Category: Technology

MicroStrategy Announces MicroStrategy 9: Extending the Performance and Scalability of Enterprise Business Intelligence and Simplifying the Deployment of Departmental Business Intelligence Applications

Designed for Rapid Development of Departmental BI Applications and their Evolution into a High-Scale, High Performance Enterprise BI Utility

McLean, VA (January 14, 2009) –

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today introduced MicroStrategy 9(TM) at its annual user conference in Las Vegas. MicroStrategy 9, the company’s most significant release in nearly a decade, is expected to be generally available in the first quarter of 2009 and will include significant new products and enhancements to its BI software platform.

With this major release, MicroStrategy delivers new technology and features designed to:

* Extend enterprise BI with enhancements for greater scalability, performance, and efficiency
* Enable rapid development and deployment of departmental BI applications
* Provide a seamless consolidation path from departmental BI to enterprise BI

“Organizations have a mix of enterprise-grade and departmental BI applications. Enterprise BI applications continue to advance in data scale, user scale, and analytical requirements, and MicroStrategy 9 includes new, advanced features to improve the performance, scale, and efficiency of large-scale enterprise BI applications,” said Sanju Bansal, MicroStrategy’s COO. “In addition, MicroStrategy 9 also includes innovative features to enable the rapid development of departmental BI applications by business users rather than IT professionals. To support consolidation and standardization, MicroStrategy 9 eases the migration of departmental BI application data and metadata into a unified, enterprise BI environment.”

MicroStrategy 9 Extends Enterprise BI

Dramatically Improved Query Performance
As BI systems grow to thousands of users and hundreds of terabytes of data, maintaining fast query performance can be a tremendous challenge. MicroStrategy 9 includes new adaptive caching technology called In-memory ROLAP and improvements in SQL generation to enhance query performance.

In-memory ROLAP:
MicroStrategy 9 introduces a major new architectural component called “In-memory ROLAP” to dramatically improve query performance. In-memory ROLAP takes advantage of the large addressable memory now available on 64-bit Unix, Linux, and Windows computer servers, and provides a performance-optimized middle-tier database that can respond directly to data requests from reports, dashboards, and OLAP analyses. Since the new middle-tier database is stored in computer memory, it avoids disk access delays. In-memory ROLAP can serve the data needed for the most complex and time-consuming queries, dramatically improving the average query response times. In-memory ROLAP can also offload work from database servers, freeing up database capacity and allowing enterprises potentially to delay purchasing additional database capacity.

SQL Optimization:
MicroStrategy 9 introduces SQL generation algorithm optimizations for handling sophisticated analyses involving complex metrics. The new optimization algorithm can reduce the number of SQL passes by 66% and reduce database query time by as much as 75%. This new capability works transparently with reports, dashboards, and analyses, providing an immediate performance improvement to many existing MicroStrategy applications.

“MicroStrategy’s new In-memory ROLAP option is game changing. Unlike other in-memory approaches on the market today, it is fully integrated with an enterprise BI environment and provides high performance transparently to business users,” said Cindi Howson, Founder of BIScorecard. “The way in which large amounts of data are stored and accessed in-memory is so seamless that I was skeptical until I saw the actual SQL generated and witnessed the performance.”

“We look forward to using MicroStrategy 9 In-memory ROLAP technology to help us improve our user experience with faster response times and to take unnecessary pressure off our Teradata system,” said Mark Govostes, Manager of BI Architecture at eBay.

Supporting Thousands of Concurrent Users
Successful BI systems often experience dramatic growth in user populations. It is increasingly common for a single enterprise BI installation to support thousands and even tens of thousands of business users.

64-bit Web Server Support:
MicroStrategy 9 supports 64-bit Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) in both J2EE Web servers as well as ASP.net Web Servers. The expanded memory available in 64-bit JVMs allows for far more concurrent user sessions and the running of much larger reports, all within the same server.

Extreme AJAX Code Structures for MicroStrategy Web:
In MicroStrategy 9, MicroStrategy has re-engineered its Web server to adhere to an “Extreme AJAX” model. In Extreme AJAX, processing is shifted from the Web server to the Web browser to minimize the frequency and volume of data transfer between server and browser. These enhancements deliver a much more responsive, interactive experience for business users. Extreme AJAX has the added benefit of offloading processing burdens from the shared Web server, freeing up capacity on Web servers so that they can support additional user sessions.

Supporting Complex Enterprise Reporting for Customer Statement Applications
Most large companies produce vast numbers of customer statements, including invoices, notifications, and account updates. These customer statements are often constructed using expensive and difficult-to-maintain custom-coded software or proprietary software applications.

Multi-part Report Documents:
MicroStrategy 9 introduces a major structural enhancement to its Report Services offering that allows customers to build extremely complex enterprise reports and statements, without programming. The primary enhancement is the support for multi-part document reports, where each part can be independently developed and maintained by different developer teams and seamlessly assembled together into a report book or statement. MicroStrategy 9 also automatically applies pagination across all report parts and automatically creates tables of contents across all parts. Additionally, the formatting of these complex document reports has been enhanced through the inclusion of watermarks, horizontal repeating sections, dynamic images, and conditional formatting.

Supporting Global Deployments
As companies merge and expand, there is an increased urgency for business intelligence to span all operations, across business units, across departments, and across the globe. This expansion introduces new requirements on the BI systems to support global deployments.

