Microsoft Takes A Shot at the Business Intelligence Market
Lyndsay Wise - June 30, 2006

Introduction

Although business intelligence (BI) touts itself as being able to provide analytics to the general user population within organizations, in most instances only a small portion of decision makers actually use BI tools and applications. Generally, applications are implemented in silos across an organization. In some cases, this means implementing various applications and vendor solutions based on the needs identified within individual departments. For example, an organization may implement a Cognos solution to manage its sales force performance, and a Hyperion solution because of its strong financial consolidation functionality within the finance department. As BI has changed to accommodate real-time data analysis, and to provide forward-looking business planning and strategies, the need to bring a single set of analytical tools to every decision maker across the organization has grown...