Microsoft Corp. announced plans to develop Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, a product that targets businesses and business intelligence (BI). Oracle and SAP will have to respond to Microsoft's move in order to retain their market position. Microsoft is offering scorecards, planning, analytics, and reporting based on a common platform. Oracle and SAP continue to work on ways to build or combine their existing products into a full performance management suite. These companies are unlikely to have figured it out by the time Microsoft releases PerformancePoint and its related tools. In terms of BI, Business Objects will feel the greatest impact. It acquired Crystal Decisions in 2004 in order to improve its BI reporting and to move into the desktop space, where Crystal has a strong presence. Now, organizations accustomed to Microsoft products could see upgrades to their basic reporting and dashboards that are as simple as adding to existing Office installations. The BI and business applications sector is watching customers' reactions to the announcements from Microsoft. Because it has the most widely deployed and used desktop productivity applications, the company can take the risk of expanding into the realm of BI. Microsoft's basic goal is to convince large enterprises to accept its road map for the long term and to get them to wait for its product rather than purchase from other vendors. Microsoft's marketing focus on business executives has become more serious than in the past.