Microsoft Brings Business Intelligence Tools to Office 365

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Microsoft has announced that it’s adding a set of business intelligence tools to Office 365. These tools will allow users to crunch data in a number of new ways, some of which are not even available in Microsoft’s stand-alone products. The new service was unveiled at the Worldwide Partner Conference this week in Houston, but no price or release date was given.

Office 365 is a subscription-based suite of office software that customers can access in their web browser. (Think Google Docs, but by Microsoft). The business intelligence tools they’re adding will allow users to access catalogs of data and analyze it in any number of ways using built-in tools.

The data available to users will be determined by an administrator for the company using the product. The data may be internal information provided by the organization, or public data from sources like Wikipedia tables.

The new business intelligence tools have a wide range of possible applications. For instance, you’ll be able to take geographically-coded data and turn it into a data-rich map, with each data point placed at its proper location.

They’re also adding a natural language query engine that will let you ask questions in conversational language, and give you the relevant data.

[Via Cio]