PerformancePoint

I've spent quite a bit of time with PerformancePoint at Convergence and I thought I'd share a few thoughts.

PerformancePoint Server is Microsoft's next generation Business Intelligence product. The "Server" name is something of a misnomer at this point. Think of PerformancePoint as more of a system or suite of products around information and analytics. It's closer to a bundle of products (that currently can't be unbundled) than a server. The "server" part is really driven more by SQL Server and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007).

The core PerformancePoint Server product is geared around Analysis Services in SQL Server and requires MOSS 2007. This is the evolution of analysis cubes and allows organizations deep drill down and analysis of their organization's data. It's not limited to financial information. PPS can work with any data that you can get into a SQL Server cube. Obviously the focus around Microsoft Dynamics GP will probably be financial data, but you're not limited so this could be used to analyze customer growth, headcount or even the performance of your server.

To build Key Performance Indicator/Dashboard type views, there is a PPS designer that's very Office like and should be easy for people to pick up. Items built in the PPS designer will generally be published to MOSS for distribution. There are other options but this is going to be a long overview anyway so I'll hold off on that for now.

The Planning portion of Performance Point allows building scenarios and analysis in Microsoft Excel 2003 or 2007 with a Pivot Table like interface. The connection to Excel includes all of the security from PerformancePoint to allow fine grain control of security within the flexibility of Excel.

Finally the Management Reporter is what will be the ultimate replacement for FRx. There's no sysdata file and it's all SQL based. Management Reporter IS geared exclusively to financial reporting like FRx. MOSS 2007 is not required to run Management Reporter.

GP's analysis cubes can be imported into PPS as a starting point for your own cubes. However, the team is working on a GP specific import connector due out in the June 2008 timeframe. The AX connector is already available. Similarly, Management Reporter today doesn't have the GP connections that FRx does. That is also expected around June 2008.

Version 6.7 is definitely the last version of FRx but it will be supported for some time to come with service packs. It's not going away, it just won't be enhanced. The interface for Management Reporter is much cleaner than FRx but familiar enough that you'll be comfortable.

If you want an overview of PPS take a look at this MS site. If you want in depth info including a trial option, go here. Plus, you can read about how Infoworld liked it. The BI Blog says the folks at CFO Rising get it too.

Those are the facts, the rest of this is speculation, opinion, gossip and reading between the lines.

Currently PPS is only available as a bundle with all of these pieces. Starting pricing in the $20k range which is steep for some companies in the GP space. However, I've also been repeatedly told that they are working on separating PPS to make parts of it, like Management Reporter, more affordable. Expect to see that by June 2008.

I've heard that there are gaps in the current functionality between Management Reporter and FRx. I had lunch with Jan of FRxBuzz and she mentioned that some of the gaps are pretty big right now. Little things like no XBRL. Wouldn't companies that can afford PPS be more likely to need XBRL? I'm just saying. Jan will have more on the specific gaps in a little bit. She's the FRx expert so I'll leave that to her.

Ultimately, Forecaster will get the PerformancePoint treatement as well. The Forecaster team is now part of the PPS team but I don't have a timeframe for that transition.

You're going to hear lots of BI/BS comparisons a la the Infoworld title. I've resisted that for now, be thankful.

With MS there's very little middle ground. FRx was pretty simple, but had a shaky core that made it erratic. And Analysis Cubes often seemed like an afterthought. PPS is a bigger beast with a solid infrastructure, but you have to manage that infrastructure.

PPS should go a long way toward making cubes and analytics accessible to a lot more people and ultimately, I think it's got a great future as a replacement for FRx. I'm off to read my Performance Point book now.