Panorama Business Intelligence

In the last few days we’ve been getting an overwhelming number of inbound inquiries about our offering on top of the Microsoft BI stack. I want to take this opportunity to provide some more inforatmion on the unique ways we bring together the power of MS BI with our own unique NovaView BI suite.

Panorama is a Microsoft partner for over 10 years now. Aside for the fact that we are the company behind the technology used for SQL Server Analysis Services, our strategy has always been to embrace and extend the functionality provided by Microsoft in SQL and Office.

Panorama provides today a complete BI solution that brings together:
- The power of the SQL 2008 platform as our main data engine,
- A powerful web based BI client that integrates natively into SharePoint 2007 with more than 10 different web parts
- A tight integration with Office 2007 (NovaView Sportlight),
- Excel integration (NovaView Office Add-on),
- PowerPoint 2007 integration (NovaView Office add-on),
- Reporting services integration for report creation and distribution through the NovaView product.

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Since the announcement from Microsoft on the discontinuation of PerformancePoint Server, I spent a lot of time talking to customers and partners about it to better understand their perspective. Here are a few of the things I collected:

- Even if Office 14 will end up being the ultimate BI solution, one that will solve all customer dreams about BI (no one really believes that but still…), it is still 12 to 18 months away from launching. This means there is no BI applications from MSFT between now and Office 14. 

- In order to take advantage of the full power of BI in Office 14 customers will actually have to upgrade and use office 14 on the desktop and servers. What we heard is that it can take an enterprise up to 3 years to roll out a new version of office on the desktop and upgrade their SharePoint platform. I was told that the cost of the upgrade of Office is significantly higher than buying a specialized BI tool, and has a much longer ROI. 

- This point is a very interesting one, since we know that only about 10%-20% of the organizations upgrade to the latest Office version every year, so  in  theory 80% to 90% of the market will not be able to take advantage of the new BI capabilities in the first year…. This means that some customers will have to wait 2, 3 years or more to get BI features in Office

- Customers and partners who are intimate with Microsoft were able to say that until very recently there was still a plan to release a second version of PerformancePoint Server…. This means that the strategy change was done recently. Those partners also mentioned the fact that Office does not make changes to the original plans when Beta 1 is so close… So basically no changes could be made to SharePoint to really compensate on the lack of a second version of PerformancePoint Server in such an advanced phase of development…
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Microsoft announced last week that they will retire PerformancePoint as a standalone BI product. While some features will be embedded inside future releases of Microsoft Office and SharePoint many customers are concerned with the fact that Microsoft has given up on its strategy to be a major BI application player with dedicated BI products.

At Panorama we understand how much you’ve invested in your Microsoft BI strategy and want to invite you to learn about your alternatives for extending the investments you’ve made in the Microsoft BI platform.

Join us for the special event to learn more about:

- Alternatives for analysis, reporting, dashboarding and scorecarding on the Microsoft Platform
- How to migrate away from PerformancePoint while preserving your investments
- Which tools analysts recommend for BI on the Microsoft SQL Platform

Register for this webinar: An Alternative BI Solution to Microsoft PerformancePoint

I know that any reader of this post will keep thinking about the fact that Panorama has a “coopetition” relationship with Microsoft, on one hand we partner closely to extend their BI platform and on the other we compete on the BI applications.… That is true, and I won’t lie, I think the discontinuity of PerformancePoint Server as a standalone BI product has a MAJOR positive impact on Panorama, but in this post I want to give my analysis on what this actually means for the world of BI and more specifically Microsoft’s future BI strategy.

First, some facts:

• In 2006, Microsoft picked a strategy to build a dedicated BI product called PerformancePoint Server. The idea was that MSFT will compete with pure play BI vendors such as Panorama, Cognos and others with a complete BI strategy.
• PPS (PerformancePoint Server) included 3 modules, BPF (Budgeting, planning and forecasting), Analytics and Scorecarding.
• Microsoft wanted to make PPS server the “ultimate BI Application suite for the enterprise” by investing in future versions that will focus on making BI better and more competitive when compared with other pure play products.
• The analytics solution in PPS was entirely based on the Proclarity product acquired in April 2006.

What did Microsoft announce today?

• Microsoft will not have a future version of PerformancePoint Server
• Meaning Microsoft has given up on its vision to have a dedicated BI product that will compete with pure play providers.
• Microsoft will not build anymore Budgeting, planning and forecasting solutions and customers will have to rip and replace with other 3rd party products
• There is not going to be any Proclarity product any longer (some Proclarity employees were let go yesterday)
• Scorecard and analytics features will now be developed in SharePoint and branded PerformancePoint Services

What does all this mean?

