Microsoft Business Solutions Acquires Business Analytics Tool

Building on its innovation technology road map and vertical strategies outlined last week at Convergence 2005, the Microsoft Business Solutions Business Group at Microsoft Corp. today announced the acquisition of a business analytics tool and new enhancements to Microsoft® Business Solutions--Great Plains® 8.0 which include improved fit for businesses within specific industries, greater flexibility, extensions to the product's availability to connect in new ways, and a new business analytics foundation.

Jeff Young, general manager for Microsoft Great Plains, said that today's announcement demonstrates the commitment to a strong product road map outlined by Microsoft's Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect, and Doug Burgum, senior vice president of the Microsoft Business Solutions Business Group, at Convergence 2005. "As the world at work changes and evolves, the innovative technology of Microsoft Business Solutions grows and changes to keep pace," Young said. "The extension modules for Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 underscore our ongoing commitment to deliver increasing value to customers in new, innovative ways."

Young added that the extension modules for Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 are part of the Microsoft Business Solutions group's overall strategy to deliver products and services with built-in integrated innovation to more deeply connect people and processes across organizations and beyond.

Business Analytics Capabilities Enhanced to Give Organizations Greater Insight Into Critical Business Information

A strategic new combination of business intelligence components has been extended for Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 Professional Edition that includes Microsoft Great Plains Analysis Cubes for Excel, Key Performance Indicators for Microsoft Business Solutions Business Portal, and integration with Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley. Critical to the ability to offer modules focused on business analytics is Analysis Cubes for Excel, the Webhouse code Microsoft Corp. acquired from Professional Advantage, a Microsoft Business Solutions partner. The code, a driver of the business intelligence foundation layer for Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 Professional Edition, will facilitate the delivery of valuable business intelligence across an organization by using OLAP cubes for more in-depth analysis. The OLAP cubes will allow organizations to examine and analyze data from different angles for deeper insight into the information critical to their business.

"The Analysis Cubes for Excel enable us to focus on new markets faster than we could before," said Andy Skipton, head of accounting for Logos Bible Software. "The timeliness, accuracy and availability of information we now provide to all our managers have allowed us to identify sales channels or products that are not productive, and instead dedicate time and resources to those that are producing results."

Other tools that will enhance the business analytics capabilities of Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 include Microsoft SQL Server ( TM ) 2000 Reporting Services Report Pack and SmartList Builder. By using the SmartList Builder, businesses will have unlimited flexibility in defining their SmartList ad hoc queries so that Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 data and third-party applications can be queried more thoroughly. The Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Report Pack will be available to allow customers to draw information from Microsoft Great Plains and create analytics reports specific to their business needs. Eight templates will help businesses draw on the power of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 to create analytical reports for sales, purchasing and manufacturing functions.

Extension Modules Strengthen Not-for-Profit and Public Sector Offering

The ability of Microsoft Great Plains to meet specific industry needs has been extended with a new Grant Management module to deliver more functionality for not-for-profit and public sector organizations. Grant Management will help organizations proactively manage their grants by eliminating the need for manual calculations and helping ensure compliance with regulations.

The Grant Management module will integrate with the enhanced Analytical Accounting module. Budgeting features will let organizations create budget trees, create budgets at a dimension code level or as a dimension/account combination, and allow budgeting at a summary or detail level. There is also integration between the Analytical Accounting module and Microsoft Business Solutions--FRx®.

Enhanced Flexibility: Capturing Information to Meet Precise Fit

The Microsoft Great Plains Extender module will provide organizations with new, highly flexible capabilities to modify their business applications to better suit their business practices. With the new Extender module, organizations will find it easier than ever to add new windows with user-defined fields, capture detailed notes, and track the exact information needed to run their business more effectively. The Microsoft Great Plains Extender module delivers on the goal of offering rich functionality at a precise fit for customers.

Extensions Increase the Reach of Microsoft Great Plains 8.0

The extension modules announced today will help extend the overall reach of Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 by connecting people, processes and information. The Microsoft Business Portal 2.5 Feature Pack will include customer security-enhanced data access policies, which will allow data restrictions on information shared with customers to further extend intranet access. The Microsoft Business Portal Human Resources Management ( HRM ) Self-Service Suite will include timecard status functionality, which will enable managers and payroll administrators to identify which employees have and have not submitted timecards. The Microsoft Business Portal HRM Self-Service Suite for Canada will feature integration with Microsoft Great Plains Canadian Human Resources.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft ( Nasdaq "MSFT" ) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Microsoft, Great Plains and FRx are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp., FRx Software Corp. or their affiliates in the United States and/or other countries.

FRx Software Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft's corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp.

Published on:

2005-03-15

Terms | Privacy | Contact us | Site Map | Links

Sitemap 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61
62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91
92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121
122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151
152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181
182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211
212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241
242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271
272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301
302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331
332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361
362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391
392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421
422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451
452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481
482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511
512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541
542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571
572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601
602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614

This website disclaims any content found in these news releases or articles. Issuers of news releases or articles are solely responsible for the accuracy of their content. If you have any questions regarding information in these news releases, please contact the issuers of the press releases.
© Copyright @ 2005. All rights Reserved. Use of our service is protected by our Privacy policy and Terms of Service.