REDMOND, Wash., September 14, 1998 — This week, Microsoft names seven leading customer-management independent software vendors (ISVs) that have committed to supporting Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 as their premier offering by taking advantage of its mobile components. Today, Microsoft unveiled the final feature set of Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services, formerly code-named “Plato,” and announced eight more ISVs that will support the new technology. Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services – OLAP stands for online analytical processing, an increasingly popular technology that can dramatically improve business analysis — will make Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 the ideal platform for full-featured, enterprise-class OLAP solutions when the software debuts later this year.
When Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 launches, it will include enhanced mobile computing features, assuring customers that important enterprise data remains consistent and accessible, whether they are on business travel or in the office. Seven leading customer-management ISVs — Aurum Software Inc., GoldMine Software Corp., Moss Micro Inc., ONYX Software Corp., Pivotal Software Inc., SalesLogix Corp. and Siebel Systems Inc. — are working closely with Microsoft to deliver best-of-breed mobile sales force automation (SFA) solutions based on the SQL Server 7.0 platform. ISVs and their customers will benefit from enhanced performance in SQL Server 7.0 and the new mobile computing feature set, which includes advanced merge replication for disconnected users and a standardized code base allowing ISVs to write one version of their application for both the desktop and the server.
Eight more industry-leading ISVs — Business Objects, Broadbase, Decisionism Inc., IQ Software Corp., Portola Dimensional Systems, Maximal Innovative Intelligence Ltd., PowerPlan Corp. and arcplan Inc. — responded to Microsoft’s final SQL Server OLAP Services feature set by announcing their product plans for SQL Server OLAP Services and the OLE DB for OLAP interface. They join eight other vendors that have already announced compatible products with the recent release of Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 beta 3, the most extensively beta-tested database in history.
The ISV’s products run the gamut from query, reporting and visualization to data mining and system management, and take full advantage of SQL Server OLAP Services’ new features which enable powerful enterprise financial and budgeting applications, extend analysis capabilities and provide an efficient and highly scalable architecture. These features enhance Microsoft’s integrated data warehousing strategy, which provides a broad range of customers with the robust analytical framework needed to make better business decisions.
What is Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services?
Online analytical processing (OLAP) is an increasingly popular technology that can dramatically improve business analysis, which has been historically characterized as expensive, difficult to implement, and inflexible to deploy. Microsoft has tackled the OLAP problem and created a solution that makes multidimensional analysis accessible to a much broader audience, and at significantly lower cost.
Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services is a new, fully featured OLAP capability that is provided as a component of Microsoft SQL Server version 7.0. OLAP is a key component in the process of data warehousing, and SQL Server OLAP Services provides essential functionality for a wide array of applications ranging from corporate reporting to advanced decision support. The inclusion of OLAP functionality within SQL Server will make multidimensional analysis much more affordable, and will bring the benefits of OLAP to a wider audience. This includes not only smaller organizations, but also groups and individuals within larger corporations who have been excluded from the OLAP industry by the cost and complexity of today’s products.
