As Business Intelligence features make up a large portion of SQL Server 2008 R2’s feature set it’s important for IT Directors and BI Managers to be armed with the facts as they evaluate and plan use of their features.

Customers with earlier editions of SQL Server and Software Assurance can look to leverage the great value add features that are part and parcel of 2008 R2 with minimal additional investment.

Of specific BI-centric interest are:

• PowerPivot features for delivering Team-centric BI models build using PowerPivot
• Integrated Mapping within Reporting Services – utilising the power of Bing Maps within reports
• Master Data Management Functionality delivered with Master Data Services
• Complex Event processing with StreamInsight
• Scalable & Massively Parallel Data Warehousing

This free SQL Server 2008 R2 e-Book, including extensive coverage of the SQL Server Business Intelligence features.

Thanks to Devon Musgrave at Microsoft Press for sharing the link to the book: Devon Musgrave

This year’s Retail Week Technology Summit looks set to deliver an exciting agenda focused on applying smarter technology to help retailers build their business, maximise their multi-channel opportunities, reduce operating costs and grow market share by retaining and expanding your customer base.

As Retail Business Intelligence specialists, it is no surprise to see that many of the headline topics for discussion have a direct Business Intelligence theme:

• Reduce costs in the whole business - Financial Analytics, Activity-based costing, benchmarking costs, using BI to help identify cost-saving opportunities
  
• Be more efficient – Providing your teams the analytical tools to do their job quickly and effectively – helping them avoid spreadsheet hell and becoming slaves to copying and pasting in workbooks, freeing them to spend less time manipulating, more time analysing.
  
• Get closer to their customers – Monitor customer trends and patterns, survey customers and use to profile buying behaviours and make appropriate changes to your business, focus and target your proposition to specific customers based upon their needs and desires
  
• Get more out of their IT spend – Utilise existing investment in Core-IT to help deliver more valuable information from the data and systems you already own 
  
• Run a better ecommerce and multichannel business – utilise BI technologies and techniques to bring information together from across the business – unifying multiple channels, multiple functions and getting a 360-degree view of the modern retail business 
  
• Increase transparency in the supply chain – Using collaborative tools to share information across organisational boundaries throughout the supply chain. By linking Sales & Operational Planning, Demand & Availability planning throughout the supply chain, you and your suppliers gain visibility, insight and pre-emptive management of issues
  
• Develop more exciting stores – Utilising information and the Web2.0 experience to bring online and new-media experiences to your in-store environment

The agenda promises an interesting show, but if you can’t wait that long – get in touch to find out how Retail Business Intelligence can help you today.

With economic uncertainty and budget cuts as the norm, IT is under relentless pressure to deliver more and better services at a lower cost. While metrics can require considerable time and effort to develop, and then to report regularly, there are many reasons to make such an investment. For IT leaders, being able to recognize and develop effective metrics is becoming an increasingly important competency.

Enterprises not currently using metrics to manage performance have much to gain. There are many benefits to be had from an effective IT metrics program, including more sophisticated data center management, better alignment with the needs of the business, and higher levels of competitive advantage, as illustrated below in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Competitive Advantage Gained from Metrics

However, lack of manager commitment is the number one killer of an IT metrics program. Be aware of common concerns and how to handle them to ensure success of your metrics initiative efforts.

Commonly Held Objections to Metrics

The introduction of any new measurement process can inevitably bring with it some objections. Some of these objections may be totally legitimate, while others can be addressed with proper education and implementation. An example of the former is the concern that IT managers and their staff could be assessed against a new suite of metrics. This issue can be quite complex and must be resolved between management and human resources.

• Costs: “We don’t have budget for a metrics program.” It is true that there will be costs associated with a metrics program, but ongoing costs should not be high. Any method of measurement does have costs (labor, software if necessary), but metrics provide tangible benefits; some provide risk containment/mitigation benefits and others may provide direct financial benefit by pointing out areas of excessive cost or inefficiency. If collected and applied properly, IT metrics meet both of these objectives. In regulated environments, it is also important to note that some level of IT metrics may actually be required as part of a compliance program. This, of course, should factor into any cost-benefit decision.
• People: “We have good IT staff and managers.We don’t need metrics to tell us that.” Good people are the backbone of any organization, and the best metrics system in the world cannot make up for the lack of skilled, competent, dedicated staff. It may even be the case that business management is in close communication with IT and is very much in the loop. This argument makes most sense in a static environment, where people and management do not change much. However, change is more the rule than the exception in today’s business environment. Staff and management roles are more fluid than ever before, and even stable organizations can undergo mergers or acquisitions. This being the case, it becomes important to institutionalize a system of measurement, feedback, analysis, and act upon metrics so that IT’s value and effectiveness is demonstrated.

