Q&A: Microsoft's Jeff Raikes on pervasive BI, ERP encroachments

 Okay, maybe some technology acquisitions...

You announced today that Microsoft is acquiring SoftArtisan's OfficeWriter tool for reporting authoring in Microsoft Office. Can you provide more details about that acquisition and whether this tool is aimed at helping companies who find their IT shops struggling with report request backlogs?

That is the intention. People want access to BI from within the context of the Office tool that they use every day. It was a natural for us with SoftArtisans to want to use their technology as part of opening up the reporting to Word and Excel. [Users] can consume reports from within Word and Excel. Those become an end point for being able to have access to the information.

Source: Q&A: Microsoft's Jeff Raikes on pervasive BI, ERP encroachments