Business Intelligence makes it easy for decision-makers to access and analyze information anytime, anywhere. Up-to-date information is available where people work, collaborate, and make decisions, whether it's on the desktop or over the Web.

When analytical data is readily available and understandable, your employees can more easily act in ways that improve performance and support the overall business strategy. Business Intelligence includes robust, dynamic business scorecarding, analysis, and reporting tools so everyone throughout the company can make better decisions, faster.

Improve organizational effectiveness using Microsoft business intelligence and collaboration technologies. Tight integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 enables you to easily share information in a security-enhanced, managed web environment with your colleagues, customers, and partners. Now you have a central location to monitor your KPIs, access reports, analyze your data as well as share documents, chat live and link to relevant subject matter.

The 2007 Microsoft Office system, fully integrated with Microsoft SQL Server 2008, enables people to gain insight using familiar, easy-to-use tools powered by a proven, scalable Business Intelligence platform. When information is accessible and easy to interact with — adding data to analyze, doing calculations, and drilling into more detail — people are better able to analyze and evaluate information and then make well-informed, insightful business decisions.

Business Intelligence improves alignment throughout your organization. Articulate strategy, set objectives, monitor performance, perform group analysis, and then make informed decisions that support your overall business strategy. Managers can easily establish lines of responsibility on a strategy map and employees can align their objectives with corporate goals.

Enhancements include increased capacity for interactive analysis in Office Excel 2007 for search, delivery, and collaboration in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and improved visualization technology across the Microsoft Office suites. Business Intelligence is also integrated with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services and SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services — industry leading business intelligence platform technology — which enhances the power of the information delivered to the desktop.

Business Intelligence supports the breadth of your organization's business intelligence needs. Strategic planning is simpler when using familiar tools; information management is easier in a centralized and fully integrated BI environment; and development is more cost-effective when using an industry-standard development environment. With the familiar user interface of the Microsoft Office system, the SQL Server 2008 business intelligence platform behind the scenes, and custom development through Microsoft Visual Studio, Business Intelligence supports everyone — information workers, IT professionals, and developers — in your organization.

With Business Intelligence, people in your organization can interact with data where they want — in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. By using tools that are familiar, accessible, and widely supported, you lower training costs and significantly shorten the learning curve.

Rich scorecard functionality, supported by reports, charts, graphs, and analysis, means that employees can readily track key performance indicators (KPIs) against key business goals. Understanding and analyzing the relationships between KPIs and your corporate objectives means you gain a better understanding of how your business is performing today, not at the end of the month, quarter, or year, when it is too late to act and impact performance.

With the complete and fully integrated platform backed by SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence delivers extract-transform-load functionality (ETL), online analytical processing (OLAP), data mining, predictive analysis, and reporting, all in one. Fully scalable, Business Intelligence delivers power, stability, enhanced security, and low total cost of ownership (TCO).