SQL Server 2005 BI enhancements could pose significant migration, re-education issues
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    As Salesforce.com swims up market, should SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft embrace hosted CRM?
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    A merger marked by complementary products that work synergistically—we talk with Business Objects about their acquisition 
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Users say they’re mostly satisfied with the six-month-old version 1.0 product—although almost all have a pet peeve or two they’d like Microsoft to fix
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    New data warehousing bundle taps IBM’s DB2 database, MicroStrategy’s BI platform 
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    New data monitoring component to assist validation, compliance efforts
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    New data extraction tool boasts .NET underpinnings, OLE DB, RSS support
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
    
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Acquisition seen as consistent with Big Blue’s middleware-centric BI strategy
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Enterprise ETL tools must address scalability, developmental, connectivity, and availability requirements
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Bottom line: IT can spend less time interacting with the business and more time dealing with strategic problems
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    New BI enhancements pass regulatory-compliance muster
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    New offering extends MicroStrategy’s reach into the high-end
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    New Aggregate Storage Option significantly increases performance and handles larger cube sizes
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Microsoft's Service Pack 1 adds support for legacy versions of Excel, improves pagination and matrix rendering performance
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    New add-in lets users exploit Excel to perform common tasks
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Company beats its self-imposed deadline by a single day
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    New release from Trillium highlights increasing importance of Web services in data quality space
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    WebHound learns to fetch, correlate customer click-through conversation rate
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Company touts new release as a “silver bullet to kill feuding spreadmarts”
                    
		            
                
                    
                    
                    
                 
            
                
	                
                    
                                        
		            
                    Software giant to leverage ubiquity of Office 2003 in upcoming CRM release