Comprehensive Internationalization:
MicroStrategy 9 offers the ability to present every report, dashboard, or OLAP analysis in the local language of each business user viewing the information. This new internationalization capability can support unlimited numbers of languages in both single-byte and double-byte (Asian) alphabets. When a user logs on to MicroStrategy 9, the BI system will read the user’s language preferences from their browser and dynamically render reports and dashboards in their preferred language, altering the interface, the number and date formats, and the data to match the language preference.

Supporting Distributed Development and Operation
With large enterprises, it is common to have development teams from North America, Europe, and India working on the same BI applications. The challenge is supporting this distributed development so that the effort of coordination does not exceed the benefit of having multiple development teams.

Change Journaling:
MicroStrategy 9 introduces a range of features to support distributed development teams, including change journaling. This capability allows changes to metadata objects to be automatically tracked and logged into a centralized system to monitor the activities of the disparate development teams. The change journaling system also allows developers and teams to communicate with one another about their changes through a persistent commenting capability. This level of change tracking is also crucially important for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Update Packages:
MicroStrategy 9 allows multiple and independent development teams to coordinate the inclusion of their new developments into the global operational BI system. This new feature is called “update packages,” and it allows each development team to independently submit updates, additions, and changes to an existing operational system. MicroStrategy’s Object Manager system uses the new update packages to incrementally install each team’s updates and reconcile all overlaps or conflicts that might arise.

Distributed Administration:
A new administrative capability in MicroStrategy 9 allows the subsetting of administrative duties and the distribution of administrative responsibilities to business units and departments. This capability will allow central IT groups to relinquish routine administrative duties, such as user administration, project administration, and user security administration, to individuals within the departments or business units who can be more responsive to their business user constituencies.

“The improved administrative features in MicroStrategy 9 should allow us to reduce significantly the time it takes to move deliverables from one environment into another,” said David Egan, Senior Group Manager at Idearc Media. “This will help us to improve even further our Total Cost of Ownership and speed our delivery efforts.”

MicroStrategy 9 Enables Departmental BI

MicroStrategy 9 includes significant architectural components and features that allow it to efficiently support the specific needs of smaller-scale BI systems for departments and workgroups.

Setting Up a New Departmental BI Environment Quickly, with Little or No IT Support
The biggest hurdle in typical BI installations is staging the data so that users can begin assembling reports and dashboards. Data staging requires significant effort and entails designing the business intelligence data model, finding the data sources, reconciling data discrepancies, and building the extract, transform, load (ETL) routines that periodically refresh the business intelligence database with the latest information. Data staging takes time and requires engineering expertise that rarely exists within business departments or workgroups. MicroStrategy 9 includes several features that enable business departments to quickly set up a BI environment and develop BI applications with little or no IT support.

Multi-source ROLAP:
With MicroStrategy 9, organizations can access and combine data from data marts, operational systems, and Excel spreadsheets using a new capability called “Multi-source ROLAP.” Multi-source ROLAP eliminates the requirement to move data from multiple source databases into a purpose-built data warehouse or data mart. Instead, Multi-source ROLAP allows companies to access the data directly from where it resides, with no special data engineering or data movement. This radically reduces the time to set up the BI environment and lowers the technical expertise required.

In-memory ROLAP:
In-memory ROLAP includes a database that can serve data to reports, dashboards, and OLAP analyses. Building an In-memory database requires no special set up and no data modeling. MicroStrategy 9 automatically designs and configures the in-memory database based on the relationships between the attributes and metrics specified by the business user. The in-memory database technology operates in the computer server’s main memory for high-speed performance, but is also stored on disk for greater permanence and offers the ability to swap in and out of memory based on usage.

Simplified Extract and Load Capability:
MicroStrategy 9 supports a simplified extract and load capability to periodically repopulate the in-memory database with the latest information from the source system databases. Using MicroStrategy’s out-of-the-box query engines and scheduling systems, departments can schedule data extractions from relational databases, Excel workbooks, flat files, and multi-dimensional databases, including Microsoft Analysis Services and Hyperion/Oracle Essbase. When combined with the MicroStrategy 9 Multi-source ROLAP capability, the query system can even join data across multiple relational databases and Excel to populate the in-memory database.

Rapid Metadata Creation:
MicroStrategy 9 offers multiple features that enable the rapid creation of BI metadata. MicroStrategy’s new “Graphical Architect” makes it possible for non-IT people to select one or more source databases, identify the tables and columns desired, load them into the BI system, and transform them into business-oriented definitions that business people can understand and use to assemble into reports and dashboards. Graphical Architect also includes a series of smart assistants to help streamline the process, including auto-recognizing attributes and metrics and auto-recognizing the same data in multiple databases.

Providing Business Users with Self-service Capabilities to Access Information Easily and Quickly

Rapid Report Design by Business Users:
MicroStrategy 9 offers multiple new features that make assembling reports simpler and faster, and easily within reach of business users’ skills. These features include a simplified mechanism to browse through available dimensions, attributes, and metrics; drop zones that provide visual cues to users as to where to drag-n-drop these building blocks; and a formatting control for report formatting that is intuitive to Microsoft Office users. With MicroStrategy 9, business users have the ability to interactively build graph-style reports with dozens of visualization options. To enhance usability, MicroStrategy 9 includes a redesigned Web user interface that adopts many familiar Microsoft paradigms, including ribbon toolbars, accordion controls, control-click multi-select capability, and context-sensitive right-click actions.

