Panorama Integrates with 'Denali' Microsoft SQL Server

We noted Panorama Software works closely with Microsoft in the business intelligence (BI) market when we detailed the release of the Panorama Necto in June 2011. Fast forward less than a month later, Panorama announced it is one of the first Microsoft partners to integrate with Microsoft’s new SQL Server, codenamed “Denali.” The announcement was made during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Los Angeles, July 12, 2011. I was able to pull Panorama CEO Eynav Azarya away from the conference to find out more about the Panorama-Microsoft integration announcement.

“This is the biggest market-disruptive solution in business intelligence in the last 10 years,” Azarya said. “It’s going to change how we deploy BI. We are the only Denali integration partner on the BI side of the business.”

The disruptive technology is Denali’s Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM). BISM is a single solution that gives users a consistent view of their data and lets them do everything from reporting and analysis to creating dashboards and scorecards. Panorama will integrate the Panorama Necto on top of Denali and vice versa. “Our customers will have the fast deployment of Denali and the intelligence of Necto,” Azarya said.

The Panorama-Microsoft integrated solution will cost $300-$1,300 per user, depending on the total number of users and configuration needed. It will handle all of what Azarya calls “the slicing and dicing of data” that previously required days to perform. “Now it will take seconds,” he said. “The analyst’s job is now automated. Our software can find the needle in the haystack.”

So naturally the question arose: Are analysts becoming obsolete? Not quite. Azarya explains: “Analysts help users make the right decisions. We need analysts to understand our solution and why servers are going down. The difference is that they used to have to slice and analyze the data. They don’t have to do that anymore. Why go inside and dig for gold when we’ve found the gold for you? You just have to decide how many karats that piece of gold is.”

Panorama and Microsoft are now working on bringing their BI solution to more users and making it more of a collaborative platform, Azarya said.