Clean up with MOPPS

This week we launch Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007.  And what more fitting a way to celebrate than to give away coffee and muffins.  Tony Crowhurst, the product manager here for MOPPS  is going to have a busy day.  Is that an order coming through already Tony?  So I thought instead of telling you what I think for a change, I'd ask Tony directly.

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Hi Tony, welcome to OfficeRocker

thanks

Could you just introduce yourself and what you do?

hi, I'm Tony Crowhurst the performance point product manager in the UK

so a busy week for you is it?

it certainly is - we are less than a month away from launch and after a successful launch in nyc last week the spotlight is on london for an emea launch

does that mean PPS is already on the Volume Licensing pricelist?

not yet - it's available for download off msdn from tomorrow and on volume licensing from the 1st of November

So lets take a step back, can you describe what MOPPS is?

MOPPS provides the corporate performance management layer for Microsoft - it allows you to create your organisation's budget, monitor your performance against that budget and then analyse where you are off target.  Because it's built to integrate with Sharepoint and office it is a product that all users can access through familiar tools - e.g. Microsoft Excel

and what type of customer is Microsoft aiming this product at?

it's aimed at any customer who needs to improve their bi - but probably of more relevance to midmarket and enterprise customers. In the past customers that would have looked at traditional pure play bi vendors have a choice and with it's integration to the microsoft stack as well as it's price point it should be taken seriously as a complete corporate performance solution

can you give us a sense of how much a typical implentation costs - just licenses I mean?

the server is £13,420 and eacjh cal is £130

on top of a MOSS E-cal?

yes that is correct although customers who have proclarity analytics server or business scorecard manager on software assurance can migrate to performance point without any license cost

Integration sounds like a major selling point. Does it integrate with Dynamics and how about non-microsoft data stores/financial systems?

dynamics integration is key to the launch and performance point and version 1.0 will be released with a dynamics ax connector, thereafter (early 2008) we will launch a dyamics gp connector...for other erp solutions, we have a connector tool that can be used to create custom integrations

what most excites you most about this new product?

the opportunity to demonstrate the value of microsoft solutions to a new audience - the business decision maker in an organisation where traditionally we have interacted with the it decision maker

where is the best place for people to go if they want to learn more?

all the information about the launch (including registration) is available at www.microsoft.com/bi/performancepointlaunch

thanks Tony that's great, lets hope you clean up :-)