REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 27, 2009 — Microsoft has unveiled changes to the company’s business intelligence strategy, including the consolidation of capabilities found within Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 into Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Enterprise and now branding them as PerformancePoint Services for SharePoint.

PressPass spoke with Kurt DelBene, senior vice president of the Office Business Platform Group, to discuss the decision to consolidate the two projects and how it affects customers.

PressPass: What exactly are you announcing today?

DelBene: Based on customer feedback, we have decided to consolidate the scorecard, dashboard and analytical capabilities from Office PerformancePoint Server into Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Enterprise and rebrand them as PerformancePoint Services for SharePoint. In addition, in mid-2009, we will release Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 3 (SP3), which will include updates to the current product’s planning module. Thereafter, we will no longer continue with a stand-alone version of Office PerformancePoint Server 2007.

Our decision is based on wanting customers to truly experience pervasive business intelligence in their organization at a low cost through the tools they use every day. In today’s economic climate, having the most pertinent information available, allowing you to clearly view the health of your organization, is imperative. We want to give what customers need in a way that makes sense for their business — through the widely adopted Office SharePoint Server, the planning and analysis tool Microsoft Office Excel, and the highly scalable Microsoft SQL Server.

Here is the link if you want more information on this topic: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/jan09/01-27KurtDelbeneQA.mspx

I hope this info is helpful and clears up any confusion!

- Todd Diedrick