By Chris Alliegro [bio]
Posted: Apr. 16, 2007                             Purchase a copy of this report

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.

Free! Executive Summary

An overview of recent developments in Microsoft's business intelligence strategy and offerings

Free! Introduction

An introduction to Microsoft's business intelligence strategy and offerings

Analysis Services Extends the OLAP Cube

SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services is a more fully realized platform for building online analytic processing (OLAP) and data-mining applications and could help drive upgrades to SQL Server 2005

End-User Report Creation in Reporting Services

Updates to Reporting Services and a new end-user reporting feature could encourage upgrades to SQL Server 2005; however, the new feature works only with SQL Server and Oracle data sources

Integration Services Overhauled

SQL Server 2005 includes completely rewritten tools for data integration, transformation, and cleansing, which could strengthen SQL Server's position in data warehousing, reporting, and other business intelligence areas

New OLAP Features for Excel

New Excel features for browsing Analysis Services cubes could extend Microsoft's lead in the OLAP server market, but will also squeeze partners that create Excel add-ins for Analysis Services

SharePoint 2007 Expands Business Intelligence

New business intelligence features could drive adoption of SharePoint Server 2007, but the product will need to be set up carefully for these features to be very useful

New Product for Performance Management

PerformancePoint Server 2007 expands on Business Scorecard Manager to help companies more effectively measure business performance; it will further squeeze traditional business intelligence players, such as Business Objects and Cognos

Future Directions and Considerations

Highlights future directions for the BI platform and applications and some of the challenges customers and partners may face

Resources

Links and pointers to additional information about the SQL Server 2005 business intelligence (BI) platform and applications

Appendix: SQL Server 2005 Availability, Pricing, and Packaging

Microsoft has changed SQL Server pricing and licensing for SQL Server 2005; this section describes those changes and maps business intelligence (BI) platform features to SQL Server 2005 editions