The Small Enterprise Conundrum

Small enterprises are often apathetic when it comes to IT metrics. When discussing metrics and benchmarking with enterprises with less than 10 IT staff, research group Info-Tech found that many feel no need to track and report on metrics, or benchmark themselves against their peers.

The Most Common Objection? Size: “Our business units know what IT does. Because our business is constantly changing, I don’t see any value in actually putting resources towards trying to define those metrics.” – IT Manager, small distribution company

There are two points here. First, small companies often become larger companies, so the control system that IT metrics provide can help manage growth. Second, while it may be possible to chug along without metrics for a while, it is likely that problems in IT service will arise or that metrics will eventually be requested by the business. Rather than wait, it is better for IT to be proactive in anticipating and reacting to problems.

The quote above raises an important question – how much time, effort, and resources should small enterprises spend on developing a metrics, benchmarking, and reporting infrastructure? The majority of the commitment is in the planning and preparation phase, and it is not trivial, but the rewards can be significant.

The Good Outweighs the Bad (or it should)

“If You Can’t Measure IT, You Can’t Manage IT”

With greater emphasis on accountability and performance, IT leaders can better communicate IT performance and effectiveness to the enterprise through the use of metrics. Even if metrics are not being enforced, politically savvy and proactive IT leaders will find value in capturing and using metrics to demonstrate quantifiable measures of control within IT.

IT leaders should have a vested interest in collecting and analyzing metrics from their own departments. Staffing levels, helpdesk performance, and other metrics can assist IT professionals in managing people and assets more effectively. The ability to do so can have a positive impact on the IT budget as well as the performance of the IT department as a whole.

Dovetailing with Current Benchmarking Initiatives

Business executives and unit managers are probably already studying benchmarks or best practices for key business processes. It is difficult to justify why IT should not be benchmarked as well. In fact, benchmarking IT only solidifies the importance of information technology in the enterprise. Like most other business processes, IT is also worth measuring.

Making Better Sourcing Decisions

It is rare to find a management team that has not been approached by onshore or offshore service providers with compelling arguments for why they should provide technology services to the enterprise (typically including a pitch for lower costs and better service). Without a robust system of IT metrics and appropriate feedback mechanisms in place, it may be difficult to support or refute some of these arguments. Metrics allow management to see how IT funds are being spent and what the results are in concrete terms, and will provide a basis for comparison for any outsourcing or co-sourcing proposals.

Creating Efficiencies across IT

The following list represents some of the IT management areas that can benefit from metrics:

• IT operational budget planning
• IT capital budget planning
• Staffing levels

Then, of course, there are the IT operational areas that can benefit from metrics:

• Server performance
• Storage management
• Network performance and availability
• Project management
• IT security incidents
• Disaster recovery and business continuity
• Data center operations
• Help desk efficiency

Recommendations

1. Be proactive. Start small, but start; don’t wait until you’re forced to build them. To be valuable, metrics need to be measured and evaluated over time. Start building a foundation of base level metrics. In the short term, this may be in a spreadsheet or simple database. As the metrics, measurement, and reporting requirements evolve over time, this may evolve into a more robust data warehouse/BI solution.
2. Identify a sponsor. As with many initiatives that have a perceived lack of benefits or could effect unwanted cultural change, executive buy-in and continued support are the keys to success. Ask the sponsor and major stakeholders what they are expecting to gain out of metrics, and then communicate this to the organization. It is inevitable that many who will be involved with a metrics implementation effort — those involved in collecting and interpreting data, and those whose projects and functions will be measured — will question the value or motives of this effort. Some may even work against it, overtly or otherwise. For that reason, it is critical that a high-level executive sponsor visibly supports the metrics program. The sponsor may even choose to incentivize key stakeholders in order to ensure the success of the program.
3. Don’t treat metrics like a large scale project. Look for low hanging fruit, and start evaluating metrics that are already being collected. Create a process and mentality of collecting and reporting key metrics as a regular process within IT. It helps to get in the habit of reviewing metrics regularly, using them as backup and to make informed decisions.Recognize that metrics are an iterative process and will be refined and improved over time.
4. Avoid doing too much too soon . Start small and run a pilot program. Any new technique that generates intelligence for the business can create a lot of excitement. Realize that just because you can measure it, doesn’t mean you should. The mere fact that the data exists and can be easily collected does not mean it is necessary. This can quickly lead to an unmanageable information glut.
5. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use available research, tools, and templates to guide the change. Some organizations will require more customized metrics which should be devised with awareness that the required underlying data to calculate these metrics is available and can be recorded on a regular basis. Also make sure that any metrics selected link with business goals and apply to pertinent projects.

