"We weren't playing to our strengths, and consequently were running into the same glass ceiling of 20% deployment that every other BI vendor is," Kerr told Computerworld. "We thought there was a much better way to achieve our goal of 'BI for the masses,' which is to make these features a seamless part of how they already work with SharePoint, SQL Server or Excel."

Kerr did say that with the "economy being what it is, customers want to do more with less, and make the most out of their IT investments."

Microsoft's move should make the total cost of using PerformancePoint lower, said Kerr. Formerly, to get started with PerformancePoint Server cost $50,000 -- , another $30,000 to let users create scorecards, plus a $195 license fee for every employee using PerformancePoint.

By comparison, a , while enterprise licenses, which offer features in addition to PerformancePoint, will cost a total of $169 per employee.

Microsoft still plans to ship Service Pack 3 for PerformancePoint Server 2007 this summer, including new planning features.