Intelligent Insight on PerformancePoint : ProClarity

De-constructing the "Angry Cinnamon"

btamblyn — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 16:43:00 GMT

So why the angry cinnamon - A good question: READ I have absolutely NO idea. A term used internally and although I don't know it's exact origin - I'm crediting Chuck Mitten who works in the Microsoft OBA Partner team in Boise.

So let's break this down.

BI has historically been a ‘read-only’ business. The IT department delivers a great, clean, trusted data layer. The users grab that data in rich tools like Excel and they develop insights. But what happens after that? Unless you translate your insights into a plan, and record that plan somewhere, we’ll never know if your insights, and your actions, made a real difference to the business.

So let’s say I am retail analyst and I'm doing some store analysis. I need to interact with and use complete data, sales and expenses which is delivered from the operational data store, I use corporate data, fully burdened by allocated costs, and I decide that we need to move two inside sales reps out to the sales floor.

In PerformancePoint, we record that decision. You’ve effectively changed your resource allocation. You are now accountable for that decision. Next month, or maybe next quarter, we can compare your forecast with the new resource allocation to actual data and we’ll all know if that was a good decision or not. And one of the great things about accountability is, the flip-side of that coin is auditability. In PerformancePoint, we know who saw what data, because we log that, who made what decision, because we made BI read-write and of course, we know the result.

The other nice feature of PerformancePoint Server is that because we’re at this higher level of the stack, we can give each user the right amount of data to make a decision; not too little AND more importantly not too much. Generally we use Excel. So, when the sales forecast is due, we send the sales rep a link to a spreadsheet. In fact, it’s a link to the PerformancePoint server. When the user hits that link, we generate a spreadsheet that has the right amount of data for that user, the correct, current data. They add their inputs to the forecast, submit it and we move it along to the next person in the business flow, usually the manager. The user never had to hunt for data, never saw too much data or the wrong data. We record what they did, when they did it. And the whole time, the user was just ‘using Excel’ something they already know how to do. This is good for users of course, but it’s good for IT departments too. Because, deep down, we’ve taken this formerly document oriented, hard to control, hard to manage process and made it a centrally managed, controlled, database process. But the users just keep using Excel…

OK, so when we talk about Microsoft business intelligence and performance management we look at it from three perspectives:

SQL Server as the technical BI platform
Office as the user platform and;
PerformancePoint as the business platform

And we use these platforms to help us answer the questions below:

Starting from the top right hand corner the first two are really about monitoring your business . The third is analysis, plain and simple. The last two are really about planning. And it’s a cycle. You see something happening, you delve into it and you make a plan to address it. Or you have a plan, you watch for actual results. If they are anomalous, you do some analysis. In Performance Management we support the whole Monitor, Analyze, Plan cycle. Today we have two products in the market at this tier of the stack. Business Scorecard Manager 2005 is our tool for monitoring your business. It, working with SQL Server Analysis Services and SQL Server Reporting Services, answers those first two questions; What happened? And what is happening? ProClarity 6.2 is a tool that adds value to Analysis Services and address the third question; Why?

In the summer of 2007 we’ll merge these two tools, actually the next versions of these tools with a new planning component to form PerformancePoint Server 2007. We’ve been working on the planning component for a while. It’s important because not only does it address the last two questions, but it also adds the corporate aspect of trusting your decisions, and the accountability.

By corporate, we mean two things. First, decisions should be made using data that reflects corporate reality. Going back to my sales analysis from earlier, using data at the store level might lead to one set of decisions. But when I factor in corporate effects, like regional and national costs, I might make a very different set of decisions. So PerformancePoint includes an engine that does consolidation, allocation and inter-company eliminations. The second part of this is making decisions in the context of the corporate process. So if I want to budget more advertising dollars in my region, that plan needs to be approved by my boss. Or my sales forecast has to go to my district manager before it gets locked down. PerformancePoint includes the functionality for implementing your company’s business process in the decision making flow.

Anyway, that’s the stack.

