All employees need timely information with which to make decisions. Generally, information workers spend as much as 80 percent of their time gathering information for decision making, leaving only 20 percent for making and acting upon decisions. In the past, such information requests required significant IT and development resources, making it difficult for the reporting technology to keep pace with the needs of the business cost-effectively. When a custom report isn't an option, information workers are often forced to use "canned" reports which don't always provide the specific information needed.

SQL Server Reporting Services makes flexible, customized reports available to a broad base of information workers, as well as to executives and analysts. IT organizations are able to create a centrally managed reporting and analysis environment, and provide developers with robust report development tools for building and deploying custom reporting solutions to the entire enterprise. Information workers can subscribe to reports and receive them -- via a Web browser, through any Microsoft Office System application, or embedded within line-of-business applications -- enabling better, faster, more relevant decisions at a lower cost than competing solutions.

"By leveraging the tools and applications that information workers use every day, organizations are better able to use corporate information assets to increase competitive advantage," Biglin says. "The new Reporting Services addition to Microsoft's business intelligence platform will help provide a better return on investment, due to a lower cost of ownership and because more people can access needed information."