Bottom Line

As IT evolves, so too does the need to be proactive in measuring and controlling the quality and efficiencies of IT. Metrics are a powerful management tool that can be used to effectively communicate, maintain, and improve IT effectiveness over time. The key to a successful program is a proactive approach to metrics development.

Collaboration and Business Intelligence are both technologies that have rapidly evolved in recent years, each along their own independent paths. As social networking has become mainstream and more broadly understood, so the concepts of applying collaborative technology to Business Intelligence and Performance Management have evolved accordingly.

Business Intelligence is primarily about breaking down the ‘silo’ effect where information is trapped in some obscure, difficult to access system. When you look at systems as more than just a technical component or piece of software – i.e. recognise that a system is a combination of people, process and technology – it’s clear to see that collaboration has a lot to bring to bare on Business Intelligence by enabling you to break down the silos of people and process as well as technology.

Tony Crowhurst, senior writer at FSN asks the question : Is collaborative Performance Management finally here with PowerPivot?

The answer needs to be yes – implementing great business intelligence and performance management to simply leave it in it’s own silo (albeit an easier to use and more business-intelligent silo) is only solving half of the problem. Using collaborative techniques to jointly develop, share and continually improve Business Intelligence and Performance Management systems enables you to unlock BI’s full potential in a mechanic that I can see becoming ‘Agile BI’

IBM have just released their 2010 study of over 1,900 Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and senior finance executives from across the globe and the verdict is that “Cost reduction matters to today's CFO, but not as much as getting stuck in to wider corporate business decisions. Playing their part in the wider corporate strategy is now the top priority for CFOs who no longer rank cost reduction at the top of their agenda.”

"Their priorities for the next three years were to cut the enterprise cost base, make decisions faster and provide more transparency to external stakeholders."

That statement makes a refreshing change given the current economic climate, it indicates that CFOs are starting to think about gearing for growth and I believe that Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) are core to delivering each of those priorities:

It is often said that Information is Power and for CFO nothing could be truer.  Without the facts they simply cannot be expected to perform their role effectively and BI and PM play a pivotal role in providing them. Strategic decision making is no small matter and requires a well integrated and comprehensive data capture, reporting and analysis environment.  The good news is that one thing that CFOs can’t complain about these days is a lack of quality tools to provide the solution.

The quotes in this post were taken from the Finance Week website that delivers topical, practical content to senior finance professionals in UK industry: http://www.financeweek.co.uk/topic/career-ladder/changed-priorities-2010-cfo/32194

If you’re a regular reader of the Altius Community blogs, you’ll have seem an increasing amount of activity around PowerPivot (formerly Gemini) as a BI tool delivered as part of Office 2010, with significant enhancements when used in conjunction with the upcoming SQL Server 2008 R2 and SharePoint 2010.

PowerPivot

We had the pleasure of hosting an event in London last week with Donald Farmer, the Microsoft BI Programme Manager, presenting his thoughts on BI and how it is evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of Enterprise-consumers.

PowerPivot is a great tool to help straddle the gulf between what ‘the business’ needs in terms of access to information, familiarity in terms of how to use it etc and the IT needs around governance, control and availability. PowerPivot delivers the flexibility and power of Excel to the business user, whilst providing control and making the most of the investment in back-end quality, scalable data sources provided by IT.

Cloud Computing

One of the big changes (and the cause of a lot of turbulence) in the IT world at the moment is the concept of ‘Cloud Computing’. Microsoft’s model for this is ‘Software + Services’ (S+S) – identifying that a mix of on-premise and off-premise systems is an appropriate answer, enabling the economies of scale, flexibility and dynamism to be gained from Software + Services e.g. provisioning services more rapidly and cost effectively in ‘the cloud’.

