IS Partners welcomes Office PerformancePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Gold Certified partner, IS Partners, has welcomed the announcement of Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007.

As official launch partner and part of Microsoft's Technology Adoption Programme (TAP), IS Partners has participated in the development of the PerformancePoint Business Intelligence suite since the pre-beta version in 2006.

"Using the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform, PerformancePoint 2007 extends functionality to financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting," says Caron Mooney, director at IS Partners.

"Enterprise environments no longer need to rely on costly, complex and often not well supported third party tools for these capabilities, but now have mainstream software running in the front- and back-end while leveraging off the familiar Office environment."

PerformancePoint Server 2007 also integrates financial management and Excel spreadsheets, which finance users have come to depend on, into a powerful Performance Management suite. "Financial managers and administrators, in particular, should sit up and take note of Microsoft's presence in the application and front-end tool space," Mooney adds.

Microsoft PerformancePoint provides three key capabilities that help organisations align their business to strategic corporate goals and objectives.

PerformancePoint Monitoring allows users to define and use scorecards, dashboards and key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive accountability and alignment across the organisation.

PerformancePoint Analysis further ensures users can easily analyse and identify trends, opportunities and threats in their data. Information can also be captured and shared using the collaborative environment of Microsoft Office 2007. And, PerformancePoint Planning simplifies the process of business planning, budgeting, and forecasting.

"The introduction of PerformancePoint Server 2007 gives IS Partners the opportunity to expand our offering within the Microsoft Business Intelligence framework, which is now able to become more pervasive throughout the entire organisation - from finance to manufacturing and sales," says Mooney.

TAP is designed to provide a consistent experience for Microsoft partners and to obtain real-world feedback on pre-release Microsoft products. Only a select group of partners worldwide are invited to participate, giving these trusted partners early product education and an opportunity to influence product through their participation.

"IS Partners was selected as an official press launch partner for PerformancePoint due to their commitment, experience and expertise on the product. They are leading specialists on this exciting new Microsoft solution," adds Cyril Belikoff, Business Group Executive: Information Worker Microsoft South Africa.