In move that is likely to be repeated by vendors across the lower end of business intelligence tools market, Epicor Software Corp has said that it will use Microsoft Office 2000 components in its Platinum ERA BI software. The company, formed out of the merger of Platinum Software and DataWorks, said that it will employ the PivotTable and PivotChart components in Excel 2000 to build a front-end for query and reporting applications that link into SQL Server 7 OLAP services.
Mike Norman, senior analyst at the Data warehousing Tools Bulletin, said that the Epicor’s move was an eminently sensible thing for people to do in general. Using existing components in Office 2000 and SQL7 cuts costs and development times for vendors. In addition, the OLAP services in SQL 7 are an important value-add for Microsoft, giving customers a compelling reason to upgrade from earlier versions of the software. However, Norman points out that Epicor has a severe historic problem of not being able to deliver product. The company says that it will deliver the software in the third quarter of this year.
