Microsoft Pulls The Plug On PerformancePoint

By Paul Hamerman

Microsoft announced today that it is discontinuing the Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server product. The business performance monitoring and analytics capabilities of PerformancePoint will be bundled into the SharePoint Server enterprise license (CAL) going forward, and no longer sold separately. The planning and budgeting capability of PerformancePoint will see a midyear enhancement that is already in the works, and then put into support mode. Existing PerformancePoint customers will receive support on these products for 10 years. Another element of the announcement is the return of FRx reporting and forecasting capabilities to the Microsoft Dynamics business applications group.

After investing heavily in the development and launch of PerformancePoint over the past 3 years, it is a major shift in strategy for Microsoft to essentially kill off the product initiative. Its rationale is that the goal is to make business performance monitoring and analytics pervasive across the enterprise, and SharePoint is the best vehicle to carry this functionality. Microsoft expects that bundling these capabilities at no additional cost within the SharePoint enterprise license will accelerate sales of SharePoint, including upgrades from the standard license. Planning, meanwhile, is seen as a Finance desk application that is not part of the SharePoint strategy.

Microsoft is evidently discountinuing the planning application from PerformancePoint. The logical home for it is within the Microsoft Dynamics team, but the product overlaps with the existing FRx Forecaster. FRx Forecaster is a midmarket-oriented budgeting application that was to be superseded by PerformancePoint, but now is being kept alive. Forecaster, which is much less successful as the FRx financial reporting application, still relies on a proprietary UI that is Excel-like but not natively Excel-based. The Dynamics line of business could ultimately offer the more sophisticated planning component from PerformancePoint in lieu of Forecaster, but this scenario appears unlikely.

Overall, it is disappointing to see Microsoft pull the plug on the PerformancePoint product initiative, which showed reasonable promise as a cost-effective alternative to IBM Cognos, Oracle and SAP business performance solution (BPS) offerings. Yet the competition ultimately may have been too much to handle. Microsoft was slow to close PerformancePoint functionality and product integration gaps, due to dependencies on the release cycles of the flagship Microsoft products, including Office, SharePoint and SQL Server.

BP&A Trends To Watch For In 2009

By Sharyn Leaver

As we enter a new year, business process & applications professionals who want to stay ahead of the pack need to know what to expect in 2009. Uncertain economic times lie ahead, and those professionals who know what is on the horizon will best weather the storm. Here are some key trends in key process and app areas that our analysts predict for 2009:

Financial Performance Management: Financial management professionals stand in the spotlight as the economic downturn continues and companies cope with weaker demand, price pressures, rising costs, and credit constraints. Technology and process strategies in 2009 will focus on improving planning, budgeting and forecasting, and cash and risk management while under the cloud of a very uncertain and unfavorable tax environment.

Human Resource Management: Many organizations are now faced with the challenges of hiring freezes, cost management and workforce reductions. HRM technology solutions can help savvy HR professionals strategically manage through the crisis and prepare as the climate shifts to the upside. Trends to follow in 2009 include managing and developing talent, embracing HRM analytics, Web 2.0 adoption, and HR technology strategy. Paul Hamerman and I recently recorded a podcast on HRM Trends for 2009. Click here to listen.

Customer Relationship Management: Our recent surveys and interviews with customer-oriented business and IT executives suggest that the business needs driving sustained investment in CRM in the recent past will be even more compelling. Six trends dominate the agenda of CRM professionals: 1) the necessity to adapt to the rapidly changing "social" consumer; 2) the need for more robust CRM strategies; 3) the requirement to build bulletproof cases to gain project funding; 4) the need to reduce CRM project risks; 5) the imperative to unlock the value of customer data; and 6) the battle to redress vendor pricing and licensing arrangements.

Keep an eye out for more 2009 process and apps trends in our research line-up, and let us know what you’re seeing or expecting.