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New Version of Free solution for Google Apps provides native Excel support; Other Features Include Website/Blog Embedding; Customized Formulas

TORONTO, ON – (January 13th, 2009) – Panorama Software, a global leader in Proactive Business Intelligence solutions, today released a new version of Panorama Analytics for Google Apps, its free analytics solution for Google Apps. By enabling native Excel and other files to load directly into the application, Panorama’s new version gives Excel spreadsheet users an even easier-to-use and more collaborative alternative to the analytics tools in Excel.

Panorama Analytics for Google Apps, powered by Panorama’s comprehensive set of powerful and intuitive BI technologies, is ideal for business and consumer data analysis, reporting, visualization and dashboarding.  As part of the free Google Docs or the enterprise edition  Google Apps, anyone can use Panorama Analytics for Google Apps to process spreadsheets from any source. Users can perform analysis on their excel data to identify interesting and powerful insights off of the data in new “Google like” ways.

The new version of Panorama’s analytics solution adds a number of new features and capabilities to an already impressive list.  Updates include:

• Native Excel and .CSV Support.  Panorama Analytics for Google Apps users can now upload Excel files as well as CSV (Comma Separated Values, the file format often used in line-of-business applications) files directly into Panorama Analytics, without having to upload into Google Spreadsheets first.
• User-Defined Formulas.  Panorama Analytics for Google Apps now allows users to create formulas—or select from a list of pre-defined formulas—and insert them for faster processing of the data.
• Gadget Embedding.  Similar to the way YouTube videos can be embedded in websites and blogs, this unique and innovative capability lets users upload data and embed their interactive charts and tables into Web pages, blogs and other forms of online communication. The embedded material can be made totally interactive, enabling readers to do their own analysis on-the-fly giving a new experience for sharing data on the web.
• Interactive Help.  Panorama Analytics for Google Apps introduces interactive tips and explanations that explain the functions of the solution—a convenient way to maximize the value of Google Docs and the free BI application.

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Adding interactive analytics of your data to your website was never easier. Whether you’re sharing financial data, weather forecast or product comparisons, an interactive tool to navigate through the data gives your blog and website visitors much more than simple static tables of data.

Panorama Analytics can be embedded in your web site or blog just like YouTube videos. First, create a Panorama Analytics gadget, connect and upload your data, and prepare the initial report or chart. Save it and use the “Embed” option under “Save” menu to get the embedding code.

Uploading Data From Your Excel or CSV File

1. Login to iGoogle

2. Click “Add Stuff” or “Insert Gadget” and search for Panorama or look in the “Tables” category. There are two Panorama gadgets available, use the “Panorama Analytics” one. Or you can click on this link and add the gadget to your iGoogle page.

3. Login inside the gadget with the same Google account you are using. That’s how we’ll authenticate and recognize you.

4. Choose the data source and upload some data. For example, it can be some Excel file with interesting data to analyze.

Uploading Data From Your Google Spreadsheet

1. Login to Google Spreadsheets and open / create a spreadsheet with the data you want to analyze.

2. Once your data is ready, click insert and chose Gadgets.

3. Select the “Tables” menu on the left.

4. Click “Add to spreadsheet” below the “Analytics for Google Spreadsheet” gadget and follow the wizard to create your first interactive report

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Robert Scoble interviews Oudi Antebi of Panorama Software:

“In addition to the interview I did yesterday with socialtext, which explores some of the disruption coming to enterprises, there’s another trend I’m tracking: the coming fight between the collaborative web and Microsoft.Now some pundits in the industry think that the fight will be head on. Not me. I think it’ll be more parasitic. Like how mold takes over a strawberry. Slow, but in the end the strawberry dies.Is that what we’re seeing now? Well, here’s something that is a small piece of the bigger trend. You could call it a few cells of mold on the strawberry, if you’d like.What is it? Panorama Software for Google Apps. I shot two videos with Oudi Antebi, VP of marketing and strategy of Panorama Software. Never heard of them? Neither had I, but what they are doing is very disruptive to bigger companies:

Part I. Where we discover what is happening in the Business Intelligence space and learn what Panorama Software is doing. (This video is embedded above).
Part II. Demo of how the Panorama gadget is used to display real-time data.”

Read full blog post: http://scobleizer.com/2008/12/31/the-story-of-2009-enterprise-disruption/