Users Can See New Combinations of Data, Without Any Report Design:
Because of its ROLAP architecture, one of MicroStrategy’s long-standing strengths is the ability of business users to freely investigate the data or “surf” through the data warehouse without having to design a new report for each new combination of data they want to see. MicroStrategy 9 now lets users perform OLAP manipulations such as pivoting and drilling directly on graphs. Another major innovation in MicroStrategy 9 is the ability to perform OLAP manipulations directly on grids and graphs contained within dashboards.

User-controlled Report and Dashboard Distribution:
MicroStrategy 9 gives users greater control of report and dashboard distribution with its new Distribution Services product. Users can set up report distributions for themselves or for other users, sending reports via e-mail, networked printers, or directly to recipients’ computers or servers. Business users are empowered to create and manage their own information subscriptions, without the intervention of a centralized IT administrator. In addition, business users can set up their own personal alerts with data thresholds, which if exceeded, will automatically trigger an alert-based distribution to manage information flows only when the data merits attention.

Rapid Dashboard Creation:
Business users can quickly create their own dashboards using new features in MicroStrategy 9, including out-of-the-box dashboard templates, support for custom-designed templates, and support for importing dashboard design from other projects. Additionally, MicroStrategy 9 introduces a set of on-screen design assistants that help guide user design, including a smart-placement assistant that automatically sizes and aligns dashboard elements, new visual cues that help users add new analytics, new data sets, new tabs without going to menus, and a new dashboard map that helps users see all of the items on a dashboard and switch between them quickly during design.

“We were amazed at how much information we could consolidate into one of MicroStrategy’s new dashboards,” said Prashanth Narella, Engineering Manager, Data Services at Yahoo! Inc. “Every day, our executives rely on our information dashboards for a snapshot of our business performance.”

“Today, organizations need a business intelligence solution that can support user self-sufficiency and can respond more quickly and effectively to local business needs,” said Wayne Eckerson, Director of TDWI Research at The Data Warehousing Institute. “MicroStrategy 9 provides end users with more control over the analysis and reports they create and helps them to be more self-sufficient, require far less IT support, and quickly adapt to changing business requirements.”

MicroStrategy 9 Allows Enterprises to Seamlessly Combine Departmental Islands of BI into a Larger, Enterprise-wide BI System

Organizations have a mix of workgroup, departmental, and enterprise BI systems, and thus face the problem of having multiple ‘versions of the truth’ across these BI islands that can undermine the credibility of its BI systems. The solution is to merge the islands of BI into a more cohesive, enterprise-wide BI system gradually and incrementally. MicroStrategy 9 was designed specifically to enable a seamless merger of independent islands of MicroStrategy BI into a larger, more expansive enterprise BI system.

Multi-source ROLAP:
Using Multi-source ROLAP, metadata and reports from departmental BI islands can be merged into enterprise BI metadata, while still providing access to the original data source. This first step is simple because it does not require the movement of data from departmental data sources to the enterprise data warehouse, but it starts the process of consolidating the BI servers and metadata. The multi-source capability allows the previously-distinct metadata definitions to be merged gradually into a single cohesive metadata.

MicroStrategy Graphical Architect:
Graphical Architect, available in MicroStrategy 9, allows companies to take the second major step in merging islands of BI by gradually moving the data from the disparate databases into fewer higher-performance data warehouses and data marts. Graphical Architect allows companies to “re-point” the metadata to access the data at its new location, and all of the reports, dashboards, and OLAP analyses automatically will begin using the new data location, with no disruption to reports or redesign required.

“Organizations need to gradually and incrementally consolidate their departmental and workgroup islands of BI into a cohesive enterprise framework that ensures a single version of the truth and low cost of operation,” said Mark Smith, CEO & EVP Research of Ventana Research. “MicroStrategy is directly addressing this challenge with MicroStrategy 9, which contains an In-memory BI and Multi-source BI capability that will make MicroStrategy’s enterprise-caliber technology equally suitable for workgroup BI and departmental BI. MicroStrategy’s new platform includes capabilities that allow consolidation and transformation of departmental and workgroup islands of BI without having to redo reports or dashboards as consolidation takes place.”

For more information on MicroStrategy 9, visit www.microstrategy.com/9info. Additionally, MicroStrategy is planning a series of events in more than 20 locations, featuring demonstrations and insights into the new products and platform enhancements of MicroStrategy 9. To learn more about these events, visit www.microstrategy.com/9roadshow.

About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a global leader in business intelligence (BI) technology. MicroStrategy provides integrated reporting, analysis, and monitoring software that helps leading organizations worldwide make better business decisions every day. Companies choose MicroStrategy for its advanced technical capabilities, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability. More information about MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is available at www.microstrategy.com.

This press release may include statements that may constitute “forward-looking statements,” including estimates of future business prospects or financial results and statements containing the words “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “expect” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results of MicroStrategy Incorporated and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”) to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could contribute to such differences include: the ability of the Company to effect a timely general release of the MicroStrategy 9 software; the ability of the Company to implement and achieve widespread customer acceptance of its MicroStrategy 9 software on a timely basis; continued acceptance of the Company’s products in the marketplace; the timing of significant orders; delays in the Company’s ability to develop or ship new products; market acceptance of new products; competitive factors; general economic conditions, including significant downturns in industries, including the financial services and retail industries, in which we have a significant number of customers; currency fluctuations; and other risks detailed in the Company’s registration statements and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.

