Case Studies
Extended Results Enriches Business Intelligence with Intel® and Microsoft® Technology
Solution Brief
Businesses produce volumes of data that when analyzed, provide valuable insights to help improve important business decisions. Deep analysis of sales revenue can uncover insightful trends. Analyzing business operational costs can enable more accurate budgeting. The benefit is clear, but the reality of managing and analyzing large amounts of data can be extremely time-consuming and complicated for businesses to undertake. With the enhanced performance of Intel Xeon processors and robust capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint* 2010 and PowerPivot for Excel* 2010, Extended Results has enabled businesses to turn Business Intelligence (BI) into a manageable asset. Extended Results’ solution, Workplace for Outlook, transforms the way businesses use BI data by providing a central location to manage and access information. Information is readily available from Microsoft Outlook, providing employees instant access to the latest data to help them make more informed business decisions.
DELIVERING NEW INSIGHTS AND PRODUCTIVITY GAINS WITH WORKPLACE
Workplace makes it simple for users throughout an organization to leverage the power of BI. Through an intuitive ribbon bar add-on added to Microsoft Outlook, users launch business applications and reports through customized categories and links to get fast access to key business tools. Links can be customized and delivered by user or role, providing employees instant access to what they need, when they need it.
BETTER TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER RESULTS
Extended Results relies on Intel processors alongside SharePoint and Excel to gain maximum performance and capability integration into its products. Intel Xeon processors deliver intelligent performance and cost savings, helping Extended Results develop products such as Workplace faster and at a lower cost. By standardizing on Microsoft software, Extended Results is able to leverage SharePoint for driving back-end functionality of the Workplace ribbon bar. PowerPivot integrates with SharePoint to provide rich data analysis, transforming massive quantities of data into meaningful information.
INTEL CORE PROCESSORS DRIVE GREATER PERFORMANCE
For developing its BI solutions, Extended Results relies on the Intel® Core™ i5 and Intel® Core™ i7 processors. Extended Results developers find the processors easier to program than the other processors they used in the past. And they are able to significantly reduce testing and compute time, saving up to half a day a week.
The Intel Core i5 and Intel Core i7 feature Intel® Turbo Boost Technology which maximizes processor speed to match workloads. This ensures Extended Results BI tools have maximum power when they need it and get power savings when they don’t. Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) helps to double the execution resources available to the operating system, providing increased performance for graphic and compute-intensive applications. To provide maximum processing power and flexibility for its customers, Extended Results recommends Intel Core vPro processors.
Extended Results has also been able to improve performance and reduce costs with Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT). By effectively virtualizing its data center, less hardware is needed, enabling them to get greater capacity and value out of their existing infrastructure.
MICROSOFT PARTNERSHIP DELIVERS RESULTS
Extended Results is a Microsoft Gold partner and builds its solutions on the Microsoft BI stack due to the wide user familiarity with Microsoft Office products and affordable cost. Workplace uses SharePoint to access reports and information, pulling from locations such as Microsoft SQL Server and other line of business applications.
The other key Microsoft product integrated into Workplace is PowerPivot. PowerPivot can integrate data from multiple sources, process the data, and transform it into powerful results. Its integration with SharePoint enables Workplace to provide non-technical users quick access to data—a process that required a developers assistance and several 3weeks or months to complete in the past. The integration of SharePoint and PowerPivot into Workplace simplifies BI administration and provides greater levels of flexibility. Users can easily update images, change how information is grouped together, update meta-data, and modify links—and get updated results in far less time than traditional BI solutions of the past.
INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTS INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS
The integration of Intel and Microsoft technology into Extended Results solutions plays a key role in the success of its products. The proven technology provides maximized performance and innovative capabilities that enable Extended Results to deliver cutting-edge BI solutions to their customers. Extended Results’ customers are now able to get faster insights into their revenues and costs to make smarter, more informed decisions.
RESOURCES AND LINKS
For general information about the Intel and Microsoft alliance: www.intelalliance.com/Microsoft
To learn more about Intel Core processors: www.intel.com/itcenter/products/core/core_family/index.htm
To learn more about Microsoft SharePoint 2010: www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008
To learn more about PowerPivot for Excel 2010: office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/powerpivot-for-excel-2010-features-and-benefits-HA101810445.aspx
To learn more about WorkPlace for Outlook: www.workplaceforoutlook.com