REDMOND, Wash., June 25, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of version 1.2 of Microsoft®
SQL Server (TM) Accelerator for Business Intelligence (Accelerator for BI). Accelerator for BI is a rapid application development tool to automate the process of building the infrastructure of an analytical application. Accelerator for BI encapsulates industry best practices and automates the building process to create the back end for a customized BI solution, significantly decreasing the time needed for design and development. Automating these procedures enables partners and customers to spend less time coding and architecting the solution so they can instead focus on the unique end-user business requirements. The resulting applications have better business focus and enable the customer to bring the solution to market faster, resulting in a higher return on investment.
The newest version of Accelerator for BI provides support for SQL Server 2000 Standard and Enterprise editions as well as support for Microsoft Office 2003. This version includes the capability to generate a solution from an XML file, a feature that makes it easier for partners to integrate Accelerator for BI directly into their products. Other updates enable separation of the application generation and deployment processes so that applications can be put into production faster, without dependencies on the application generation code, and support for drill-through actions in count measures enhances the reporting capabilities of the generated application.
“The updated version of the SQL Server Accelerator for BI is based solely on feedback from our customers, which is why it is an important release for us,”
said Bill Baker, general manager for SQL Server at Microsoft.
“The SQL Server group understands the advantages that BI can bring to companies, including offering greater insight into their business. By helping partners develop and deploy business intelligence applications more quickly and easily, Microsoft is delivering on its vision to make business intelligence more pervasive and more accessible to everyone.”
In addition to the updates in version 1.2, Accelerator for BI offers partners and customers the following benefits:
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Customized solutions.
Accelerator for BI enables partners to deliver solutions that are based on client needs; these customized analytic applications give customers better access to and understanding of the data that is important to them. -
Faster time to market.
Accelerator for BI automates back-end processes, enabling developers to quickly create and deploy customized analytical solutions in a fraction of the time. -
Increased return on investment.
Accelerator for BI increases return on investment by shortening the development cycle, reproducing other successful models and implementations, prototyping and deploying rapidly, and enforcing best practices. -
Flexible solution.
Accelerator for BI allows easy integration with existing information systems. The framework includes a flexible development environment called the Analytics Builder Worksheet that is adaptable for rapid iterative development and is reusable for consistency in future deployments. This flexibility allows businesses to adapt to shifting conditions over time. -
Extensible framework and ecosystem.
Accelerator for BI is part of a total ecosystem to help the industry build better business intelligence solutions. The framework lets partners add their own expertise, while the ecosystem includes prescriptive architecture guidance, best practices, partner solutions and a support network that will help increase the penetration of business intelligence. -
Increased access to SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services
. Accelerator for BI is the fastest path to delivering analytical solutions based on SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services. The simplified process helps partners build customized solutions that take advantage of enterprise-class scalability and the industry-leading Data Transformation Services, OLAP and data mining features of the SQL Server platform.
The SQL Server Accelerator for Business Intelligence is available for download today at no additional cost to licensed SQL Server 2000 users. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/solutions/bi/.
About SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is the complete database and analysis offering for rapidly delivering the next generation of scalable e-commerce, line-of-business and data warehousing solutions. SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services provides the business intelligence enterprises need to make smarter decisions. Over time, decisions made using this kind of intelligence can have a dramatic bottom-line effect on the business. More information on Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/bi/.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
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