MicroStrategy, Pixel Perfect, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform, MicroStrategy 9, MicroStrategy Dynamic Enterprise Dashboards are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Wende Cover
MicroStrategy, Incorporated
1-703-770-1646
wcover@microstrategy.com

Source: MicroStrategy

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Information Builders Partners With Tagetik to Deliver Corporate Performance Management Solution

Combination of Operational BI and CPM Provides the Only Fully Integrated, Real-Time Reporting, Planning, and Forecasting Solution

NEW YORK, NY (January 08, 2009) –

Information Builders, the independent leader in operational business intelligence (BI) systems, today announced the availability of a corporate performance management (CPM) solution for enhanced measurement, planning, and reporting. Information Builders developed the single-platform solution with Tagetik, a global provider of CPM and financial governance solutions, to deliver the most sophisticated, enterprise-wide system available today to help enterprises accelerate and improve corporate and operational decision-making.

Information Builders partnered with Tagetik because of its comprehensive understanding of CPM, its extensive built-in functionality, and rapid integration into the WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework (PMF). Customers will benefit from the single architecture of the solution, making it easy to deploy, manage, and use. The combination of Tagetik’s executive-level reporting and Information Builders’ enterprise BI capabilities means financial services firms will have a single solution to enhance their financial reporting, planning, forecasting, and corporate governance.

Pierluigi Pierallini, CEO, Tagetik, said, “The combination of Information Builders’ WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework and Tagetik’s CPM provides users with operational performance indicators with advanced planning and forecasting capabilities in one easy-to-deploy, -manage, and -use solution. The solution automatically updates the financial position of the business with real-time data so that executives and managers can report, plan, and forecast more accurately. We are excited by this partnership and believe it offers customers the best solution available today.”

Gerald Cohen, CEO, Information Builders, said, “Customers often require two solutions, an executive dashboard and an operational system to manage their performance management requirements. The partnership between Information Builders and Tagetik is bringing together two independent, best-in-class vendors to solve a major challenge for many financial services firms. In today’s economic climate, the need to plan, forecast, and report more accurately for better decision-making has never been more acute, and our combined offering is the optimal solution.”

The partnership is a worldwide strategic initiative for both companies. Information Builders and Tagetik will conduct training and joint sales and marketing initiatives in North America, EMEA and Asia-Pac. While initially developed for the financial services industry, Information Builders and Tagetik are now investigating opportunities to establish other industry-specific solutions.
About Tagetik

Tagetik helps CFOs and CIOs simplify complex business processes.
A complete financial closed-loop software for Performance Management and Financial Governance that unifies key processes and applications – ranging from planning & consolidation to strategy management, profitability modeling, statement reporting, working capital analysis and ICT performance management – thanks to “built-in” processes, applications and reconciliations.

Tagetik CPM is a reliable and scalable solution to manage and control overall performance, support compliance initiatives, harmonize different views of critical financial data and enable maximum visibility down to business transactions. Since the software leverages best-of-breed, web-based and cross-platform technology, IT departments can future-proof their existing ERP, BI and infrastructure investments for up to 50 percent reduction of the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Tagetik employs over 300 experts in Italy and abroad with offices in United States, France, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Spain, South East Asia, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK & Ireland. Tagetik shares their successful strategy with worldwide and local partnerships and over 350 worldwide satisfied customers representing all industries including Unicredit Group, Telecom Italia, Mediaset, Barilla, De Agostini, Gucci, Fininvest, BNL, Altair Engineering, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Bank Austria, Banco Privado Portugues, Talanx AG, Nationale Suisse, Menarini Group, Volex Group, M+W Zander IFIL, Aries Complex, Astaldi, Acea, SDA Express Courier, Yamaha Motor Italia, Techint, Milan AC, RAI, Costa Crociere.
About Information Builders

As a leading independent business intelligence (BI) company for the past 30 years, Information Builders has provided innovative solutions to more than 12,000 customers, including most of the Fortune 100 and numerous U.S. federal government agencies. The company’s flagship WebFOCUS product is the world’s most widely used BI platform. Superior architecture and intuitive nature enables WebFOCUS to address the needs of everyone in the extended global enterprise – executive, analytical, operational, and beyond. It provides the agility to adapt to changing business conditions with the security, scalability, and flexibility to support dozens to millions of users.

Unique to the company is the integration expertise it brings to the BI market. Information Builders iWay Software suite solves complex integration problems with pre-built components that require minimal custom programming. The award-winning combination of WebFOCUS and iWay gives Information Builders customers the ability to embrace the company motto: “Everyone Makes Decisions.”

Information Builders is committed to customer service excellence with a Professional Services division that specializes in building custom applications using WebFOCUS and iWay Software. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,450 people and has more than 350 business partners.

Source: Information Builders

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MicroStrategy Announces 12th Annual User Conference, January 13-16, 2009 in Las Vegas

Event to Showcase MicroStrategy 9, Featuring New Products and Platform Enhancements to Support the Seamless Evolution from Workgroup Business Intelligence to Enterprise Business Intelligence

McLean, Va., (January 06, 2009) –

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today announced that it will host its 12th annual user conference, MicroStrategy World 2009, January 13-16 at the Wynn Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event will showcase MicroStrategy 9, the company’s biggest release in nearly a decade, which is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2009.

MicroStrategy World 2009 will offer more than 45 technical sessions focused on MicroStrategy 9, with its expanded capabilities for high performance, high efficiency, excellent scalability, and fast time-to-value. During the 3-day event, participants will see product demonstrations and learn about MicroStrategy’s latest technical advances to help companies deliver more business intelligence across the enterprise, while reducing administrative costs.

