Viewpoints: Making Smarter Decisions at Every Level of the Business

The regulatory environment may very well have put the financial services sector ahead of other industries in tapping into the benefits of Business Intelligence. As the recent financial crisis shows, however, there is still some distance to go before companies can feel confident that they are making smarter decisions at every level of the business.

The focus on BI is likely to intensify, according to Rita Sallam, Gartner Research’s research director of BI and performance management.

“In the face of the recent wide-spread financial challenges and crisis, leveraging timely and consistent information to manage performance and predict outcomes and optimal courses of action will become even more strategic as financial institutions attempt to provide greater transparency, better manage risks, compliance, and decision-making, drive profitability, and streamline costs,” she says.

At the beginning of this year, Gartner Research placed Microsoft in the top spot of Leader in its BI Platforms Magic Quadrant. It ranked Microsoft highly in its “ability to execute, including the competitiveness and success of its BI goods and services, its viability and investment in BI, and the execution of its sales and pricing.”

Ten months later, Microsoft has continued its BI market momentum, according to Sallam. “[Microsoft] has strengthened the individual BI platform components with enhancements in SQL Server 2008 and new BI functionality in Excel 2007, PerformancePoint Server 2007, and SharePoint Server 2007,” she says, adding that Microsoft also has invested in both direct sales and partnerships to address the needs of large enterprise accounts.

“Microsoft offers good functionality across the BI platform at a significantly lower price point than competitors, and as a result is making it onto an increasing number of BI platform short lists,” she says.

And Microsoft’s new BI tools, released in October, offer further possibilities, says the research director.

“Kilimanjaro and Project Gemini hold the promise of putting sophisticated ad hoc analysis and data discovery capabilities in the hands of Excel users. Project Gemini, an Excel add in, will allow advanced Excel users to leverage an in memory, column-based data store on top of SQL Server Analysis Services to conduct ad hoc analysis on large volumes of data on their desktop from within Excel with publishing through SharePoint Server,” she says.