EDITORS’ UPDATE, Dec. 3, 2004
— Microsoft is evolving the Office Solution Accelerators program with the Solution Showcase for the Microsoft Office System. For additional information, see
Microsoft Showcases More Solutions Developed On the Microsoft Office System
or the
Microsoft Office System Solutions Web site
.
SEATTLE, Nov. 5, 2003 — Today at the XBRL International Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to work with EDGAR® Online® , Inc., on a new offering and gave the first public demonstration of the prerelease version of the Microsoft® Office Solution Accelerator for XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language), which will revolutionize the way companies author and analyze financial data. Microsoft also distributed prerelease code for the Accelerator to all attendees at the conference.
Microsoft’s Chris Kurt, standards diplomat for Web Services, demonstrated how EDGAR Online, a financial information company specializing in making complex regulatory reporting by public companies actionable and easy to use, would deliver financial information in XBRL format to Microsoft Office 2003 applications using the Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for XBRL. Kurt showed how XBRL will enable investors and financial analysts to analyze company and industry financial performance with unprecedented ease and accuracy.
“The Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for XBRL will allow people to more easily author and analyze financial documents using Microsoft Word 2003 and Microsoft Excel 2003,”
said Peter Rinearson, vice president of the Information Worker New Markets group at Microsoft.
“It’s one of a series of solution accelerators we’re developing to help our customers and partners meet specific needs by building on the low-cost, high-value foundation of Microsoft Office System. We expect that many companies will deploy the Microsoft Office Solution Accelerators as a foundation for business solutions.”
The alliance announced today is an early example of a world-class company building on the foundation laid by the Office Solution Accelerator for XBRL. EDGAR Online will extend the accelerator’s capabilities by utilizing XML Web services to allow companies to seamlessly extract, dissect and review financial information contained in EDGAR Online’s extensive information repositories directly from within Microsoft Excel 2003.
The EDGAR Online service provides direct access to financial information on more than 12,000 public companies to help investors and analysts make informed investment decisions. By leveraging the Microsoft XBRL accelerator and Microsoft’s Web Services Enhancements for Visual Studio® .NET (WSE), EDGAR Online’s secure XML Web service will transmit XBRL financial statement data from EDGAR Online’s subscription financial analysis service, EDGAR Online Pro, to Excel 2003 through the Office Solution Accelerator for XBRL. This will allow investors and analysts to use EDGAR Online’s extensive financial information for analysis directly on their desktop. The security and integrity of the XBRL financial data is protected using advanced specifications, including WS-Security and WS-Addressing.
“This planned collaboration between EDGAR Online and Microsoft will enable our subscribers to leverage vast quantities of financial information in new and powerful ways,”
said Susan Strausberg, CEO and president of EDGAR Online.
“Financial information has never been so easy to work with. This announcement is exciting news for anyone analyzing financial performance of publicly traded companies.”
Traditionally, corporate financial reporting is a labor-intensive process involving the compilation of data from a variety of sources and formats. XBRL is an open, XML-based electronic language that solves this problem by allowing companies to report financial data in a format that is ready for the Web or for import into other applications. Companies stand to save significant amounts of time and money using the XBRL standard to publish their financial statements automatically in one document that has multiple uses, instead of manually creating separate documents for each format.
“We see a lot of value in the use of XBRL for financial analysis, and that’s why we are working closely with Microsoft and EDGAR Online to establish stronger support for XBRL throughout the industry,”
said Paul Penler, global XBRL lead for Ernst & Young and vice chairman of the XBRL U.S. Organization.
“The adoption of XBRL promises to help companies make faster and better decisions. As adoption becomes more widespread, XBRL will permit financial analysts, investors, accountants, government agencies, internal users and other interested parties to access, compare and analyze data in ways that currently are not practical or even possible.”
Availability
The combination of the XML Web service and the solution accelerator is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2004. All attendees at the conference received a prerelease copy of the Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for XBRL. Microsoft expects other financial-services companies to build powerful features on top of the Solution Accelerator for XBRL in the future.
About Microsoft Office Solution Accelerators
Designed for and built on the Microsoft Office System, Office Solution Accelerators comprise an integrated set of software components, templates and best practices guidance designed to solve specific problems common to organizations. Each accelerator facilitates an end-to-end solution that addresses a key enterprise need, such as proposal creation, recruiting or financial reporting. More information on Office Solution Accelerators is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/sep03/09-22officeacceleratorprogrampr.asp .
About EDGAR Online, Inc.
EDGAR Online, Inc. (Nasdaq
“EDGR,” http://www.edgar-online.com/ ), is a financial information company specializing in making complex regulatory reporting by public companies actionable and easy-to-use. The company makes financial information and a variety of analysis tools available via online subscriptions and licensing agreements to professionals in financial institutions, corporations and law firms.
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.
Microsoft and Visual Studio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
EDGAR is a federally registered trademark of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). EDGAR Online is not affiliated with or approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EDGAR Online Pro is a product of EDGAR Online, Inc.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp .
