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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and partner company Panorama Software will develop more than two dozen industry-specific business intelligence (BI) applications based on Microsoft's product platform, including future releases such as the recently announced Microsoft Office PerformancePoint 2007.
There has been a significant increase in interest in BI technologies as they change orientation, Lee Ho, vice president of corporate market and strategic alliances for Panorama, told CRM Buyer. New-generation applications, for example, are moving away from traditional management-focused analytics toward a greater emphasis on their use in operations.
Evolving Strategies
"BI is evolving to focus on how to proactively manage your organization," Ho said.
Panorama Software's strategy is to take historical BI data, match it against performance management, and add workflow automation and search capabilities, he explained. "It is a business management application that we are building on top of Microsoft technology."
The new industry-specific BI applications will focus on manufacturing, retail 
and financial services. Some examples include the following:
- Panorama's BI for retail will help store managers better understand and predict the performance of core activities, such as trade promotions, in order to make adjustments to processes and strategies while there is time to impact outcomes;
- Panorama's BI for credit management will allow financial service companies to display customers' credit information, buying behavior, past purchases and credit lines in the historical context of data stored in line-of-business (LOB) applications;
- Panorama's BI for risk management enables retail financial services institutions to mitigate operational risk;
- Panorama's BI for high-tech manufacturing will allow managers and other employees at production plants and warehouses to have greater visibility into numerous functions and processes across the supply chain;
- Panorama's BI solution for sales analytics leverages companies' investments in CRM applications such as Siebel and Microsoft Dynamics.
A Long History
Panorama has had a relationship with Microsoft for ten years, according to Ho. Microsoft acquired Panorama OLAP (on line analytical processing) technology and incorporated it into SQL 2005, one of the platforms on which the BI applications will be developed.
"Panorama Software has always been an innovative BI leader," said Bill Baker, general manager of office business applications for Microsoft.
"They have a significant track record as a proven Microsoft partner and have demonstrated their ability to deliver Microsoft-based BI solutions tailored to specific industry needs and processes," he added. "Panorama's strategy of building value-add applications on top of Microsoft technologies speaks to their leadership vision."
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