At last a gadget that does not just tell the time or cycle through photos (actually I quite like that one).  KPI indicators integrated into the desktop.

Antone has summarised the direction of Business Intelligence as driving to become more pervasive, with cutomers looking to tools that include BPM, collaboration and workflow.  This is a fair interpretation of the market and one that Microsoft has been betting on for some time.

 

The next version of Office, Sharepoint and the recently announced PerformancePoint Server shows commitment from Microsoft to deliver on their tag line of a few years ago:  "BI to the masses".  

 

The single biggest barrier to successful BI implementations is not really the features of the tools, I have seen companies seduced by a slick presentation of a feature rich well integrated BI tool when what they really need is strong business analysis skills.  It never fails to surprise me how disconnected the understanding of a business can be, even with many BI tools in place.  A colleague came up with an interesting definition of BI recently which I think is the most appropriate definition I have heard.

 

"A BI solution should provide large companies with access to their own data at a level of simplicity and confidence that small companies enjoy."