One of the key challenges in Business Intelligence is providing access to the right information at the right time. Doing so internally with Microsoft BI is one part of that story. Integrating cloud-based data with in-house data is a large part of the S+S model and will help deliver massive gain as the model breaks down the walls between internal and external systems and information.

That’s nice, but I don’t have full S+S yet

The chances are that your organisation is using some kind of Cloudware already – whether it’s website statistics monitoring, SalesForce.com for CRM, facilities management software or one of a growing army of applications that have a tight fit for the benefits of cloud computing. Many organisations are benefitting from this model, but are struggling to integrate the information they contain with internally available data – so how do you make the most of the data already in these systems? REST and PowerPivot may be the answer.

PowerPivot – Give it a REST

REST (Representational State Transfer – but let’s ignore how techy that sounds for now) is a web services protocol that is growing in popularity as a great (and simple) way for applications to provide a common way to interact. REST provides a formal pattern for communicating with applications in a service oriented architecture (SOA), allowing you to ‘consume services’ in a logical way rather than have to know technical details of how it is implemented. SOA is widely adopted in Cloudware / software as a service applications already as a way to ‘glue’ applications together – you can use it too!

PowerPivot provides, out of the box, directly in Excel, the ability to consume REST-compliant services from anywhere, allowing non-technical users to gain access to the information within your cloud-based systems, mine it, combine it with other external (and internal) sources and use it to support business-critical decision making.

Connecting to an external service is available from the simple menu in PowerPivot (allowing you to also consume data already embedded within internal Reporting Services reports right next to external ‘Other Feeds’):

From there, you simply provide the address to the REST services that your Cloudware vendor provides:

(In this example I’m using a publicly available data on purchase orders provided as part of Microsoft’s Open Government Data Initiative and the District of Columbia’s publicly available purchasing data - http://ogdi.cloudapp.net/v1/dc/PurchaseOrders/).

From here PowerPivot handles the details of the queries and protocols for you, allowing you to connect live to the data and treat it as any other table of data within PowerPivot or Excel – making it very much a ‘power excel user’ feature. From here you can start to filter, slice-and-dice, aggregate, analyse and report. If you can use Pivot Tables, you’ll be up and running in minutes!

Built something great? Share(Point) it

With SharePoint 2010, you’ll also be able to share the PowerPivot models you’ve built with your team. Sharing & Collaborating using PowerPivot models enables them to become the one validated source of information for you and your team – delivering high-quality, connected and up-to-date, self-service BI without resorting to hundreds of versions of linked, e-mailed and out of date Excel files.

Find out more

If you’re interested in finding out how you can employ Microsoft BI – often using software your organisation is already licensed for – get in touch to discuss your needs and we can point you in the right direction.

Matt.Quinn@altiusconsulting.com

Xobni - www.xobni.com have today launched the Enterprise edition of their family of Outlook plug-in products designed to make you more efficient in the way in which you interact with one of the biggest untapped corporate data resources – your inbox!

As a free outlook add-in (along with the $30 Xobni Plus edition with its enhanced features and performance) Xobni has been downloaded by over 3 Million users. It’s snowballing popularity is highlighted by Bill Gates’ decision to use Xobni as a demonstration of the power of Outlook (and Office) as a developer platform.

So what’s it all about?

Xobni is about ‘taking back your inbox’. Since installing it some three months ago, I’m not sure I could live without it anymore. I won’t go into detail on the out of the box features as they’re well covered in detail here: http://www.xobni.com/learnmore/

What you see with Xobni in Outlook:

Where Xobni gets really interesting from a Business Intelligence & Performance Management perspective is with today’s launch of Xobni Enterprise.

Xobni Enterprise delivers what users love about Xobni, whilst meeting corporate IT needs – primarily ease of management through centralised deployment and configuration; tighter control over which extensions are available and to whom (e.g. call centre users don’t get Twitter or Facebook access, but sales guys do get LinkedIn for example) and, and this is the biggy, the ability to create and deploy custom extensions.

So what’s that got to do with BI?

