Briefs

19 February, 2007, By Patricia Pickett

Microsoft Corp. says its free Dynamics CRM Analytics Foundation tools will help make business intelligence (BI) more relevant for CRM users.

Christian Pedersen, senior director of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, described the shared-source Analytics Foundation offering as "new BI tools and a new way of using existing Microsoft BI tools in a way that provides analysis and management of everything customer-facing." Some would categorize it as "BI for the masses," since it is more relevant and accessible for different types of CRM users, he said.

Analytics Foundation takes many of the existing Microsoft data management and analytic technologies that customers already have, such as SQL Server 2005 and SharePoint, as well as technologies under the Office umbrella, including Business Scorecard Manager and Excel, and "really puts them in the context of CRM and individual CRM users," Pedersen said. Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007, scheduled for availability later this year, will also work closely with Analytics Foundation, the firm said.

... "probably the most exciting, biggest addition," according to Pedersen -- is predictive analytics using data mining algorithms within Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. The tool is able to detect patterns within customer information streams and to generate recommendations and decisions for driving better business process performance. Predictive analytics can, for example, recommend cross-sell and up-sell opportunities to contact centre agents or sales professionals, or automatically prioritize leads based on a historical analysis of the types of leads that are most likely to convert to opportunities.

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