Data from Multiple Sources
Until recently assembling reports and accessing data from disparate systems has required specialised skills such as date warehousing or data mining. Publishing that data to the web was also difficult and has been restricted to developers and consultants. However Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) Business Intelligence tools now make it much easier for your employees to assemble, consolidate and publish data on the web.
Report Center
The core component of MOSS’ reporting tools is the Report Center. It provides a central location for all BI-related information, with document libraries for storing reports, lists, and external data connections. There are standard page and report templates for building new reports and Web Parts. The Report Center is a default site at the top-level of your portal site, but any team can create their own Report Center using all of the tools available.
Excel Services
Excel is a key business tool in most orgnisations, but using Excel to communicate valuable business information can be problematic. Excel Services is a new server technology included in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that enables you to load, calculate, and display Excel workbooks on Office SharePoint Server 2007. You can easily reuse and share Excel workbooks on Office SharePoint Server 2007 portals and dashboards.
Data from External Sources
You can use data from external sources such as other business applications (e.g. Siebel, SAP), and manage a library of stored external data connections so that other employees can access the data and create new reports. Permissions can of course be deployed on all connections to ensure data integrity. Web Parts can be created that allow users to interact with the external source data without ever leaving the browser.
Key Performance Indicators
Communication is of course an important element of Business Intelligence – you can create specialised Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for your teams that communicate to them how they are progressing towards a goal. Quick visual feedback is invaluable in a fast-paced business environment. Filter Web Parts are Web Parts that allow you to show only the data that needs to be shown – subsets or filters of data can be more meaningful to users. The final element of SharePoint Business Intelligence is Dashboards – specialised sites that assemble all of a user’s reports, charts, connections, filters, and KPI’s in one location.