BI means many things to many people, but here at Altius we believe Businss Intelligence is about turning the reams of data within an organisation into decision-quality information that enables better decision making. When you think about it, where does most of the information you make decisions on live? Where do you go to confirm the prices agreed on a contract? Where do you look to find the white paper or product catalogue before making a purchase? The likely answer is your inbox (or one of it’s hundreds of sub-folders, calendar invites and contact cards).

Given the unstructured nature of the inbox, it’s often difficult to find what you’re looking for and easy to get distracted, wasting millions of corporate hours and costing businesses an estimated $900 Billion each year in the US alone.  Xobni helps to bring order the chaos of the inbox and now, with Xobni Enterprise, we can help deliver information from corporate data systems in the same way. Xobni Enterprise enables us to extend the delivery of right time, right place information by connecting information from portal, CRM and back-office systems right into the user’s Outlook window in the context of their current conversations. By providing a context-sensitive Xobni Enterprise window into corporate systems such as SharePoint, Oracle, SAP and line-of-business applications we can support end-users’ abilities to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.

The custom extensions library already comes equipped with SharePoint and SalesForce.com connectors allowing you to quickly pull additional data from those corporate silos into Outlook and position it inline with the conversation you’re having – right time, right place.

In addition to the ‘out of the box’ extensions, we as a Xobni Partner, can help you create custom extensions through the Xobni Enterprise APIs to deliver any other information you require, queried based upon the context of the e-mail the user has selected.

Custom Extensions in action

One example integration is the delivery of Bing Maps for Enterprise (formerly Virtual Earth) as a Xobni Enterprise extension. When linked to our geographical data reporting solutions (e.g. sales data for the currently selected sales rep, or location based information as part of an asset tracking application), this could quickly allow sales managers or call centre reps to gain insight into the performance or location of the person they are in conversation with.

In the screenshot below for example, we utilise the e-mail address of the current contact, query a reporting solution and deliver a customised Bing Maps for Enterprise rendering directly into Xobni, centered on the contact’s location. This could easily be overlaid with additional data – for example selecting a territory manager might deliver sales performance data for that manager across the region, rendered over the map. At a glance, the sales director is then able to put conversations with the manager into the frame of current performance.

Find out more

Xobni Enterprise is hot off the press, launched only this morning at San Francisco’s Enterprise 2.0 conference. Over the coming weeks, we’re talking to dozens of IT Managers, Business users and Enterprise Architects to understand how Xobni can work for them. If you’d like to find out more, see a demo of the functionality OR if you are already loving Xobni and want to discuss a custom extension for your business or place a Xobni Enterprise order – get in touch – matt.quinn@altiusconsulting.com

Press Release: http://www.xobni.com/press/11012009_enterprise.php
Xobni Enterprise Product: http://www.xobni.com/enterprise

Following the consolidation of Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server’s Monitoring & Analytics components into the SharePoint Enterprise CAL (and the future provision of this as ‘PerformancePoint Services’ in the next release) many existing SharePoint license holders (particularly those with the e-CAL and Software Assurance) may have just inherited the rights to use the powerful Analytical components, but don’t know it.

Does your company use SharePoint? If you do, you may now be entitled to put these powerful analytical tools into your teams hands for very little input – we can help you determine if you are eligible and shape what valuable information you can provide from your existing back-end systems investment right into the hands of your users.

Get in touch to find our what you’re missing.

Matt.Quinn@altiusconsulting.com OR call +44 (0) 1483 418628

Cost reduction and enhanced planning are hot-topics in the current economic climate. Doug Guess, CFO at Servigistics made some interesting comments in Finance Week on how bringing simple home-truths into cost management can deliver significant value back to shareholders and the business.

During boom times sales and revenue growth are the key concerns. As the market has cooled (dramatically) the need and opportunity to re-examine your businesses underlying cost-base presents itself there is an opportunity deliver huge savings, but you need the information upon which to base these decisions and to ensure that whilst reducing costs you are not hampering your ability to make the most of an economic bounce-back in the future.

There are two fundamental and complementary concepts at play here:

• Cost & Profitability Analysis; and
• Scenario-based Planning;

Effective cost and profitability analysis provides the baseline information of your current world upon which to take immediate action. Scenario-based planning ensures that when making forward-looking plans you have catered for all eventualities across your industries variables - cost of capital, price of materials, cost of labour, energy prices etc.