So when I begin to deconstruct the stack and look at partner services the opportunities are plentiful. What's really interesting is the services at the top of the stack in the Performance Management layer. For example services such as metrics development involve highly strategic engagements requiring close interaction at board level to ensure firstly that you're helping your customer to measure the right things and also help them to drive business alignment down and across the organisation. Gaining pervasive adoption therefore emphasise's the need to drive a structured business change programme. Because of the highly strategic nature of these activities - they represent a premium level service, and you're therefore able to charge accordingly. We can assist by reducing the cost of software acquisition and utilising existing technology assets.

If we look at the concept of business process consulting we can begin to draw some similar conclusions. Business methodologies such as balanced scorecarding, activity based costing and six sigma are extremely useful in providing a framework for Performance Management however in isolation they are just that - FRAMEWORKS. A methodology without a performance management process will undoubtedly end in failure. Equally a performance management process that needs to integrate disparate planning & budgeting, forecasting, and management reporting applications will ultimately lead to extra time and cost that needs to be absorbed by either the partner or passed on to the customer potentially putting the performance management programme and your services revenue at risk.

So that's it. As always I'm looking for feedback - so feel free to leave a comment at the end of this blog post and I'll be sure to respond.

Technorati Tags: PerformancePoint Server, Performance Management, ProClarity, Business Scorecard Manager, Partner, Microsoft, Business Intelligence

PerformancePoint Server Pricing

btamblyn — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 20:07:44 GMT

I've been wanting to publish this post since returning from the OBA bootcamp in Redmond two weeks ago. At the BI Gartner summit in London yesterday we finally announced the pricing for PerformancePoint Server.

I think it emphasises our commitment to providing pervasive business intelligence and performance management. It will be licensed much the same as other Office products with a single server + single client access license (CAL). The price will be $20,000 per server and $195 per CAL. Internally we breakdown the product components into three areas and even have a three letter acronym (MAP).

Monitoring (M) which includes scorecarding and dashboards which are typically delivered today through Business Scorecard Manager (BSM) and ProClarity dashboard.
Analytics (A) which will provide for both a lite-analytics designed specifically for the business user and a more robust analytics designed with business analysts in mind which will look to integrate ProClarity's analytics server (PAS) neatly into the wider Microsoft Office stack.
Planning (P) which will provide planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation and financial reporting. Previously code-named Biz# this will deliver our vision of creating a more ubiquitous and pervasive tool that moves planning beyond the financial planning department and into the business by utilising Excel as the front-end to the planning process.

The server and CAL offering will provide all (Monitoring; Analytics; Planning) functionality so customers will basically receive a full performance suite for a fraction of the price of today's offerings.

When this was announced internally two weeks ago the first question posed by the MS field about what impact this may have on our competitors and the existing market consolidation we're seeing today. A difficult question to answer although I can assure you our pricing strategy is designed to ruffle a few feathers and force the market to begin to look at developing a pervasive strategy for business intelligence and performance management. Whether or not this is a real "game-changer" will depend upon the perception of the depth of functionality PerformancePoint will provide. From what I've seen so far and given the fact that it's a version 1.0 product I think you'll be pretty impressed. To keep up to speed I'd encourage everyone to sign-up to the CTP if you haven't already.

Technorati tags: Performance Management, PerformancePoint Server, ProClarity, Pricing, Gartner, Business Intelligence

Treemap Visualisation from Microsoft Research

btamblyn — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 17:25:10 GMT

Here's a link to a great post from the "award winning" Sam Batterman.

I really like this - visually it's very similar to functionality available in ProClarity dashboard today. Some of the stuff coming out of Microsoft Research is absolutely phenomonal and this is a great example. As Web 2.0 becomes more mainstream you can expect us to develop in conjunction with partners more great composite applications like this.

Here's a link to Sam's post - oh and he shows you how to populate a TreeMap control in VB.NET also.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Reporting, SSRS, ProClarity, Microsoft Research, Web 2.0, Sam Batterman

Performance Management Training and Enablement - QuickStart Programme

btamblyn — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:11:00 GMT

This was announced internally at Microsoft just before the holidays by Jodi Maupin the OBA Partner Marketing Manager. I've reviewed some of the existing training and whilst it's not for the faint-hearted engagement on this programme will help all our partners align themselves more closely to Microsoft. However, the greatest benefit I believe is the opportunity to participate in launch activities.

