Always looking for the quick solution that still complies with Best Practise (the patron god of software development), I am truely impressed with the Office Accelerators. Imagine: A proper solution in a fraction of the time it would have taken you to develop it from scratch!

I am currently busy (with a lot of help from BI specialists!) implementing a Balanced Scorecard solution at a client. In stead of developing the whole thing from scratch, we are implementing the Microsoft Office Business Scorecards Accelerator. We will leverage off the web services the accelerator implements to create a user interface the business wants. The accelerators comes with its own SharePoint web parts, but these have a requirement of IE 6.0, which the client cannot comply with currently.

The Accelerator requires SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2000 with Analysis Services, Sharepoint Portal Server or Windows Sharepoint Services (for the front end), Windows Server 2003 and Visio 2003 or Visio 2003 Viewer (for users who build the Strategy maps).

I am now all fired up to investigate more of the depth and breadth of Office Tools. I hate to reinvent the wheel and with the power and agility of Office Solutions, why should I try?

Check out  Microsoft Office Business Scorecards Accelerator for more information.