"It is impossible for ideas to compete in the marketplace if no forum for
  their presentation is provided or available."           Thomas Mann, 1896

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Business Intelligence Within Reach

Contributed by Microsoft Corporation

At no time in the past have organizations had the capability to gather and store such vast amounts of data: customer information and operational data from multiple sources flow into the enterprise with ever-increasing volume and speed. More than ever, organizations are turning to business intelligence as the means to derive value from the incredible volumes of data now collected and warehoused in enterprise systems.

Traditionally, analysis and reporting on enterprise business data has been the realm of dedicated analysts. Now, with increasing pressure to shorten the decision cycle and decrease expenses, these tasks are becoming a part of the daily routine for information workers in every facet of the organization.

In the past, organizations had to purchase specialized hardware and software to create a BI solution. Unfortunately, for many small- to mid-sized organizations, high costs alone kept BI solutions out of reach.

BI tools have traditionally been among the most complex. They typically required special training, which increased costs and/or forced the organization to offer the tools only to select users. The need for specialized training also created barriers for the information workers who needed casual access to BI data but who did not have the necessary training. As a result, only a fraction of the organization could benefit from these BI tools.

Organizations researching BI initiatives frequently encounter two drawbacks. On the enterprise level, many BI systems require modifications to existing operational systems or databases, or worse, require that data be migrated to the new platform. On the desktop these same systems may require that users understand and perform sophisticated tasks in order to access these new line-of-business systems.

Microsoft BI solutions overcome the limitations of the static reporting model by enabling information workers to interact directly with data stored in company systems. Instead of waiting minutes or hours for someone else to run a query and report results, these users can explore data at will and receive results “at the speed of thought.” BI applications that enable users across the organization to conduct their own queries and reports against the Microsoft BI Platform help organizations promote BI from a simple reporting function to a mission-critical solution. Implementing flexible, end-to-end solutions that enhance every aspect of the business helps more people make better decisions faster and achieve and maintain competitive advantage.

Shared knowledge has become crucial to success, as companies strive to work collaboratively to remain competitive. Working together successfully begins with shared knowledge and insight. Unfortunately, traditional BI systems typically do not provide a way to easily share critical business insights across departments or entire organizations. In particular, the static reporting model described above limits the ease or extent to which insights can be published or shared throughout the organization.  

Unlike BI systems that end with reporting, Microsoft BI solutions give your company a competitive advantage by enabling employees to act immediately on their insights. These solutions ensure that decisions are not only better informed; they are implemented faster than ever before.

The Microsoft BI platform provides the foundation for end-to-end solutions that provide both sophisticated data management and easy-to-use analysis and reporting tools. As shown in Figure 1, the platform centers on Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 with Analysis Services and Microsoft Office XP, and integrates data sources such as project management, ERP, CRM, SCM, and e-commerce with familiar desktop applications for analysis and reporting.

Built on SQL Server 2000 platform, Microsoft BI solutions include a relational database for storing data from across the enterprise; tools to extract, transform, and load data from the organization’s existing systems; SQL Server Analysis Services, an OLAP engine for doing fast, ad-hoc analysis; data mining capabilities for surfacing trends and patterns; graphical administration interfaces to easily chart and monitor information; and support for a wide range of front-end client tools—in short, a complete, end-to-end platform for analysis.

• Analysis Services. The measure of any business intelligence solution is in its ability to derive knowledge from data—digging through large volumes of information to identify patterns, trends, rules and relationships that are beyond simple human analysis. SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services provides a set of integrated, Web-enabled analysis services that include Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and sophisticated data-mining features.
  

• Data Transformation Services. SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services (DTS) provides the tools to consolidate data from diverse operational systems and databases into the data warehouse or data marts that support analysis and decision making. Using DTS, your organization can automate extraction, transformation, and loading among and between disparate sources. DTS can run these tasks at scheduled intervals or in response to specified events, enabling you to create data movement solutions that meet the specialized needs of your organization.
  

