UPDATED: Microsoft has released a private beta of a new business
intelligence (BI) application, hoping to tap into the rich market for
creating corporate performance reports.
Code-named Maestro, the new application uses the ubiquitous Microsoft Office
to help businesses get to the root of their operational and employee
performance.
The software, part of an offshoot of BI called business performance
management, helps business users create and use performance scorecards
to gauge productivity and effectiveness. Maestro’s scorecards, which work
with Office 2003 and Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, rate performance
throughout the organization.
The scorecards are used in reports, charting, graphs and analysis tools, as
well as in documents and spreadsheets.
Microsoft said in a statement that BI continues to be an important area of
investment for Microsoft’s information worker business, which is focused on
helping employees who use Office be more productive.
“Maestro is a key deliverable in our strategy for BI, bridging the gap
between enterprise data sources and the information workers who need to view
and analyze business information, as well as plan, make decisions and
collaborate with others,” said Lewis Levin, corporate vice president of
Office business applications at Microsoft.
The first incarnation of Maestro was originally released last summer as a
Business Scorecard Accelerator. A public beta version will be available this
summer. Redmond has not decided on pricing or general availability.
Forrester Research analyst Keith Gile said the Office group hasn’t had a
strong BI approach in the past. He said the Accelerator was something of an
“advanced spreadsheet” that proved that users could do a lot more with the
Office environment.
The positive feedback Microsoft received led it to take that concept
and make it into a more formal product offering which is what Maestro is,
Gile said in an interview.
“It does for the first time bring together SQL Server and Office into a
bonafide BI offering.”
There is serious money to be made in BI, especially in the burgeoning
performance management area. According to a recent Gartner report, corporate
performance management is projected to grow 10 percent a year and top $900
million by 2009.
Microsoft enjoys a partnership with Business Objects, but the software power
is still encroaching a bit on the French company’s territory. Cognos,
Hyperion, MicroStrategy and a host of other smaller vendors also sell
Performance-management software.
‘Maestro’ Keeps Business Intel Score
