MSFT: Microsoft And Hyperion Collaborate On Business Intelligence Solutions

Microsoft Corp. MSFT and Hyperion HYSL today announced plans to integrate their respective business intelligence (BI) solutions to enable customers to make the most of their existing IT investments through improved interoperability between the companies' technologies. Collaboration plans include four initiatives that integrate Microsoft(R) SQL Server(TM) 2005 technologies -- including SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services and SQL Server 2005 Integration Services -- with Hyperion System 9 BI+, a key part of Hyperion's business performance management (BPM) solution. The announcement was made at Solutions 2006, Hyperion's global BPM conference, taking place in Las Vegas April 23-26

"We continue to hear from customers that the need for increased interoperability is significant in making the most of existing IT investments," said Robert Bernard, general manager of the Global ISV Group at Microsoft. "Microsoft is committed to its expansive partner network building on the Microsoft platform and to continuing to form strong relationships with our global independent software vendors (ISVs) to benefit our mutual customers. Hyperion is a leader in BPM, and we're looking forward to the opportunities this collaboration will bring to enterprise customers."

Microsoft and Hyperion are committed to broadening the reach of business intelligence by providing an easy and integrated user experience for accessing and working with business information so decision-makers at all levels in an organization can make more-informed decisions and drive better performance. The goal is to reach every individual, add value to every decision, and help organizations align people and initiatives to business strategy. This strategic alliance continues the collaboration between Hyperion and Microsoft to provide increased value to their extensive joint customer base. Users will benefit by combining reports and data from both Hyperion and Microsoft data sources into a unified enterprise view that leverages their preferred delivery and analysis tools.

"We share with Microsoft a passion to provide our customers with the easiest possible access to the information they need to do their jobs," said Howard Dresner, chief strategy officer for Hyperion. "By integrating our leading BPM technology with Microsoft technology, we accelerate our ability to help our customers achieve information democracy -- a state in which actionable insight is in the hands of all -- across their enterprises."

The collaboration will ultimately enable broader deployment of complementary BI solutions from Hyperion and Microsoft to customers that have adopted components of each. Specifically, Hyperion customers will be able to use SQL Server Reporting Services to access Hyperion System 9 BI+ Essbase Analytics, and also will be able to display Microsoft reports in the Hyperion System 9 Workspace environment. In addition, Microsoft customers will be able to access SQL Server Analysis Services data using Hyperion System 9 BI+. Also, Hyperion System 9 will leverage SQL Server Integration Services for data access.