Microsoft Unveils New BI Software, Codenamed "Maestro"

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft this week is talking about plans for new business intelligence software, codenamed "Maestro," that will provide a convenient performance overview of key areas within an organization. The unnamed product, which is currently in beta and could ship by the fourth quarter, will allow users to view "scorecards" and key performance indicators (KPIs), two increasingly popular ways of consuming business intelligence.

Microsoft is not currently a big player in the business intelligence software market, which accounts for several billion dollars of the overall trillion-dollar IT market every year, or for the corporate performance management (CPM) subset, which accounts for close to $600 million per year. But as the market for BI software continues to outperform the overall market, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Microsoft will ignore it, especially as the company expands its offerings to fill other niches once deemed too small or ancillary to its core business, such as the new "Metro" document format that's expected to ship with Longhorn.

Enter Maestro. If Metro is Microsoft's Adobe PDF killer, then Maestro is aimed squarely at the CPM offerings of Business Objects, Cognos, and Hyperion. The software, which is largely based on the Business Scorecard Accelerator software that Microsoft launched last summer, entered a private beta test yesterday.

Maestro will go far beyond that initial (and free) Business Scorecard Accelerator product, and will become central to Microsoft's business intelligence strategy, says Lewis Levin, corporate vice president of office business applications at Microsoft. "Maestro is a key deliverable in our strategy for BI, bridging the gap between enterprise data sources and the information workers who need to view and analyze business information as well as plan, make decisions, and collaborate with others."

Maestro will be based on the Microsoft Office and the SharePoint Portal Server, and will integrate with SQL Server, as well as other enterprise data sources. The software will be largely server-based, and will enable users to create, view, and manage scorecards and KPIs from a Web browser.

Maestro will help business users by presenting data in the scorecard and KPI format, which is gaining popularity as a way to quickly digest data that's constantly changing and sometimes quite complex. The software will include a framework that allows users to share scorecards and KPIs, and to collaborate and take action based on the information, Microsoft says.

Microsoft hopes that other software vendors and systems integrators will develop custom and line-of-business applications with Maestro, which users will be able to customize with Visual Studio when the software is delivered, the company says.

One of the company's participating in the first private beta test is Skanska USA Building, an international construction company with U.S. headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey. Maestro will provide Skanska employees with up-to-date views of our business performance, and allow the company "to quickly identify focus areas and take action," says Allen Emerick, the company's IT director.

A public beta for Maestro is expected at the end of the summer, with the product becoming generally available during the fourth quarter, a Microsoft spokesperson says. Final naming, packaging, and pricing has yet to be determined.