GM Kills $10 Million Facebook Ad Campaign Because It Didn't Work
JCPenney's Ron Johnson: 'Customers Don't Get Our Pricing Strategy'
After years of different versions, what can Microsoft do to get customers interested in its next version of Office? It has something that should get lots of attention: business intelligence (BI).
It's part of a new product – to be launched mid-year 2007 – called Office PerformancePoint Server 2007.
BI essentially takes a company's data and puts it in a form that helps make better decisions. For example, you can set up a dashboard that tracks the performance of your sales force. If performance starts to lag, you can take measures to improve things.
BI products have been targeted to mid-size and large companies. Well, Microsoft thinks that all businesses could benefit from BI and with Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, the company plans to integrate BI with applications like Excel, Outlook and other Office products.
Yet again, Microsoft is using its huge Office footprint to try to dominate another industry. And, as for BI, it's certainly a market that is big enough to interest the company. According to a study by AMR Research, spending on enterprise performance management software and services reached about $22 billion in 2005.
Links:
CIO.com - Microsoft Adds BI Product to Office Lineup
News.com - Microsoft to bulk up Office business intelligence
Goldman Earnings Sink After Buffett Dividend
Johnson & Johnson's Income Falls 23%
Burberry Shares Leap on Sales Update