Executives from more than 35 world-class companies will present their success strategies and experiences using business intelligence to enhance business performance. Some of the companies scheduled to present at MicroStrategy World 2009 include AARP, AEG Worldwide, Belgacom, Bluegreen Corporation, Canadian Institute of Health Information, Cancer Care Ontario, Catalina Marketing, Citi, CVS Caremark, David’s Bridal, FAMIQ, GUESS?, Herbalife, KeyBank, Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Lowe’s Companies, Mercury Insurance Company, Meredith Corporation, Nationwide Insurance, Raley’s, Republic Bank Limited, Saint Elizabeth Health Care, Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Sepracor, Target, Transportation Security Administration, Turkcell, and Yahoo!.

At MicroStrategy World 2009, participants will learn about complementary solutions and services from many of MicroStrategy’s technology partners and event sponsors, including Accenture, Sybase, Teradata, Capgemini, HP, iOLAP, Southport Services Group, Carpio Solutions, Composite Software, DataFactZ, Greenlight Technologies, InfoCepts, Invexer, Lancet Software, Longview Solutions, Microsoft, Netezza, QuantiSense, SPSS, Vertica, and Visual Crossing.

“MicroStrategy World 2009 will provide an exciting first look at the MicroStrategy 9 new product features and platform enhancements engineered to help companies lower costs while delivering more BI across their enterprise,” said Sanju Bansal, MicroStrategy COO. “The event will offer dozens of technical presentations for deeper insights into the many new components of our next-generation BI technology. With more than 130 business and technical sessions to choose from, participants can customize their MicroStrategy World experience to fit their areas of interest and levels of experience.”

Registration information and a preliminary agenda for MicroStrategy World 2009 are available at www.microstrategy.com/MicroStrategyWorld2009.

About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a global leader in business intelligence (BI) technology. MicroStrategy provides integrated reporting, analysis, and monitoring software that helps leading organizations worldwide make better business decisions every day. Companies choose MicroStrategy for its advanced technical capabilities, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability. More information about MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is available at www.microstrategy.com.

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform, MicroStrategy 9 are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Wende Cover
MicroStrategy, Incorporated
1-703-770-1646
wcover@microstrategy.com

Source: MicroStrategy

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Whole Foods Market

MicroStrategy Selected Following Evaluation of Leading BI Products

McLean, Va., (December 22, 2008) –

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today announced that Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) has selected MicroStrategy’s Business Intelligence Platform(TM) to support a wide range of business intelligence applications across its enterprise. Whole Foods Market is a worldwide leader in the natural and organic foods industry.

Whole Foods Market is using MicroStrategy to analyze sales and operational data across its 275 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. MicroStrategy is being utilized by BI users throughout the organization for detailed insights into product sales. In addition, Whole Foods Market has enabled its suppliers and vendors to view sales data for their specific product lines through a MicroStrategy-based application.

“MicroStrategy’s proven expertise in retail business intelligence was a key factor in selecting them as our BI provider,” said Dave Zodikoff, IT Senior Coordinator of Purchasing, Private Label and Reporting at Whole Foods Market. “We evaluated several leading BI products and, using a total cost of ownership model, determined that MicroStrategy had the best combination of ease-of-use, time-to-market, successful retail implementations, and robust analytical capabilities.”

“MicroStrategy’s integrated platform delivers comprehensive reports and analyses that can serve as critical tools for companies committed to improving operational efficiencies and enhancing business performance,” said MicroStrategy’s COO, Sanju Bansal. “We are pleased that Whole Foods Market selected MicroStrategy to support its expanding BI applications.”

About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a global leader in business intelligence (BI) technology. MicroStrategy provides integrated reporting, analysis, and monitoring software that helps leading organizations worldwide make better business decisions every day. Companies choose MicroStrategy for its advanced technical capabilities, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability. More information about MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) is available at www.microstrategy.com.

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Wende Cover
MicroStrategy, Incorporated
1-703-770-1646
wcover@microstrategy.com

Source: MicroStrategy

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iDashboards Completes Most Successful Year in Company History

Industry Demand for Affordable Performance Management Solutions and Increase in Customers Keys to Growth

Troy, MI (December 15, 2008) –

iDashboards, the leader in Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard software, today announced it has recorded year-to-date revenue growth of 55% over 2007. This growth was fueled by a significant increase in the number of customers across various industries.

New client acquisitions for iDashboards not only span industries, but also the globe, including the UK, Middle East, Mexico and the US. The worldwide reach of iDashboards further demonstrates the value and power of enterprise-class dashboards.

Today, new customers like Darley Stud Farms, a prominent stallion breeder, and Dubai Holding, an investment institution, are using dashboard technology to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and track the health of their organizations. With iDashboards, they are able to drill down into the information that resides in various complex data sets, enabling executives to make intelligent decisions quickly.

iDashboards’ OEM partner channel has also grown over the course of the year. New partners include Parallax Technologies, a corporation specializing in Systems Integration and Contact Center Solutions, and Advanced Solutions International (ASI), the leading global provider of software for non-profits. Working with software integrators enables iDashboards to expand its reach and provide organizations with data visualization needed to ensure success in 2009.

Due to its growth, iDashboards moved its headquarters to a larger space. The company now occupies a 5,100 square feet office that is centrally located to Troy’s high-tech corridor.

