Panorama Business Intelligence

An interesting review of Panorama for PowerPivot / SharePoint 2010 from Ella Maschiach’s BI Blog:

A while ago, I saw Panorama was advertising a webcast detailing how Panorama gives a complete solution for the entire Microsoft BI platform, including PowerPivot. I have to admit, just seeing Panorama and PowerPivot in the same sentence seemed odd to me, as PowerPivot seemed like a completely full solution for its purpose. I didn’t see what Panorama had to add to the equation. And so I began asking Panorama a few questions…

So where does Panorama offer any added value?

Well, if your organization is considering using SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Edition along with PowerPivot. If you are going to deploy your PowerPivot workbooks to SharePoint 2010, and you’d like to look at them on the SharePoint platform (and not download it to your desktop), then you’ll probably be using Excel Services . This would probably be the case if your organization hasn’t moved completely to Office 2010. For instance, your organization may decide to integrate Office 2010 on the IT department workers desktops first and only later move the rest of the organization to Office 2010. Actually, something similar happened in the municipality with Office 2007 and so, I know that can and will happen…

Read more on Ella Maschiach’s BI Blog

Panorama Software’s thought leadership article featured in Microsoft Momentum Magazine:

We’ve all heard the industry call: “Let’s get BI on every desktop.” Managers everywhere have been transfixed on putting more relevant data in the hands of information workers because they know that the right facts and data empower users to make impactful decisions with positive results. To do this, they must have access to analytical tools to interact with data in a more meaningful way.

As the first phase of bringing BI to the masses, canned reports with data extracted from line-of-business systems have had some success. Today’s information worker uses reports to create a snapshot of aggregated data that gives them the initial information to do their jobs correctly.

Sadly, many businesses never realize the full potential of the rich data collected by business intelligence software, for the simple reason that a typical user can’t make heads or tails of it. If more BI vendors realized this, the whole concept of business intelligence wouldn’t have come under so much scrutiny over the years.

Microsoft is pulling through in the clutch. MS Office is one of the most widely used tools in the world and enables users to perform analysis and generate key insights for their businesses. Microsoft has taken an open approach, allowing third-party contributors to extend and build on top of the Office platform, taking the innovation to the next level.
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Great post from Datacentrix, our partner in South Africa!

The recent tightening in partnership between Microsoft and Panorama Software bodes well for those companies wanting to complete their BI offerings with the delivery of a fast, powerful BI front-end.

“The combination of Panorama and Microsoft BI provides users with a powerful, end-to-end BI offering delivering rapid insight and allowing for speedy decision making,” says Anton Jacobsz, sales executive at Datacentrix.

As a ProfitBase Authorised Reseller, Datacentrix maintains that Panorama’s NovaView suite of proactive BI solutions opens a new world for local users of ProfitBase 2009, a scalable, rapidly configured, graphical, data warehouse and OLAP Cube deployment accelerator for Microsoft SQL Server.

Jacobsz says that, following the recent release of Panorama’s NovaView 6 and the technical preview announcement of Office 2010, together, Panorama and Microsoft have extended BI to even more users across the globe. NovaView 6.0 combines numerous features, from query and analysis, formatted reporting, performance dashboard and KPI scorecards, to modeling, advanced visualisation and automated report distribution. Not only does it boast an even more robust platform designed to bring more users to BI, but also new deployment wizards and applications to make it Panorama’s biggest release at this point.

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Want to know how a prominent recycled paper and packaging company cut reporting time in half and lowered inventory by 20 percent? Then read on!

In 2005, the business intelligence department at Cascades Tissue Group (a division of Quebec-based Cascades) was looking for a more dynamic BI solution for reporting and analysis, one that could potentially reduce inventory levels, more easily develop custom reports and improve efficiency and profitability in certain areas. Since that year, Panorama NovaView has done just that for the manufacturer. About 70 inventory, sales and supply chain/production managers and customer service reps leverage NovaView for a more connected and educational analysis experience.

Starting with a Cognos application and moving to an Excel add-on app for browsing OLAP cubes from SQL, the group needed to add functionality for end users—allowing them to create and modify reports without specialized analytical skills. With NovaView, training only took a few hours, and reports only take half as much time to create or tweak.

Sales and inventory staffers can perform custom analysis by creating their own Excel or PDF reports via NovaView’s web-based platform if standard reports don’t offer enough information. “The software is like using a pivot table in Excel,” said Jocelyn Laberge, a veteran in Cascades’ BI department. “You just drag and drop fields into the grid and right-click to make selections.”
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While everyone is excited about Microsoft Office and SharePoint 2010 launch, many have shown interest in extending those tools with a complete end-to-end BI solution that will satisfy the needs of the most advanced users as well as the broader information worker community.

Join Microsoft and Panorama teams as we discuss an end-to-end BI solution that brings together the best of SQL, Office and SharePoint with Panorama NovaView suite, enabling users to perform even deeper analysis in a web environment.

We will also demonstrate tight integration with PowerPivot (Microsoft’s new in-memory engine) that enables users to perform even more sophisticated analysis, build interactive reports or create executive dashboards – all sourcing natively from PowerPivot.

