Gives an overview of new developments to further enable Microsoft Corp.'s vision and strategy for delivering pervasive business intelligence.

Microsoft, announced that they will open the first Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference, with an overview of new developments to further enable Microsoft Corp.'s vision and strategy for delivering pervasive BI and performance management.

In addition to describing how Microsoft is leading the transformation of the BI market by enabling BI and performance management throughout the enterprise, Raikes will announce key milestones for Microsoft's BI offering: Microsoft's product development vision and launch timeline for the next version of SQL Server, code-named 'Katmai'. The product will deliver on Microsoft's overall data platform vision to meet the needs of the coming data explosion and the next generation of data-driven applications. SQL Server Katmai will also include key capabilities for data warehousing and send information delivery through Microsoft Office, says the company.

"Microsoft is charting a course to transform the BI marketplace as we know it," Raikes said. "By fundamentally changing the economic model for BI and delivering unprecedented ease of use, we're enabling the broadest deployment of BI possible so employees can better contribute to a company's overall business performance."