Microsoft, Hyperion Partner In BI

Microsoft Corp. and Hyperion Solutions Corp. on Tuesday said they plan to integrate their business intelligence products in order to provide customers with a broader offering of complementary software.

The collaboration plans, announced at Hyperion's Solutions 2006 conference in Las Vegas, Nev., include integrating Microsoft SQL Server 2005 technologies with Hyperion System 9 BI+. The Microsoft technologies include SQL Server reporting, analysis and integration services.

"We continue to hear from customers that the need for increased interoperability is significant in making the most of existing IT investments," Robert Bernard, general manager of the Global ISV Group at Microsoft, said in a statement.

The effort is expected to enable customers of either company to expand their use of business intelligence by adopting complementary components from either Hyperion or Microsoft. Specifically, Hyperion customers would be able to use Microsoft reporting services to access Hyperion's Essbase Analytics, while also displaying the reports in Hyperion's workspace environment.

In addition, Microsoft customers would be able to access SQL Server Analysis Services data using Hyperion System 9 BI+. Also, the latter system would leverage SQL Server Integration Services for data access.

A timetable for the product integration was not disclosed.