limitation from the Vista license. Afterward, Microsoft engineers showed Novell lawyers how “cool and awesome and totally rad” (okay, so maybe those weren’t the exact words) their newly launched Zune site was. […] Technorati Tags: Open Source, Linux, Novell, Microsoft, Suse, Scoble August 29, 2006Microsoft Vista Pricing is LeakedOn Monday the Canadian version of Microsoft.com accidentally posted the pricing grid for Vista the new operating system slated to launch sometime in September. The story was first posted at Neowin.net and Microsoft has since pulled the page off the site. Here is the pricing:
June 6, 2006Microsoft Business Intelligence StrategyOn the same day that Google launches Google Spreadsheets its new online competition for Excel, Microsoft kicks things up a notch with Jeff Raikes President Microsoft Business Division rolling out the new business intelligence strategy. The newest portion of the solution is Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 that enables business intelligence and performance management across the Microsoft Office Suite. During the call Raikes covered familiar ground and discussed the need to shorten business intelligence ROI cycles, the need to get the other 70% - 80% of the business using business intelligence and touched on the growth potential of the market. The point that interested me the most was the reference to most companies having multiple BI solutions in house and the challenge that presents with "one version of the truth" and cross department access to information. Microsoft is in the truly unique position of being on the desktop of almost every enterprise employee and the addition of Office PerformancePoint Server could put them in the right spot to gain a huge hold on the industry as BI for the masses continues to build traction.
Microsoft is making a significant investment into the business intelligence space and stated they have 100 new BI solutions under development to support 12 industries. They are focusing on Aligned BI products, investing0 in new capabilities and products, bringing together their BI sales and Marketing groups and have increased partner focus. Lewis Levin Corporate Vice President Office Business Applications joined the call and did a screen shot demo of the product and its integration into office 2007 here is a screen shot from the demo:
June 1, 2006Microsoft and Business IntelligenceI bumped into Donald Farmer of Microsoft last week and discoverd two really cool things.
March 22, 2006Microsoft postpones Vista releaseI guess its a Microsoft blog week for me. Interesting news that the new improved operating system named Vista is now been delayed officially till January 2007. This really effects consumers the most, Microsoft put Windows XP into production back in 2001 so its been a long time since we have gotten a new operating system. I've seen betas of the Vista product and from what I see the feature set is great. The delay hit Microsoft stock today for a 3% drop and it may have a trickle down effect with regards to the major computer manufacturers who will be without a new operating system to promote going into the Christmas season. March 21, 2006"Mea culpa" Say Bill GatesWill Firefox and Opera steal the browser market from Microsoft? Bill gates recently said that Microsoft had made a mistake by ignoring the development of Internet Explorer and it allowed these companies and others to gain a foothold in the market. With a renewed sense of purpose Microsoft is getting set to take back what they consider to be their market share. Two new releases are slated for this year and a test version was announced by Gates this week. I'd like to hear from you regarding browsers, have you left IE behind for an alternative browser? if so why? We are seeing that almost 1/2 of our users are now driving something other than IE. What made you change? January 2, 2006Send your Xbox 360 to meMicrosoft's strategy to push the Xbox 360 into the market seemed liked a good idea.....at first. They cited the need to "make" the holiday gift season as well as beat there competition to market with new technology as the primary drivers. The amounts of bad press they are receiving because of defects that include over heating, stalling or crashing are making that business decision look like a bad one. Microsoft is reportedly being sued by its unhappy customers. I just wanted to say if you too have a 360 and need a place to toss it.....send it to me. I have been a Microsoft "beta" tester for years. Happy News Years! July 29, 2005Friday afternoon diversionA fun way to kill the last bit of your week, check out the Microsoft SQL 2005 site Escape from Yesterworld. |
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