The Early Start Program is designed for partners to learn and ready themselves for the upcoming Performance Management Specialization (Information Worker Competency) before it officially becomes available later in 2007.

By participating now, partners gain early access to special resources such as:

Training
Invitation-only briefings
Monthly communications
Exams required to achieve the upcoming specializations;

Partners completing all 3 phases of the Early Start Program can expect to receive the following benefits:

Company logo listed in the partner directories on www.microsoft.com/performancepoint and www.microsoft.com/bi
Customer solutions featured in Newsletters and on Office Solution Showcase
Participation in PerformancePoint 2007 Launch Activities
Access to Microsoft BI Hands-on-lab VPC Images
Specialization exam voucher

Sign-up Now!

PerformancePoint Server Data Sheets

btamblyn — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:30:00 GMT

Thanks to Patrick Husting who posted these (PDFs)which includes product data sheets: overview, analytics, monitoring, reporting, and planning.

PerformancePointServer 2007 Overview - [download]

PerformancePointServer 2007 Analytics - [download]

PerformancePointServer 2007 Monitoring - [download]

PerformancePointServer 2007 Planning - [download]

PerformancePointServer 2007 Reporting - [download]

Technorati tags: ProClarity, Performance Management, PerformancePoint Server, PerformancePoint, SQL, Analytics, Monitoring, Reporting, Planning

Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference (May 9th - 11th 2007)

btamblyn — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 03:27:03 GMT

Here's some early information about Microsoft's BI conference planned for May 9th.

With the release of SQL Server 2005, Business Scorecard Manager 2005, the 2007 Office system, the ProClarity acquisition and the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, it is clear that Microsoft is investing deeply in business intelligence. Microsoft is poised to fundamentally transform the business intelligence (BI) industry by making it a ubiquitous technology. Now we will have a Microsoft Conference dedicated to BI to showcase our market-leading products and solutions, expertise and customer successes!

SAVE THE DATE for the first-ever Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference to be held May 9-11, 2007 in Seattle at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. This event will feature keynotes by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, and Jeff Raikes, President of the Microsoft Business Division. Additionally, technical and business-focused session tracks, chalk talks, Partner and Microsoft solution expo, hands-on labs, and numerous highlighted customer success stories are sure to make this event a HUGE success!

The conference is designed to educate customers and you, our valued partners, on nearly every aspect of Microsoft’s BI offering. We are expecting to host between 1,500 and 2,000 IT Professionals, business decision makers, existing customers and partners from the world at the event.

We know that you probably have a lot more questions so we have provided some additional information below to answer a few of your questions:

1. How can I get involved?

We are already seeing an overwhelming amount of interest from the partner community to participate in the conference. The primary way that you can get involved is to Sign up as a Conference Sponsor. We will offer various levels of sponsorship and exhibit opportunities. Certain sponsorship packages will include the opportunity for partner presentations in a partner breakout track. More details will be available in January when the sponsorship packages become available. In the meantime, please visit the Microsoft Partner Pavilion & Expos site for more information about the conference. In addition, if you are interested in receiving exhibiting and sponsorship information when it becomes available, please send an email to pavilion@microsoft.com with ‘Microsoft BI Conference 2007’ in the subject line and you will be added to the list.

2. How do I invite our top customers to the event?

We are expecting the event to sell out due to the enthusiasm that we are already seeing from customers and the fact that the event is limited to 1500 attendees. Please encourage your co-workers and customers to sign up as soon as the worldwide registration site goes live in mid- to late February. We will be sure to notify you when registration goes live. Early bird pricing will be available through March 15, 2007, so by registering early you and your customers will have a guaranteed seat at the best price!

3. How do I nominate my customer to present and/or possibly present on stage with Steve Ballmer?

There are three key ways to get your customers involved in the conference. First, it is our goal to have two of our top BI customers on stage with Steve Ballmer during his keynote address on Friday, May 11^th.

Second, we are dedicating an entire track to customer presentations! You will have the opportunity to introduce or co-present with your customer provided the session is success/case study focused. More information about the nomination process will be available when the Conference website goes live in early January.

And finally, we will be presenting the first-ever Microsoft BI customer awards at the conference. More information about the awards will be available on the event website when it goes live. In the meantime, if you have customer suggestions or questions specifically relating to getting your customers involved in the conference, please contact Jason Blumberg.

