Among different software vendors from all over the world, Microsoft seems to be the only authorized to claim to deliver the "Business Intelligence for everyone", and that is exactly how Microsoft advertises its new Business Intelligence platform. Is it possible? While designing Business Intelligence platform, Microsoft used all the experience it has gained delivering the operating systems and office suites "for people". Thereupon, the BI platform consists of the most usable tools that is operated from within truly an intuitive interface. It's ensured because of the three solutions - Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Office - which the Business Intelligence platform consists of.

The main strength of Microsoft Business Intelligence platform is that almost all the people know how to use it, know its components, and the interface isn't anything new for them. Therefore, it's easier to convince "older" users to a new technology (which - otherwise - could be difficult, if not impossible at all). Moreover, special training rarely is needed and if it is, it lasts significantly shorter than in case of competitive solutions. Microsoft Business Intelligence platform supports report and analysis preparing and sharing it with other users across the organizations quickly and easily. What truly is meaningful to today's companies, is the time needed for data to spread all over the organization. The shorter, the better, and the Microsoft solution is perfect from this point of view.

Four eyes see more than two - that's the best what one could say about Microsoft SharePoint. It's influence on the whole Business Intelligence platform is incredible. The advanced technology simplifies the collaboration of hundreds of users at the same time. It allows to get to required information, knowledge, and people as soon as possible and exactly when it's needed. With integrated business views, users no longer need to depend solely on data being forwarded through e-mails or reports, for instance. They're provided with a chance to simultaneous seeing the same data and - therefore - make better decisions and consult them immediately.

Finally, business never stops evolving, therefore that's also what today's business users demand from their Business Intelligence solutions. The BI platform by Microsoft - due to it's based on popular MS tools - is easy in development and maintenance. IT specialists shouldn't also have a lot of troubles with making the solution suit newer and newer requirements. Flexibility, scalability, and changeability - that's what the attention has been paid to.

Microsoft Business Intelligence platform capabilities

Business Intelligence is quite a wide term, therefore it wouldn't be superfluous to point out what Microsoft BI platform can be used for:

• Preparing dashboards and scorecards. Numbers are important, however also meaningful it is to know where the numbers originate from. Dashboards and scorecards prepared within the Microsoft solution are fully interactive, therefore one can quickly dive into each area of data to watch it from another point of view and - thereby - find out something more. Even though the data might have its source in differentiated places, it's accessible from within a single dashboard.
• Stimulating collaboration. The matter of efficient collaboration is crucial to all modern organizations and Microsoft Business Intelligence platform supports it very well. With well developed communication capabilities (one can use blogs, wiki pages, usual documents, and presentations), it allows all users across the organization work on the same "version of data" what boosts their performance. On the other hand, search engine allows users to quickly find exactly what they're looking for, no matter how high volumes of data are.
• Self-sufficient reporting and analysis. Wide reporting and analytics capabilities impeded in Microsoft Business Intelligence platform allow users to gain the insight as deep as they need. Without any need for IT departments involvement, they can prepare and modify reports and analysis. The working environment is, then, secure and intuitive, so that no specialists need to keep an eye on the system incessantly.
• Data mining and predictive analysis. The "next level" of Business Intelligence also is provided within the Microsoft platform. One can therefore analyze data from different points of view automatically and discover the trends what - if done without computer support - could last significantly longer or become impossible at all.
• Data warehousing. Microsoft Business Intelligence platform provides ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes and - thereby - supports data segregation and warehousing.

Microsoft Business Intelligence platform resources

• http://www.microsoft.com/applicationplatform/en/us/Platform-Solutions/Business-Intelligence.aspx - the official website of Microsoft is quite a good source of knowledge about the Business Intelligence platform, however one could gather the information included there is not enough. Only the basic overview is included and a few paragraphs about the capabilities. However, there are links to significantly better descriptions of each tool that the platform consists of. Also, the resources section is open and interesting case study included.
• http://www.microsoft.com/BI/en-us/pages/home.aspx - here on the other hand - is more about Business Intelligence by Microsoft as a whole, what also is a good source of information even if not connected tightly to the BI platform as described.
• http://www.collectiveintelligence.com/.../Microsoft%20Business%20Intelligence%20-%20Platform%20Overview.pdf - here is a complete presentation by Chuck Russel from Collective Intelligence Inc. devoted to the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform. Consisting of more than seventy pages, the PDF document includes all the needed information about the platform presented in an easily understandable way. Supplied with numerous illustration, screens, and graphs, the presentation is also a good and worth considering introduction to Business Intelligence by Microsoft. There is, after all, a lot of attention paid to each of the platform components.
• http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/derekc/archive/2009/02/02/60835.aspx - even though the article from behind the link was published in February, 2009, it illustrates very well how the Business Intelligence solutions by Microsoft are being developed and what - in practice - is changing. One can there read quite a lot about the history of Microsoft Business Intelligence platforms and its plans for the future. Nevertheless, beside the linked article, there is also a lot of other notes published which also are worth considering. All in all, the whole blog might be a good source of information about the whole Business Intelligence by the Redmond giant.