ENGINEERING
Demand for BI Capabilities Helps Boost Microsoft SQL Server Revenue
Microsoft's Q4 financial results have highlighted an 18 per cent growth in quarterly revenues for its Server and Tools division fuelled by a 35 per cent increase in revenue growth for SQL Server. The Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Server & Tools division attributes an important part of this growth to increased demand for business intelligence (BI) capabilities in the region. The increased customer demand for the BI database capabilities has also driven significant expansion for Microsoft's partners across the region, with a 360 percent increase in partners acquiring Business Intelligence Competency over the past 12 months.
Marin Bezic, SQL BI product manager at Microsoft EMEA, said, "Our partners are seeing the opportunities and the customers are reaping the benefits of enhanced insight into their own businesses. In the past year we have seen customers such as HMV Group plc and the Mediterranean Shipping Company SA adopting Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as part of their BI strategy. These firms, and many others, have identified that our advancements to existing BI features, such as OLAP and data mining and the introduction of a new reporting server, provide them with the ability to transform information into better business decisions at all organisational levels, from the information worker to the CEO." Crispin Read, chief marketing officer for Microsoft partner, Cartesis, said, "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 offers us a comprehensive BI solution that integrates entirely with our other infrastructure components. Microsoft is already having a big impact on the BI market and is challenging the traditional vendors as it continues to grow its BI capabilities and build on the SQL Server platform. In partnering with Microsoft and leveraging their technology, we are seeing strong growth for scalable and robust performance management solutions particularly amongst global 2000 customers." Mauro Meanti, general manager, Microsoft EMEA Server & Tools, said, "For the last several quarters, we've seen Microsoft SQL Server growing at a range of 20-40 per cent year on year. We have worked hard to tap into modern-day customer needs with a pragmatic approach that ensures the technology is easy to adopt and use. Our strategy and vision is to meet the needs of the coming data explosion and the next generation of data-driven applications that will make BI more pervasive inside of organisations. Our investments are focused in four key areas: continuous availability and automation, beyond relational, dynamic applications and end-to-end business insight, and it our solutions in these areas that will allow our customers to extract greater value from their information assets and to access their data securely no matter where it resides." In addition, Gartner Inc indicates that Microsoft was the fastest growing of the top-five vendors in 2005 in the database management system software market based on total software revenue according to its recent report, "Market share: database systems software market, EMEA, 2005".
Marin Bezic, SQL BI product manager at Microsoft EMEA, said, "Our partners are seeing the opportunities and the customers are reaping the benefits of enhanced insight into their own businesses. In the past year we have seen customers such as HMV Group plc and the Mediterranean Shipping Company SA adopting Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as part of their BI strategy. These firms, and many others, have identified that our advancements to existing BI features, such as OLAP and data mining and the introduction of a new reporting server, provide them with the ability to transform information into better business decisions at all organisational levels, from the information worker to the CEO." Crispin Read, chief marketing officer for Microsoft partner, Cartesis, said, "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 offers us a comprehensive BI solution that integrates entirely with our other infrastructure components. Microsoft is already having a big impact on the BI market and is challenging the traditional vendors as it continues to grow its BI capabilities and build on the SQL Server platform. In partnering with Microsoft and leveraging their technology, we are seeing strong growth for scalable and robust performance management solutions particularly amongst global 2000 customers." Mauro Meanti, general manager, Microsoft EMEA Server & Tools, said, "For the last several quarters, we've seen Microsoft SQL Server growing at a range of 20-40 per cent year on year. We have worked hard to tap into modern-day customer needs with a pragmatic approach that ensures the technology is easy to adopt and use. Our strategy and vision is to meet the needs of the coming data explosion and the next generation of data-driven applications that will make BI more pervasive inside of organisations. Our investments are focused in four key areas: continuous availability and automation, beyond relational, dynamic applications and end-to-end business insight, and it our solutions in these areas that will allow our customers to extract greater value from their information assets and to access their data securely no matter where it resides." In addition, Gartner Inc indicates that Microsoft was the fastest growing of the top-five vendors in 2005 in the database management system software market based on total software revenue according to its recent report, "Market share: database systems software market, EMEA, 2005".