Perspectives & Strategy

When a former colleague and friend contacted me last week to tell me that his favourite Business Intelligence application now offers free licensing, then I had to sit-up and listen.

“Microsoft is today offering free BI licenses!” he said. Well I had to investigate this further, so he pointed me at his web-site for further information. Click here to take a look. Furthermore when I looked into it then I also found an announcement from Microsoft’s head of Business Intelligence development. Click here for Microsoft’s announcement.

When I discussed this with another colleague his reaction was “I am sure this is only for evaluation purposes.” From my investigation this is not the case. What this means is that a company leveraging SQL Server as their Data Warehouse database can make significant licensing savings versus other competing products.

BI solutions need to be delivered SharePoint or Office. So all Performance Point Server licensing are now covered by eCal of SharePoint. If you have not previously installed SharePoint then you will experience some extra cost, but significantly less than you would for for any competitor’s BI software licensing costs.

So what does this mean to your corporation?

For the CIO I would say that if you are currently intending to implement a Microsoft based BI solution then the saving in licensing costs can be converted into additional effort for the deployment project.

Right now there is no better time to deliver cost effective Business Intelligence – It could save your business.

By Peter B. Giblett

Please note that Peter Giblett is currently seeking a new role leading either your IT department or a Professional Services corporation.