We are running a series of Essential Business Breakfasts covering this and other Business Essentials topics in the coming weeks and months. Why not register to attend and find out more?

• Take unnecessary costs out of your business quickly - introducing Oracle Hyperion Profitability & Cost Management (HPCM)
  Tuesday 24th March 2009 - Central London
• Planning in uncertain times - Breaking out of Excel Hell
  Thursday 23rd April 2009 - Central London

Feel free to contact Polly Daghorn on 01483 418 628 or Polly.Daghorn@altiusconsulting.com to secure your place.

References:

• Finance Week Article - Doug Guess

A colleague of mine recently sent me a link to Robert's description of "What BI is". I think it's a great layman's terms description of what BI is, why we do it and where it comes from - it's not just about technology - it's a fundamental commercial process. This excerpt is from Robert's posting at Business Intelligence 101 by Robert Flanglin :

The goal of every business is to be successful by gaining new customers and retaining old customers. A crucial way of achieving this end is through “Business Intelligence.” Business intelligence is also known as simply BI. Business intelligence can be defined as a process of collecting information in the area of business. An essential idea of business is that data is enhanced into information and then into knowledge. Business use BI to gain an advantage in the marketplace by understanding their customer’s needs, customer’s decision-making processes, and economic, cultural, and technological trends. Business intelligence involves analyzing not only the customer but the entire industry as a whole. Finally, business intelligence is driven by a goal set by the company. The goal can be short term or long term.

History of Business Intelligence

Business intelligence was first referred to in Sun Tzu’s “Art of War.” Tzu claimed that in order to win a war you had to have complete knowledge and understand of your strengths and weaknesses as well as those of your enemy. This is the core idea behind modern business intelligence. A company must know itself better than anyone else, and know its customers and competitors better than anyone else. It is ironic how much business and warfare are alike. In BI, one must sift through heaps of data (both external and internal) for management to then device strategies for marketing and where to take the business.

Key Performance Indicators

In BI, the present state of business is assessed by the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Data is becoming available to businesses faster as more organizations implement KPI. In the past, data was available after one or two months, which did not help businesses adjust their strategies in a timely manner. More recently, however, banks have tried to make data available sooner and with shorter intervals, especially for businesses that have higher operational/credit risk loading (I.E. wealth management and credit cards). Some companies can get data weekly, which helps them adjust their strategies more efficiently than ever before.

Business Intelligence Tools

Business intelligence involves collecting quite a bit of information and analyzing it. Many business use tools to achieve this. A few of the data tools are data modeling, data warehouses, and data mining. Data tools help employees collect the data and analyze it efficiently. Data tools are for organizational purposes mostly. Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) is used in the analyzing process. OLAP is sometimes simply referred to as Analytics, which is based on the hypercube or “cube” and dimensional analysis.

Some businesses also use software vendors for BI tools. There are quite a few enterprises offering BI technology. If a business does not get the BI tools themselves, then software vendor will provide a business with tools, and sometimes software support and BI professionals who will help the company analyze results and collect data. Some companies providing BI software are Siebel Systems, Microsoft, Altius Consulting, Business-Soft, and SAS Institute.

Conclusion

Businesses understand that knowing the customer is the key to success. Business intelligence is the path through which a business can collect data about the customer and analyze it. Business intelligence is also about knowing the market, including competitors and market trends. A business that has the most accurate understanding of its marketplace will be more adequately prepared for the continual changes that inevitable occur in markets. Business intelligence is an important concept for any company to understand, because it will help them to gain new customers, retain old customers, and see a positive ROI.

Robert Flanglin writes about a variety of business topics and specializes in Business Intelligence. Robert Flanglin writes for the Business Intelligence Journal (http://www.businessintelligencejournal.com).

Many of you may be aware that Microsoft have recently decided to repackage functionality previously badged as Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server (see the announcement below). Effectively they are moving the Monitoring & Analytics components (Dashboard tools, web-based analytical components & what used to be Business Scorecard Manager) into the SharePoint Enterprise CAL or e-CAL.

Many users, partners and clients will be at first glance disappointed to hear that the Planning component of PerformancePoint is being sidelined with the next Service Pack (SP3) being the last set of significant enhancements.

