MicroStrategy has effectively tightened up integration by delivering its BI capabilities as an Office Business Application (OBA), which is a new category of business applications that connect line-of-business systems and processes with the people that use them through a familiar Office user interface
The new software allows MicroStrategy BI users to run and format reports in Office 2007’s Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook applications. The software essentially runs as a set of Web services protocols for .NET that acts as an intermediary between the MicroStrategy BI server and Office applications.
The integration is forged with Microsoft Office’s Smart Client infrastructure, enabling exchange of information between server and desktop applications.
McLean, Virginia-based MicroStrategy said that its Office integration offers both on- and off-line analysis from a zero-footprint workspace and supports a variety of presentation modes including grid, live graph, graph image, document, PivotTable, and PivotChart.
MicroStrategy first launched its Office product back in April 2004 to expand BI to the ranks of knowledge workers across the enterprise.
Our View
BI add-ins for Office have been around for a decade now, but have been met with variable success since they often required local installation of software. But the introduction of new Web services architectures like OBAs and Smart Clients are making them more sophisticated and seamless, allowing Office applications like Excel to communicate with back-end databases or BI servers more efficiently.
The add-ins can also be installed and updated via a Web browser, with MicroStrategy’s Office product being on of the first to leverage this technology. Other BI vendors have followed suit – Cognos Office Connection, Hyperion Smart View and Business Objects Live Office.
