“With Power BI, end users can work with data wherever they are from their favorite touch devices and quickly derive insights to drive faster business decisions. It’s all part of the Microsoft BI solution.”

Sanjay Soni, Sales Excellence BI Lead, Microsoft

To support growth in its emerging business divisions, Microsoft wanted better reporting and forecasting tools for its global sales team. To meet its goals, the company implemented a solution based on the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services tabular model and self-service business intelligence (BI) tools, such as Microsoft Excel 2013 Power Pivot and Power BI for Office 365. As a result, the company simplified reporting for its mobile workforce, improved sales processes, and gained better access to business data from virtually any location.

Business NeedsMicrosoft is a leading global provider of business and consumer software, devices, and online services. Based in Redmond, Washington, the company has 99,000 employees and operations in 190 countries. To improve support for emerging business such as the Windows Azure platform, Bing Maps, and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Parallel Data Warehouse, Microsoft wanted to give field sales teams better forecasting and reporting tools.

The Microsoft (MS) Incubation Sales Excellence team provides regular sales reporting and forecasting information to approximately 1,500 users, including employees in field sales and finance, and groups responsible for managing new businesses. In the past, the team published

reports using Microsoft Excel 2010 spreadsheet software and a custom solution called the Global Incubation Forecasting Tool (GIFT) based on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services in multidimensional mode for OLAP processing. Users worldwide could download a copy of the spreadsheets from a file share.

With new capabilities in Microsoft BI tools, the MS Incubation team saw opportunities to improve its visualization capabilities and speed reporting. Users wanted faster, more interactive offline reporting capabilities so they could work with data without being connected to the corporate network. In addition, they wanted the freedom to customize reports based on

Customer: MicrosoftWebsite: www.microsoft.comCustomer Size: 99,000 employeesCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Manufacturing—Software publishing

Customer ProfileThe world’s largest software publisher by revenue, Microsoft has operations in 190 countries and business divisions that include productivity programs, business solutions, gaming, and online services.

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

Microsoft Office 2013 Technologies− Microsoft Excel 2013 Power Pivot − Microsoft Excel 2013 Power View− Microsoft Power Query for Excel− Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

Power Pivot− Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis

Services− Microsoft SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot− Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting

Services Services− Bing Maps− Microsoft Office 365− Power BI for Office 365− Power BI Q&A− Power Map for Excel

For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit:www.microsoft.com/casestudies

Microsoft Improves Reporting and Forecasting for Global Workforce with BI Solution

templates provided by the MS Incubation team. “We are a global team,” says Sanjay Soni, Sales Excellence BI Lead at Microsoft. “While our database servers are in Redmond, Washington, we have global remote sales team members in places such as New Zealand and Japan trying to open reports against our cube. We want to offer them fast and visual reports in online and offline mode.”

The team wanted to create two types of reports: online reports always connected to the central cube that show the latest data; and refreshable and fast offline Excel 2010 reports with millions of rows of data for remote users worldwide. Finally, they wanted the reports to be interactive, visually compelling, and accessible on users’ touch devices. SolutionThe MS Incubation Sales Excellence team decided to redesign its global reporting and forecasting solution for modern users by taking advantage of built-in BI capabilities in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise.

The solution includes the Incubation BI data mart based on SQL Server 2012 that pulls together information from a customer relationship management (CRM) system, sales data, and other data sources. To ensure data accuracy, the team implemented business rules when it combined information into a unified SQL Server data mart. Using Microsoft Power Query for Excel, expert users can still combine Microsoft IT sanctioned data and other external sets with the information in the data mart.

The team also converted the multidimensional cube to the tabular BI Semantic model in SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services. Then it created several core Power View reports in Microsoft Excel 2013 based on the new tabular data model. After power users became comfortable working with the tools, they began creating their own online Power View reports in Excel 2013. The interactive, visual reports always display the latest information from the data model.

End users also wanted offline capability. So, the team built Power View reports based on the underlying Incubation BI data mart and the tabular model. After saving and customizing reports offline, users can

refresh the data with a single click. Working with Power View reports offline in Excel 2013 also alleviates the remote server’s workload which speeds performance for online users.

The team started implementing new reporting features too, including visual “heat maps” and reports with Power Map for Excel, a service that takes advantage of Bing Maps to create three-dimensional geospatial visualizations. Users can take advantage of the feature to show the geographic distribution of sales and revenue. Both online and offline reports were published using Microsoft SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013. The reports are refreshed twice weekly by the BI team on the server side.

The new BI solution was launched September 2013. Global users can access the highly-visual, interactive reports through a centralized catalog in the Incubation BI portal. The portal also includes the team’s customer HTML5-based GIFT that the sales team can use to enter forecasts and revenue overrides during the “rhythm of business” session each month. The web-based tool is accessible through any browser.

In the next phase, the team is extending the solution with other components of Power BI for Office 365, an online service for interactive reporting. With Power BI, the MS Incubation team can deliver reports across touchscreen devices. For example, users can work with a Windows 8 application on Microsoft Surface tablets, or run browsers on virtually any device to work with the HTML5 interface.The team is also implementing Power BI Q&A so that people can use natural language to query the Excel 2013 Power Pivot models published on Office 365.

BenefitsMicrosoft is simplifying reporting, enhancing its sales processes, and providing better access to business data worldwide with a visual, interactive, and touch-friendly BI solution based on SQL Server 2012 and Power BI for Office 365.

Simplified Forecasting and ReportingBy taking advantage of built-in capabilities, the MS Incubation team can deliver a

comprehensive BI solution for its mobile sales force. “With Power BI, end users can work with their favorite touch devices and quickly derive insights to drive faster business decisions,” says Soni. “It’s all part of the Microsoft BI solution.”

Gained Better Access to Business DataThe global sales team now has continuous access to real-time information, as well as the ability to work offline as needed. Soni says, “The solution based on SQL Server 2012 and Power BI for Office 365 is fast, stable, and provides accurate insight into the current status of our business from any location.”

Enhanced Sales ProcessesBy improving performance and providing easy access to data, the streamlined solution helps the sales force work more efficiently. “Productivity is one of the top benefits, and better insight is another,” says Soni. “The Microsoft BI solution gives our sales team the information and insight it needs to ultimately better serve our customers.”

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Document published January 2014