Microsoft BI

Microsoft Business Intelligence Technologies

Microsoft provides a comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) offering that is based on a calable data platform for data integration, data warehousing, analysis, and reporting, including powerful and intuitive tools that end users can use to access and analyze business information. At the core of the Microsoft BI end-to-offering is Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008, a complete data platform that enables you to:

· Unify storage and access for all data across the enterprise.

·Build and manage sophisticated BI solutions।

·Increase the reach of your business intelligence solution to empower all employees.
The specific technologies of SQL Server 2008 that form the basis of this powerful BI
offering are described in the following table.

tComponent	Description
SQL Server Database Engine	A scalable, high-performance data storage engine for extremely large volumes of data making it an ideal choice for consolidating business data from across the enterprise into a central data warehouse for analysis and reporting
SQL Server Integration Services	A comprehensive platform for extract, transform, and load (ETL) operations that enables the population and synchronization of your data warehouse with data from the disparate data sources that are used by your business applications throughout the organization
SQL Server Analysis Services	Provides an analytical engine for Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) solutions, including business measure aggregation over multiple dimensions and key performance indicators (KPIs), and for data mining solutions that use specialized algorithms to identify patterns, trends, and associations in business data
SQL Server Reporting Services	An extensive reporting solution that makes it easy to create, publish, and distribute detailed business reports both within the enterprise and outside the enterprise

While SQL Server 2008 delivers a comprehensive BI platform, it is through deep integration with productivity tools, such as the 2007 Microsoft Office System, that you can
empower employees throughout the enterprise to use this platform and turn
business insight into effective actions.

2007 Microsoft Office System Integration

The SQL Server 2008 BI platform reaches information workers through the following 2007 Office System components:

Microsoft Office Excel. Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 is a
powerful spreadsheet application that you can use as an interface for OLAP
analysis, data mining, and report rendering. Through deep integration between
SQL Server 2008 and Excel 2007, you can:

· Enhance the end user’s ability to access and analyze data from SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services. With Excel 2007, end users can browse data that is stored in multidimensional OLAP cubes in Analysis Services. Excel 2007 enables users to easily build Microsoft PivotTable^®
dynamic views to “slice and dice” data any way they wish through the tools that
are already installed on most desktop computers.

· Gain more value from your Excel implementation by using the tight integration between Excel and Analysis Services that enables end users to easily use the Analysis Services features, such as translations, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), calculated members, named sets, and the
server actions in Excel that turn Excel into an analytical client.

·Make predictive analysis available to everyone and enable non-technical users to harness the highly sophisticated data mining algorithms of SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services within the familiar environment of Office. Designed with the end user in mind, Data Mining Add-Ins
for Office 2007 empowers end users to perform complex analysis directly in
Excel and Microsoft Office Visio®।

·Add automatic analysis features, such as highlighting exceptions where data seems to differ from patterns in other areas of the table or data range, forecasting future values based on current trends, analyzing what-if scenarios, and determining what must change to meet a
specific goal.

· Deliver reports in the format preferred by most end users by using the new and enhanced Reporting Services Excel rendering capabilities, which enable end users to receive reports directly in Excel।

Microsoft Office Word. Microsoft Word is a word processing application that you can use as a format for reports. Use the new, highly requested report renderer for Word, which enables you to render SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services reports in Word format.

Microsoft Office Visio. Visio is a drawing and diagramming application that you can use to annotate, enhance, and present your data mining graphical views. With SQL Server 2008 and Visio 2007, you can:

· Render decision trees, regression trees, clusterdiagrams, and dependency nets.

·Save data mining models as Visio documents embedded in other Office documents or saved as a Web page.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. SharePoint® Server is comprehensive collaboration,publishing, and dashboard solution that you can use to provide one central
location for placing all your enterprise-wide BI content and tools, so that everyone in your organization can view and interact with relevant and timely analytical views, reports, and KPIs। The integration of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services with SharePoint Server 2007 enables you to:

· Use one consistent user interface to manage and view reports.

·Track versions and workflow of reports when they are stored in SharePoint Server 2007 document libraries.

· Manage a single security model for reports through the SharePoint document library.

·Use the SharePoint Server 2007 out-of-the-box Report Center template to easily build a site to store reports.

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server. PerformancePoint® Server is an
integrated performance management application that employees can use to monitor, analyze, and plan business activities based on the analytical data provided by SQL Server 2008.