Additional 2008 successes include:

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Product Launch: Release of iDashboards 6.0, an innovative software solution used to design the well-received demo consumer-facing dashboards of the 2008 Olympic Games http://tinyurl.com/67d3n4 and this year’s Presidential election http://tinyurl.com/44ylof
*
Thought Leadership: Shadan Malik, CEO of iDashboards, was featured and quoted in many industry sources such as Inc., InternetNews, FundRaising Success, BeyeNETWORK, GO, DM Review, ebizQ, Tech Republic, CRM Magazine and Processor
*
Accolades: Recognized as one of the “Michigan 50 Companies to Watch” through an awards program sponsored by the Edward Lowe Foundation

“We are thrilled with the tremendous growth the company experienced this year,” said Shadan Malik, CEO, iDashboards. “In today’s economic climate, it is imperative that businesses use data visualization of their assets to determine performance metrics at every level of the organization. We anticipate that the need for affordable BI tools, specifically those for visual reporting, will continue to increase in 2009.”

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About iDashboards

Through its award-winning engineering and patented software, iDashboards helps companies leverage information assets through visually rich, real-time and personalized business intelligence dashboards to analyze, track, and drill down through a wealth of information. iDashboards’ global customer base consists of organizations ranging from large, fortune 500 companies to small and medium-sized businesses, all of which are making quicker, well-informed business decisions with the help of iDashboards. The company is privately held and headquartered in Troy, Michigan. To find out more about iDashboards’ solutions, please call (248) 952-0840 or visit www.idashboards.com.

Press Contact:
Katherine Cadwell
LEWIS PR
617.226.8840
iDashboards@lewispr.com

Source: iDashboards

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MicroStrategy Announces New Half-day Business Intelligence Course for Business Users

Free Course Provides Hands-on Experience Creating Business Reports and Information Dashboards

McLean, Va., (December 11, 2008) –

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today announced a new class designed for business users who want to become familiar with enterprise business intelligence reporting and analytics.

The half-day course is free and will be taught on-site for attendees at their office or a local training facility. The curriculum will cover the following:

* Understand how enterprise BI can help improve operational efficiency
* Design reports, scorecards, and dashboards with ease
* Interact with enterprise data through dashboards and visualizations
* Learn how sophisticated analytics can improve corporate strategy
* Explore the 5 Styles of BI

MicroStrategy has offered a one-day Introduction to Business Intelligence class since 2006 with thousands of participants attending classes held in cities around the world. This new class was developed to address the specific needs of business people who have limited or no experience using business intelligence software.

“MicroStrategy’s new course offering will be very useful for our employees who have no experience or very little experience with business intelligence software,” said Alan Heger, Vice President of Information Systems at Russ Berrie & Co., Inc. “The hands-on training will help business users and analysts see how easy it is to run reports and analyze their data for deeper insights into the business. In addition, the half-day format and on-site class location will make it especially convenient for participants.”

“Utilizing business intelligence to its fullest is critical for business professionals who rely on reporting and analytics for decision making,” said Mark Smith, CEO and EVP Research of Ventana Research. “MicroStrategy’s educational courses with hands-on instruction are valuable in providing organizations with direct insight into how to be both efficient and effective in their hourly, daily, and weekly business intelligence activities.”

“Our new half-day BI course will help business users better understand the value of BI and how it can support their business goals,” said Sanju Bansal, MicroStrategy COO. “Through this class, attendees will learn how to create their own reports and dashboards without support from IT, and how BI can be used to gain greater insights into their business to make more informed decisions.”

For more information on MicroStrategy’s BI class for business users, visit www.microstrategy.com/FreeBusinessUserClass.

About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a global leader in business intelligence (BI) technology. MicroStrategy provides integrated reporting, analysis, and monitoring software that helps leading organizations worldwide make better business decisions every day. Companies choose MicroStrategy for its advanced technical capabilities, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability. More information about MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) is available at www.microstrategy.com.

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Wende Cover
MicroStrategy, Incorporated
1-703-770-1646
wcover@microstrategy.com

Source: MicroStrategy

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Alloso Technologies Integrates MicroStrategy into its Portfolio One Business Intelligence Platform

Provides Hospitality Industry with Real-Time Visibility into Revenues and Expenses Across the Portfolio

McLean, Va., (December 10, 2008) –

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today announced that Alloso Technologies has entered into an OEM agreement with MicroStrategy. Alloso Technologies is a software development and consulting company providing hoteliers and the hospitality industry with solutions to help them manage and improve the performance of their portfolios.

Alloso’s Portfolio One(TM) solution is a Web-based business intelligence platform that consolidates information from different hospitality and hotel brand systems. Portfolio One provides in-depth financial reporting, expense management, and analytical capabilities for hotel management companies and asset managers.

Using MicroStrategy’s Web-based dashboards, reporting, and analytics, Alloso’s clients can gain real-time visibility into revenue and expense information across their hospitality systems. On one platform, users can analyze data consolidated from nearly every system in the organization, including General Ledger, Budgets and Forecasts, Market Research, Payroll and Labor, and Energy. MicroStrategy’s drag-and-drop capabilities provide the ability to view this information by both the standard criteria, such as brand, franchise, ownership, comp set, and geographical locations, as well as user- and company-defined custom groupings.

MicroStrategy’s integrated security enables users across the organization to see the information relevant to their specific area of the business. Additionally, Portfolio One is designed from the ground up to reduce the labor necessary to collect, validate, and distribute this information.