It is important however to take a balanced view of the changes and how they may affect you. Budgeting, Planning and Consolidation processes lived and thrived long before PerformancePoint Planning's relatively recent introduction and those looking for a best-of-breed solution still have many options from both Microsoft and other vendors - including established offerings from the likes of Oracle's Essbase and Hyperion Planning; and for those looking to build upon a cohesive Microsoft BI stack can take confidence that we have been delivering solutions to these problems with Microsoft tools for many years.

At Altius, we had delivered Planning solutions based upon the Microsoft BI stack to dozens of clients before PerformancePoint was even a glint in a product manager's eye. With global rollouts of a solid Microsoft BI-delivered Management Information solution operating for BP globally, along with many other clients utilising similar solutions we are well placed to continue to deliver solid, cost-effective solutions to the SME and Global FTSE 100 alike.

Many Microsoft partners who invested in Planning functionality for the first time with PerformancePoint will be having a tough time. Where their experience in the real commercial drivers behind such a solution is based solely around a piece of technology (PerformancePoint Planning) rather than a genuine need and business process, their planning practices are likely to suffer. Those who engaged with Planning because is came bundled with the Monitoring components they specialised in will find solace in the fact that those components will become available to all those with SharePoint Enterprise licenses (and Software Assurance) and will be in a position to offer those services to a broader set of clients who now have the licenses to deliver enhance benefits to their businesses as part of SharePoint, but those partners will be unlikely to have a strong enough Budgeting, Planning & Consolidation offering to continue to make the best offering to clients in that market.

Our 15 year heritage in helping clients deliver value to their business, not based solely upon what a product does 'out of the box', but upon the drivers that they need to make their business successful has put us in a unique position to support you, our customers. I look forward to working with you to showcase the great solutions we've delivered for multi-national clients such as BP and a host of other organisations - before, through and beyond the demise of, PerformancePoint Planning.

For reference, I've included some common questions and answers relating to PerformancePoint's path over the coming months below. If you'd like more information or would like to discuss how this affects your company's BI roadmap, feel free to drop me a line on planningisthefuture@altiusconsulting.com or call +44 (0) 1483 418 628 and ask for Matt Quinn.

The statements below are from a Microsoft release - it's provided as-is, with no warranty for errors or omissions:

Announcement:
Microsoft is announcing an update to its Microsoft Business Intelligence roadmap. Microsoft’s strategy is to deliver BI to everyone in the organization through the broadly adopted tools of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office Excel, and built on the scalable Microsoft SQL Server BI platform. Based on customer feedback, we are moving the scorecard, dashboard, and analytic functionality from Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server into Office SharePoint Server Enterprise, making these capabilities available throughout the organization at a lower TCO. In mid 2009, we will release PerformancePoint Server 2007 “service pack 3” which will include updates to the current product’s planning module. Thereafter, customers should not expect further investment in standalone versions of PerformancePoint Server. However, ongoing support of our planning customers is a high priority. These changes enable customers to deploy a complete BI solution with existing investments in SharePoint Server, SQL Server, and Excel, the most widely used analysis and planning tool in market today.

Q&A:

1. What will happen to PerformancePoint Server?
PerformancePoint Server 2007 will no longer be a standalone item on the Microsoft price list as of April 1, 2009. For organizations interested in PerformancePoint Server, it can be obtained by purchasing SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise CAL with Software Assurance. In the future, the monitoring and analytics capabilities will be included in the next release of SharePoint Server and will be available to SharePoint Enterprise CAL customers. Customers with rights to PerformancePoint Server SP3 will be able to download it mid 2009 (please contact your account manager [or partner] for details). Performance management is a critical component of business intelligence and Microsoft will continue marketing and R&D investment in this area in future product releases.

2. What about from now until SharePoint ‘v-next’?
How will I obtain the current PerformancePoint monitoring and analytics functionality for broad BI deployment?
From the date of this announcement, PerformancePoint Server will be a license entitlement for SharePoint Server 2007 E-CAL customers with Software Assurance only. The technical requirement to use PerformancePoint planning will continue to be SQL Server Enterprise Edition. Customers will be able to use BI throughout their entire organizations simply by deploying SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Excel.

3. What about support for existing PerformancePoint Server planning customers?
Customer care is our primary focus during this transition. We will keep our commitments to deliver improved planning capabilities in PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP3 in mid 2009 that addresses many of the features and functionality required by our customers to leverage in their planning projects. We will continue to support all PerformancePoint customers per our existing support policy. For further details on this policy visit: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=12922.

