Microsoft Integrated PerformancePoint Server into SharePoint

Performance Point Server is actually “two” products :
Planning Server – Supports the planning of an organization.
Monitoring and Analytics Server  – Dashboards, charts, graphs and KPIs

Microsoft announced Friday (Jan 23rd 2009) that Performance Point Server – as we know it today – will be “discontinued”.  More specifically the Planning Server portion will not have another major product release.   The key components of Monitoring and Analytics will be rolled into MOSS Enterprise and will no longer be a separate standalone product.

What is PerformancePoint Server 2007?

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 is a concept with a bit of a split personality. First, it is both an application and a platform. In other words, it is an application that can be used as is, but it is also a platform because it can be extended and customized heavily. Second, there are three distinct areas of focus in the PerformancePoint Server: Monitoring, Analysis, and Planning. While there are three pillars, two of them are integrated to some degree, and in other ways, are the most separate. Monitoring and analysis are both integrated into a single tool, and in fact are both installed together, which means that they are tightly integrated; on the other hand, the analysis features in PerformancePoint Server 2007 are not as far along as originally planned, so Microsoft includes a license for a separate analytics application with the purchase of PerformancePoint Server. The planning piece of PerformancePoint uses a separate installation and a separate end-user tool from the monitoring and analysis pieces. There is little doubt that this product schizophrenia will be greatly reduced in future versions of PerformancePoint Server. For now, companies will still have access to the most powerful set of tools yet delivered to business intelligence to the organization. more…

• The false dawn of Microsoft PerformancePoint Planning Read…
• Microsoft’s PerformancePoint Shake-up Read…
• Death of Microsoft Performance Point Server Read More…

How will it affect PPS customers?

• Customers running the core BI platform from Microsoft will be unaffected by this.
• Customers using the Monitoring and Analytics parts of PPS will be unaffected by this.
• Customers with SharePoint licenses can look forward to even richer BI functionality to be included in their existing licenses.
• Customers that have implemented planning will need to look over their requirements and see if the SP3 version of the product will support their needs for the future.
• Historically Microsoft has always compensated customers who have bought licenses that have been discontinued.

How will it affect partners?

• Small specialized partners who placed a bet on PPS will obviously struggle with the investments they have made in the platform.
• The whole ecosystem has to adjust their BI strategy and market offerings around Enterprise Performance Management, specifically the planning component.
• This is an opportunity for 3^rd parties to supply the needed planning functionality. There are a number of partners who offered this  functionality before PPS who now are in a good position to offer this to the market.

Key messages:

• Scorecard, dashboard, and analytical capabilities will move from PerformancePoint Server into SharePoint Server Enterprise
• PPS Service Pack 3 will be released, thereafter no further investments in planning capabilities
• PerformancePoint as product will be eliminated from Microsoft’s price list as of April 1, 2009. Thereafter only available for SharePoint Server 2007 E-CAL customers with Software Assurance.
• Support for PerformancePoint Server will be available through 2018

For More Information from MSDN : Click here