The criteria that will help determine which customers are selected are:

- The customer can speak to the real-world benefits of using Microsoft BI

- Size and scale of deployment (# of users, # of sites/locations, different user types , etc.)

- Using multiple products within the Microsoft BI product family

- Brand-name customer

- Competitive replacements or head-to-head competitive wins are also desirable

4. What are the expected attendee fees for the Conference?

Attendee fees will be $895 during the early bird registration period, which will run from February until March 15, 2007. Prices go up to $1095 after midnight on March 15^th, so encourage your customers to register early! A limited number of attendee and booth staff passes will be included with the various sponsorship packages, so these fees would only apply to non-sponsoring partners or attendees above and beyond the number allocated for the sponsorship level.

5. Do you have any other details about registration?

We expect the conference marketing website to go live in late December or early January and the worldwide registration section of the site to go live in mid- to late February. Expect to hear more as the event site goes live and as registration nears!

We hope that you are as excited as we are to showcase Microsoft’s BI solutions at the first annual Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference in May! Be sure to lock these dates (May 9-11, 2007) on your calendar now.

Technorati tags: business Intelligence, Business Scorecard Manager, ProClarity, Partner, SharePoint Server 2007, SQL, OBA, Office 2007, PerformancePoint

Best Practices: Building vertical KPI's

btamblyn — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 01:55:00 GMT

I was speaking with a colleague of mine Jeremy Neal. Jeremy has come over to Microsoft as part of the ProClarity acquisition and works as an OBA Solution Sales Professional (SSP). A couple of weeks back at the monthly ProClarity UK Seminar we got talking about how we can effectively provide partners with information based on building specific vertical KPI templates and accelerators.

So if you're a partner here's the definitive guide. As we quickly integrate ProClarity into the Microsoft business I'm sure these will be made available via MSDN subscription but at the moment they're easily accessible directly from the ProClarity website. There are two great resources available free to partners.

ProClarity Analytics Server (PAS) KPI Designer

PAS comes with a library of KPI templates that represents the collective experience of ProClarity, our partners and customers. Almost 80% of the KPI's most organisations need can be deployed directly from these templates or through minor modifications. There are more than 50 templates available and they take full advantage of SQL 2005 functionality that introduces Goal, Status and Trend information extending the value of each KPI metric (in fact the Goal, Status and Trend approach is available to customers still using SQL 2000). Once defined the KPI's can be published to PAS for broad deployment and consistent interpretation. The underlying MDX can also be cut and pasted into the cube.

ProClarity Application Accelerator Kits

ProClarity has an active online community. The community comprises three areas: Central / Analyst / Best Practice. The latter two are available to customers for an annual subscription. Partners have free access.

The Analyst and Best Practice community subscriptions include access to ProClarity Application Accelerator Kits. These are examples of ProClarity applications from specific vertical markets – e.g. Retail, Healthcare.

Partners can sign up to the ProClarity Partner Program free of charge (£400 for Resellers). This provides the software and all levels of community subscription free of charge. I'd also encourage you to attend ProClarity's next UK seminar in Chertsey on December 13th. I attended the last session run by Jeremy and Andrew Sadler which was outstanding - a great opportunity for customers and partners alike to understand the ongoing Microsoft strategy around ProClarity Dashboard and Analytics.

Technorati tags: PerformancePoint, ProClarity, Business Intelligence, KPI's, SQL, OBA, Performance Management

Dashboard Ubiquity

btamblyn — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 17:57:00 GMT

The following article on “Dashboard Ubiquity” was published last week by TDWI. The article references a whitepaper written by Wayne Eckerson called “Dashboards and Scorecards“. Wayne is a highly respected industry analyst and this is a fantastic piece of research and emphasises the convergence between the disciplines of BI and CPM. I've attached a link to the whitepaper and would encourage you to read this. I particularly like the distinction he makes between dashboarding and scorecarding. The two terms are often used interchangeably which frustrates the hell out of me. The whitepaper also proves we're on the right track. We have a compelling story to tell around BSM and ProClarity - and here's a link to a great Webcast around identifying usage scenarios for scorecarding, dashboarding and portals.