Last week I attended the Microsoft BI Conference.  I have been a proponent of Pervasive BI and Performance Management for many years. Microsoft was one of the first vendors to use the term Pervasive BI but up until now I have felt that their perception of Pervasive BI was too Excel and power user centric without enough emphasis on the business user.

What is "BI for the Masses"?
This year the big excitement at the Microsoft BI conference was around PowerPivot which is a great analytic tool. But to me PowerPivot will not bring BI to the masses.  It will bring BI to more power users, analysts, and Excel jockeys but not to more business users.  When I voiced this opinion to Microsoft the response was it depends on how you define 'the masses'.  While I uderstand their point, it is kind of like Bill Clinton saying "it depends on what your definition of 'is' is".  Microsoft points out that there are 'masses' of power users that need easier and better access to BI than they currently have and they want it through Excel, PowerPivot will be embraced by those 'masses'.  I don't disagree with that statment but stand by my opinion that PowerPivot is not a business user tool.

Does the Business User Want Self-Service Reporting or Analytics?
So while I believe PowerPivot is a great analytics tool, the new release that I think brings BI to the masses (including the casual business user) is Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Report Builder 3.0.  It is much easier to build a report from scratch than ever before.  Users can take advantage of report parts created by others and drag them right into their reports to facilitate the building of reports without having to start from scratch.  The fruits of the acquisition of technology from Dundas (acquired in 2007) is very evident in the much improved data visualization capabilities of this release.  This is the first time that I would say that Microsoft Reporting Services could be truly targeted at the business user for self-service reporting or as Microsoft is referring to it, "Grab and Go" reporting.
 
Many purists would say that reporting is not BI.  I agree that reporting alone does not constituted BI but it is a very important component of BI.  I happen to think that business users prefer reporting and visualization over ad-hoc analysis as long as it is interactive, easy to use, and they have the flexibility to make it their own.  The lastest version of Reporting Services does that.

I think with the combination of PowerPivot and Reporting Services Microsoft makes some great advancements towards Pervasive BI and I certainly advise clients using older versions of Reporting Services to take a look.  I think you will like what you see.