Important Update to the Microsoft Business Intelligence Road Map
On January 22, 2009, Microsoft announced an update to its Microsoft Business Intelligence road map. The Microsoft strategy is to deliver Business Intelligence to everyone in the organization through the broadly adopted tools of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office Excel, and built on the scalable Microsoft SQL Server BI platform. Based on customer feedback:

1. We have decided to consolidate the scorecard, dashboard, and analytical functionality from Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server into Office SharePoint Server Enterprise as "PerformancePoint Services for SharePoint," which makes these capabilities available throughout the organization at a lower TCO. PerformancePoint Services will be a license entitlement for SharePoint Server 2007 E-CAL customers with Software Assurance.

2. In mid-2009 there will be a release of PerformancePoint Server 2007 service pack 3, which will include updates to the current product's planning module.

3. PerformancePoint Server 2007 will no longer be a standalone item on the Microsoft price list as of April 1, 2009, but instead will be sold as part of SharePoint Server Enterprise 2007.

To find out more about this announcement, read this interview summarizing the decision. PerformancePoint Services augment the current SharePoint Business Intelligence capabilities with scorecards and context-sensitive dashboards, which are certified by the Balanced Scorecard Institution. Check out the PerformancePoint page for more information.