Microsoft Acquires ActiveViews’ Business Intelligence Functionality

CHICAGO, April 26, 2004 — Today at Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2004 in Chicago, Microsoft Corp. announced it would extend its business intelligence (BI) platform by acquiring ActiveViews Inc., a small, privately held company based in Provo, Utah. ActiveViews provides an ad hoc reporting system that takes advantage of the power of Microsoft .NET and SQL Server TM Reporting Services to allow users to easily unlock and explore data stored in a myriad of systems.

“There is a significant amount of data out there and an increasing need for every employee to have access to that data to make decisions. By incorporating the technology provided by ActiveViews, SQL Server Reporting Services will help users access information more quickly and efficiently,”
said Bill Baker, general manager for business intelligence at Microsoft.
“Based on feedback from customers and industry experts, we believe that by incorporating this functionality within the business intelligence capabilities of SQL Server, Microsoft will provide a more complete BI solution than has been offered in the industry before.”

With the addition of the ActiveViews technology, SQL Server, a part of Windows Server System, will enable better access to information for every employee at every level in a company, increasing their ability to make more-knowledgeable decisions. Customers and partners can take advantage of Microsofts complete, integrated BI platform to increase their productivity at a fraction of the cost of other BI offerings.

“Reporting Services represented a significant leap forward for the BI industry, said Allon Cohen, director of Product Management for Panorama Software Ltd.”
We believe that companies will also benefit greatly from the addition of Microsoft-developed ad-hoc query capabilities. Panorama continues to be committed to the tight integration between our integrated BI and corporate performance management solutions to the Microsoft platform, and the complementary tools that our customers demand.

“ProClarity is excited about the addition of traditional relational reporting capabilities to the Microsoft BI platform,”
said Clay Young, senior vice president of strategic marketing for ProClarity Corp.
“This, coupled with the robust analytics that ProClarity provides, gives customers a complete and extremely economical end-to-end BI solution. Historically, ProClarity has been at a disadvantage with regards to traditional relational reporting by focusing only on analytics, so the Microsoft acquisition of ActiveViews will help us compete far more effectively with a powerful combined solution at a much lower overall price point.”

The ActiveViews system is designed to present a business view of the data an end user is interested in examining. ActiveViews provides users with a window into the database so they can literally explore the information. With ActiveViews technology, end users will be able to modify existing reports and build new reports from scratch in a Web-based environment. This means the end user have access to the data they need immediately.

“Access to timely and relevant information is a true business driver for organizations in todays highly competitive environment,”
said Bill Hostmann with Gartner Inc.
“Capable developer tools are essential to eliminate the IT report development bottleneck.”

About SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server, part of Microsoft Windows Server System, is the complete database and analysis offering for rapidly delivering the next generation of scalable e-commerce, line-of-business and business intelligence solutions. It dramatically reduces the time required to bring these applications to market while offering the scalability needed for the most-demanding environments. More information on Microsoft SQL Server can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ .

About Windows Server System

Microsoft Windows Server System is an integrated and interoperable server infrastructure that reduces IT complexity to enable IT professionals to deliver innovative solutions that meet the changing needs of business. With Windows Server TM 2003 at the foundation, Windows Server System is engineered from the ground up for XML Web services based on Microsoft .NET technologies to connect information, people, systems and devices. Based on a common software architecture that spans all facets of IT from design, development and deployment through ongoing management and usage, Windows Server System provides comprehensive IT infrastructure for operations (security, systems management, networked storage), applications (data management and analysis, e-business), and information work (messaging, communications and collaboration). More information on Microsoft Windows Server System can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/ .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Microsoft, Windows Server System and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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