4. What about legacy products such as ProClarity and Business Scorecard Manager?
ProClarity Analytics Server and ProClarity Desktop Pro are PerformancePoint Server 2007 Software Assurance benefits, and Business Scorecard Manager (BSM) is a downgrade right of PerformancePoint Server 2007. By the Office ‘v-next’ timeframe, we expect much of the ProClarity Analytics Server functionality to be moved into SharePoint Server and Excel. As for Business Scorecard Manager and ProClarity Desktop Pro, we don’t anticipate any further customer demand for these products as a result of this news.

5. Will customers still be able to purchase PerformancePoint Server if they require more licenses for an existing deployment?
No, not as a standalone product. If customers require additional PerformancePoint Server 2007 CALs, they should purchase SharePoint Server 2007 E-CALs with Software Assurance to be entitled to PerformancePoint Server 2007 CALs.

6. If I have additional questions, who do I contact?
If you have additional questions, please first work with your [Microsoft Gold Partner or] Microsoft account team. If you have additional questions following that, you can contact PerformancePoint Server Roadmap Announce team pps_an@microsoft.com.

So, the markets have closed on Decision-Day in the US and the Nasdaq has seen a six day rally with double-digit growth during the week. As poles indicate a strong likelihood of a White House win for Obama the markets are playing to what looks like a less uncertain market - with democratic control over Congress, the Senate and what now looks set to be a White House win the ability for decisive policy making would be stronger than ever.

Upon the close of markets analysts are almost writing off the probability of a Republican win. Typical election campaigns see a post-election rally, but with the 90%+ probability of a Democratic presidential win, markets have already aligned themselves accordingly. With that level of confidence, some analysts are wondering whether the last six days trading, and particularly today's trading, mean that we've already had the 'post' election rally.

As business prepares for more anti-business, tougher labour policy, higher taxes on high income brackets etc the ability to analyse the underlying cost base, quickly adapt budgets forecasts and plans will be essential. Fundamentally strong industries such as minerals, oil, gas and energy have rallied today on the increase of oil prices. As diverse sectors continue to work hard to attract capital, strip costs, maintain competitive advantage and drive future revenue they will have to look to information and the technology and processes that deliver it to differentiate themselves.

There has never been a better time to examine your information assets, ensure you're making the most of them and prepare your business to be at the top of every investors list as the markets commence a recovery cycle over the next 12-18 months.

Boris Evelson, Principal Analyst at research company Forrester presented an eye opening session at this week's Business Intelligence conference in Seattle. The theme of the conference being "Think Bigger About BI" couldn't be better embodied than it is in Boris.

The question and resulting definition of what Business Intelligence is, is not an easy one and the more people you have in the room, the more different answers and opinions (some of them heated!) you will get. In the interests of thinking bigger, I wholeheartedly believe that Boris' definition works on every level. Boris' definition of BI, taken from Boris' profile at forrester.com is summarised below:

"a set of processes, methodologies, and technologies used to transform raw data into meaningful, useful, and action-oriented enterprise information"

The most significant observation in that definition, one that many product-centric organisations and technophiles miss, is that BI is not in itself simply technology. It is not a product, it is not a piece of software and there is no "one size fits all" or silver bullet. BI is about people, processes and tools that deliver the meaningful, useful, actionable information in Boris' definition.

So if BI is not simply a product that you can buy, plug in and turn on - how do you get it?

In his talk at the conference, Boris talked of a parallel approach. A pragmatic programme to set you on the right path for a successful BI journey. In short, Boris' recommends starting by creating both a strategic vision of where you would like to be and identifying and taking the smallest possible baby-steps to get there - start with the lowest hanging fruit, something that can be delivered in weeks not months, costs thousands not millions and delivers immediate value to the business.

The most pertinent piece of advice that Boris offers is that selecting the right, experienced partner is crucial. Business Intelligence is personal, both to your organisation and to the way you work. Business Intelligence is a long-term strategic vision delivered, starting in baby steps, over a period of years. The first steps must be taken on solid ground and with confidence. An experienced architect and implementation partner are critical to success. Now as an experienced BI consultant I would say that, but Boris' opinion underlines the need - don't take my word for it, you can read Boris' paper "It's time to reinvent your BI strategy" for yourself.