This webcast will showcase how you can:

- Leverage your existing investment in SQL, Office and SharePoint in all their versions
- Give analysts powerful tools to find hidden insights
- Make BI simpler for business users
- Create interactive reports on top of any data: OLAP, in-memory (PowerPivot), relational and Spreadsheets

Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/421096121

The power and value of Microsoft Dynamics is widely appreciated among business users and IT departments. Its ability to scale and adapt to a company’s unique business needs has proven it to be the most powerful ERP and CRM solutions available.

Panorama Software has recently formed a strategic alliance with the RSC Group. By integrating our solutions, you can now extend your Dynamics solutions to drive Corporate Performance Measurement with a true pervasive BI suite, leveraging Panorama & Microsoft technologies you already own.

Join us for this highly informative webinar to see an end to end business intelligence solution that brings together the best of Dynamics, Office and SharePoint with Panorama NovaView suite to solve the needs of the most demanding organizations.

This webinar will showcase how you can:
• Discover new ways to take further advantage of your existing investment in Microsoft Dynamics
• Make BI simpler for end users and analysts
• Extend the reach of existing reports to more information workers
• Create interactive reports on top of any data (OLAP, relational and spreadsheets)
• Share and collaborate inside and outside your corporate firewall

Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/296895769

Today’s software industry buzzword is “Cloud.” We all know what it is, and some of us are already leveraging Cloud platforms to reduce resource consumption on-premise. Right now, many ISVs are making a black-and-white distinction between Cloud and on-premise platforms. When you’re evaluating software platforms, there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground because many providers are exclusively leveraging either one or the other.

The problem facing most of us as technology managers is whether Cloud or on-premise makes the most sense for our businesses. Because there are strategic benefits to both, the decision can be a struggle. But what CIOs should know is that you truly don’t need to make a clear-cut decision for your business. Implementing platforms both in the Cloud and on-premise is a great way to play to multiple aspects of your business while enjoying the benefits that each strategy has to offer.

Read full article from the CIO Update: How Cloud and On-Premise Platforms Work Together

To get the most out of your Microsot SQL Server Platform, you need to ensure that you take advantage of all the unique capabilities it provides. While some BI tools are available from Microsoft directly, many have shown interest in extending those tools with a complete end-to-end Business Intelligence solution.

Join us for a webinar, to see the most powerful, end-to-end BI solution that helps expand the reach of BI through innovative user interface, gives more power to the advanced users and extends collaboration inside and outside the firewall.

And now, through the global partnership between Panorama and Microsoft and tighter integration with PowerPivot, Sharepoint and Office 2010, Panorama NovaView provides an even better end user experience that can accommodate the needs of the most demanding enterprise companies.

Come see the BI solution that has been awarded silver in the Best Business Intelligence and Reporting Tool category by SQL Server magazine!

This webinar will showcase how you can:

- Make BI simpler for end users
- Extend the reach of existing reports to more information workers
- Give analysts powerful tools to find hidden insights that could make a big impact
- Create interactive reports on top of any data (OLAP, relational and spreadsheets)

When:

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
10:00 AM ET / 4:00 PM CET
or
11:00 AM PT / 2:00 PM ET

Register for the Webinar Now >>

…And the battle rages on. Cloud or on-premise business intelligence? Cloud is the hot new strategy, has a lower overhead and leverages out-of-the-box functionality for quick implementation on new data warehouses, applications and departments and for new users. However, a lot of companies want to keep BI activities on-premise because of the costs and time associated with moving high volumes of data—like entire data warehouses or data-marts—to the cloud in order to realize the advantages of SaaS deployment. This polar dynamic has kept companies in the dark on one simple fact: combining the two platforms offers you the rich benefits of both worlds.

You can build a hybrid solution ad-hoc, leverage one of the few early adopters of hybrid BI, or call on your ISV to adopt a more dynamic strategy—but, however it’s done, it’ll be crucial that your business leverages a combination cloud and on-premise business intelligence in the coming years.

How does it work?
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Microsoft’s “Project Gemini” has finally materialized into something solid and extremely powerful: PowerPivot for Excel 2010. Information workers that love Excel can build powerful analytical applications and organize millions of rows of data into a workbook for simple sharing and collaboration with other team members. This is a huge step for Microsoft—one that greatly benefits independent software vendors (ISVs).

PowerPivot is unique in that it puts BI at the fingertips of business users while offering better visibility for management and monitoring of collaboration using Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 based management tools. Its applications for Excel 2010 generate faster insights and better decision-making for business users.

But there’s even bigger news about PowerPivot: the platform will offer new opportunities to third-party BI ISVs to break new, undiscovered ground with their solutions. As an example, Panorama NovaView’s next major release will build on PowerPivot’s in-memory data engine and extend the Excel functionality. This will enable users to perform advanced analysis through the browser as well as build models from any data source using a simple wizard.

Here at Panorama, we’re rooting for the PowerPivot team (a couple of them are former Panoramies) in their quest to perfect one of the best inventions developed for the BI space over the last few years.