• Data access standards: OLE DB and XML. Open standards ensure the flexibility and longevity of your BI system by providing forward and backward compatibility with other data sources and facilitating integration of third-party applications and components. These standards expand access to BI by increasing the flexibility for developers to incorporate analytical data within applications that reside on the Internet or that are hosted by another company. Users can achieve a new level of pervasive data analysis because they have access to data from any client, ranging from a PDA to an Internet-enabled phone, laptop computer or PC.
  

• Metadata Services. An enterprise standard for “metadata”—data about data—is critical to unifying distributed, multiple data marts into a global data warehouse. SQL Server 2000 Metadata Services helps businesses build, maintain, and manage their data warehouses by providing a shared facility for expressing the inter-relationships among the various parts of the application.

Tight integration between SQL Server Analysis Services and Office XP puts the power of BI in the hands of more people than ever, enabling sophisticated analysis of large datasets using familiar tools. Through built-in support for SQL Server Analysis Services, Office XP provides easy access to enterprise data from the desktop. With the analytical capabilities of Microsoft Excel and data visualization tools including MapPoint™ and Data Analyzer, Office XP extends the capabilities of SQL Server Analysis Services, allowing users to drill down through detail, slice and dice to view different dimensions, and view and analyze data relationships graphically. Using the analysis and presentation capabilities of Office XP, virtually any user can analyze data stored in SQL Server Analysis Services data, and easily share intelligence with colleagues and peers throughout the organization.

• Analysis of SQL Server Analysis Services data. Excel enables all information workers—whether they are business analysts or other professionals—to access, process, analyze, share, and display enterprise data in a familiar, powerful desktop setting. The powerful Excel analytical engine, Excel PivotTable® and PivotChart® reports can also be built into custom applications and portals using the Office Web Components.
  

• Visualization tools. Office XP also includes applications specifically designed for data visualization and geospatial analysis, which enable users to explore data sets graphically and conduct ad hoc analysis in a simple, yet powerful interface.
  
  Microsoft Data Analyzer extends the BI capabilities of Office XP by adding rich visualization and graphical views that enable users to rapidly identify opportunities and trends, find business anomalies, and review multiple sets of data.  
  
  Microsoft MapPoint provides a cost-effective way for organizations to include geographic and demographic dimensions in their BI. MapPoint solves many of the ease-of-use, compatibility, and cost problems inherent in large-scale geographic information systems while enabling users to track business metrics by area and analyze business data alongside demographic information.

• Support for custom analytical solutions. The Microsoft BI platform also supports solutions for specific markets or business areas, such as e-commerce, project intelligence or retail analytics. The new SQL Server Accelerator for BI reduces the time it takes to build and deploy a customized BI solution by putting existing best practices to work. With the SQL Server Accelerator for BI, a BI solution can be quickly customized to meet the unique needs of an organization and its users.
  

• Rich publishing and collaboration tools. Because Office XP applications include powerful features that enable collaboration among teams and organizations, users of BI solutions built on Office XP can collaborate on analysis and subsequently share the resulting intelligence with their peers. Office XP solutions enable the organization to deliver BI functionality within and alongside world-class reporting, document creation, and presentation tools. These tools enable users to share intelligence and act upon it immediately.

The Microsoft BI Platform provides the building blocks for complete, end-to-end BI solutions. Seamless integration between world-class database management, sophisticated analysis services, enterprise servers, and exceptionally flexible, easy-to-use front-end applications make the power of BI accessible to users at all levels of the organization. As a result, businesses realize benefits in these key areas:

• Lower Cost of Ownership. The world’s leading productivity suite, Office XP is a familiar fixture in business today. By incorporating Office XP applications and technologies into a BI solution, organizations benefit from employees’ familiarity with the tools as well as the unparalleled support and ease of use. Familiarity with Office XP can dramatically reduce training and support costs for a new BI solution.
  

• Increased Return on Investment. By integrating a BI solution with the existing desktop environment, organizations make BI tools available to a larger segment of users, and increase the number of employees who can make informed, BI-based decisions and share their knowledge and best practices with other employees.
  

• Business Agility. Providing broader access to BI across the organization ultimately makes the organization more agile and more competitive by empowering all employees to make faster, better decisions based on common understanding of your markets, your customers, and the data that shapes your business.

The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.