Jon Gorman, CTO at Alloso Technologies, commented: “MicroStrategy’s technology is allowing us, for the first time, to bring all of this information together on a single platform and deliver it to every level of the organization at an affordable cost. With MicroStrategy’s mature technology and flexible licensing, we can deliver actionable information to every accountable person in the organization. MicroStrategy’s ROLAP technology enables our users to drill down to the transaction level of detail from virtually anywhere in the system, without the limitations of cubes. Finally, the architecture is extremely flexible allowing us to provide hoteliers with a best-in-class solution at an attractive price point, which is proving to be a compelling competitive advantage.”

“We are delighted to work with Alloso Technologies and provide enhanced reporting and analytics for their new BI solution,” said Sanju Bansal, MicroStrategy COO. “MicroStrategy’s integrated BI platform enables our OEM partners to easily embed analytics into new application offerings and augment product capabilities.”

About Alloso Technologies
Alloso Technologies is a leader in innovative software development and consulting to the hospitality industry. Our expertise combines extensive hospitality experience together with strong technology and development backgrounds.

At Alloso Technologies we constantly strive to ensure our products are truly helping hotelier’s manage and improve their business. Portfolio One(TM) was developed with input and feedback from forward-thinking leaders in the hospitality industry. More information about Alloso Technologies is available at www.alloso.com.

About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a global leader in business intelligence (BI) technology. MicroStrategy provides integrated reporting, analysis, and monitoring software that helps leading organizations worldwide make better business decisions every day. Companies choose MicroStrategy for its advanced technical capabilities, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability. More information about MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) is available at www.microstrategy.com.

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Wende Cover
MicroStrategy, Incorporated
1-703-770-1646
wcover@microstrategy.com

Source: MicroStrategy

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iDashboards and Parallax Technologies Offer Performance Dashboards for Contact Centers

Parallax Technologies, providers of Contact Center solutions, and iDashboards, the leader in Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard software, are pleased to announce that the companies have entered a partnership to provide industry-leading business intelligence dashboard platforms

Detroit, MI (December 10, 2008) –

Parallax Technologies, providers of Contact Center solutions, and iDashboards, the leader in Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard software, are pleased to announce that the companies have entered a partnership to provide industry-leading business intelligence dashboard platforms. This strategic partnership will ensure that Parallax Technologies’ customers are equipped with the most comprehensive and cutting edge business intelligence and performance management systems.

“We believe that iDashboards nicely complements Parallax’s portfolio of products and business objectives. The industry-leading dashboard technology from iDashboards connected with Quality Assurance, Performance Management and Customer Satisfaction data that exists in Contact Centers will deliver great value to Parallax customers,” stated Ernest LaBara, president, Parallax Technologies.

iDashboards offers immediate value to organizations through the seamless integration with existing Parallax Technologies offerings and underlying data sources. Some of the features that make iDashboards the best of breed dashboard solution are:

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Enterprise Scalability – iDashboards delivers personalized dashboards to thousands of users; it provides LDAP integration, portal integration and a comprehensive security framework.
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High User Adoption – The fully browser-based system provides unique right-click menu options that empower business users to customize their dashboards with little training.
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Patented Visualization -Flash-based animation provides a rich visual experience offering dynamic “Visual Intelligence” into large amounts of data.
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Alerts – Users can be notified through emails as well as dashboard alerts when a key performance indicator (KPI) exceeds a pre-defined threshold.

“We are thrilled that Parallax Technologies is using iDashboards to support Contact Center customers in visualizing key metrics and gauging performance,” said David Ferguson, Director of Business Development and Channels for iDashboards. “This partnership further demonstrates the value of dashboards for real-time data analysis and quick decision making in high-volume enterprise settings.”

About Parallax Technologies
Parallax Technologies is a Michigan based corporation specializing in Systems Integration and Contact Center Solutions. Parallax has brought together a powerful suite of applications that enable organizations to achieve substantial business benefits by optimizing the deployment of their customer’s workforce and the management of customer centric data in the contact center. As an application provider and systems integrator, Parallax Technologies delivers world-class solutions while leveraging partnerships with established industry leaders to provide all the necessary components of a unified Contact Center solution. To find out more, please call 248-625-3456 or visit our website at www.parallaxtechnologies.com.

About iDashboards
Through its award-winning engineering and patented software, iDashboards helps companies leverage information assets through visually rich, real-time and personalized business intelligence dashboards to analyze, track, and drill down through a wealth of information. iDashboards’ global customer base consists of organizations ranging from large, fortune 500 companies to small and medium-sized businesses, all of which are making quicker, well-informed business decisions with the help of iDashboards. The company is privately held and headquartered in Troy, Michigan. To find out more about iDashboards, please visit www.idashboards.com.

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Parallax Technologies Contact:
Ann Mullaly
248-625-3456, ext 135
amullaly@parallaxtechnologies.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

iDashboards Contact:
LEWIS PR
617.226.8840
idashboards@lewispr.com

Source: iDashboards

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DFS Group Selects MicroStrategy for Enhanced Sales Reporting and Analysis

MicroStrategy Chosen Following Extensive Analysis of Competitive Business Intelligence Products

McLean, Va., (December 02, 2008) –

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today announced that DFS Group has selected MicroStrategy for enhanced reporting and analysis across multiple areas of the company. DFS Group is a leading luxury retailer catering to international travelers around the globe. With headquarters in Hong Kong and 6,500 employees, DFS operations range from Abu Dhabi to New York and include more than 150 airport stores and 15 downtown DFS Gallerias.

Following a competitive evaluation of business intelligence products, DFS is replacing its existing BI tools with MicroStrategy. DFS plans to use MicroStrategy for reporting and analysis of key business areas, including sales and operations. With MicroStrategy, DFS users will be able to gain enhanced insights into category management, providing critical sales information by product, category, and geography, to better understand which products and categories are selling well, and in which locations. DFS also plans to use MicroStrategy for customer analysis and reporting at the store front to support day-to-day operations.

“We evaluated other business intelligence products and we chose MicroStrategy because of its advanced technology, integrated platform, and data scalability,” said Robert Yap, Senior Vice President and CIO of DFS. “MicroStrategy provides a Web-based user interface and an integrated environment for our users around the world, enabling us to simplify and standardize reporting and analysis for our merchant and store operations communities. A key strength is the ability to schedule reports by day, week, or month to be delivered automatically to targeted users’ e-mail or secured network folders.”

“Retailers embrace MicroStrategy because of its scalable and flexible platform, enabling them to analyze volumes of transactional data and gain valuable information on essential areas such as store operations, inventory management, and merchandising analysis,” said MicroStrategy’s COO Sanju Bansal. “We are delighted that DFS has selected MicroStrategy to enhance its reporting and analysis capabilities.”

About DFS
DFS was founded in Hong Kong in 1960 by two entrepreneurs, Chuck Feeney and Robert Miller. Since then the company has grown into the world’s largest travel-oriented Duty Free and Luxury retailer, with airport shops and Luxury Galleria stores in major destinations in Asia/Pacific, Oceania, the United States, and the Middle East. DFS is now owned by LVMH Moet Hennesy Louis Vuitton and Mr. Miller.

About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a global leader in business intelligence (BI) technology. MicroStrategy provides integrated reporting, analysis, and monitoring software that helps leading organizations worldwide make better business decisions every day. Companies choose MicroStrategy for its advanced technical capabilities, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability. More information about MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is available at www.microstrategy.com.

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Wende Cover
MicroStrategy, Incorporated
1-703-770-1646
wcover@microstrategy.com

Source: MicroStrategy

Tags:

Quadrant Risk Management Signs Global Reseller Agreement with MicroStrategy

Quadrant Develops Risk Management Offering using MicroStrategy Dashboards

McLean, Va., (November 20, 2008) –

MicroStrategy® Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence (BI) software, today announced that Quadrant Risk Management (International) Ltd (Quadrant) has signed a Global Reseller Agreement with MicroStrategy. Quadrant is a leading supplier of financial business intelligence, enterprise risk, and compliance solutions.

Under the agreement, Quadrant will resell MicroStrategy’s technology to its banking and insurance industry customers. Quadrant offers a Financial Services Enterprise Data Model with pre-packaged modules for a broad range of financial sectors, including retail banking, credit cards, mortgages, lending, mutual funds, investment banking, and insurance. By incorporating MicroStrategy’s BI software, Quadrant will be able to offer enhanced analytical capabilities such as detailed and ad hoc reporting, advanced and predictive analytics, and exception-based alert and notification capabilities.

Quadrant has developed a range of business intelligence solutions that provide a platform and tools to measure, manage, and understand business performance and risk. Built using MicroStrategy’s Dynamic Enterprise Dashboards(TM) and Quadrant’s Financial Information Model, this offering can provide financial institutions with deeper insights into factors that can impact their risk profile, financial performance, and profitability.

Paul Lockyear, CEO of Quadrant stated, “MicroStrategy will enhance our business intelligence capabilities and enable us to offer our customers robust reporting and analytical functionality for data-driven decision making. MicroStrategy’s data and user scalability is well-suited for our financial services customers who typically have terabytes of data and very large user populations.”

“We are pleased to forge this new relationship with Quadrant,” said MicroStrategy’s COO, Sanju Bansal. “In today’s volatile economic environment, effective risk management is imperative. Quadrant’s specialization in enterprise risk and data management solutions for the financial industry will extend MicroStrategy’s reach into this important vertical market.”

About Quadrant Risk Management
Quadrant Risk Management (International) Limited was formed in the UK in 1991 as a specialist consultancy by risk management professionals who had previously operated at board level in financial institutions. In 2001 Quadrant diversified by developing its domain expertise into the B2, Quadrant’s risk and compliance suite, in response to the Bank for International Settlement’s Basel II Capital Accord. SAB2 was introduced in 2006 as a Standardised Approach solution to meeting the requirements of Basel II. In November 2006, with venture capital funding, Quadrant acquired Ecensity Corporation, a specialist in SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) to enhance its technology base and delivery capability. In January 2007 Quadrant announced that it is developing S2 to address the risk based capital adequacy requirements being introduced with Solvency II for the European insurance industry, currently planned for 2012. More information is available at www.qrmi-group.com.

About MicroStrategy
Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a global leader in business intelligence (BI) technology. MicroStrategy provides integrated reporting, analysis, and monitoring software that helps leading organizations worldwide make better business decisions every day. Companies choose MicroStrategy for its advanced technical capabilities, sophisticated analytics, and superior data and user scalability. More information about MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is available at www.microstrategy.com.

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Dynamic Enterprise Dashboards are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Wende Cover
MicroStrategy, Incorporated
1-703-770-1646
wcover@microstrategy.com

Source: MicroStrategy

Tags:

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