Microsoft Corp. Tuesday released to private beta its first commercial business intelligence (BI) application, which is designed to allow enterprise users to access scorecards on the desktop to measure performance against metrics.

Code-named "Maestro" and due to ship late this fall, the server-based product is designed to drive data from Microsoft BI platforms such as SQL Server and Analysis Services to the desktop -- allowing Microsoft Office users to access the data as part of their daily work processes, said Ryan Buma, Microsoft"s director of business development for Office business applications.

"This is where Office as a group is getting into the BI game at Microsoft. People are saying they need this valuable business data in the location where they are working and making decisions," Buma said. "Traditionally, that has been locked up in ERP systems."

Maestro is a BI scorecard application that"s intended to enable companies to map out key corporate performance drivers and allow users to measure their individual performance against those goals. Scorecards have generally been limited to higher-level executives, but companies now want to roll out access to front-line business users, according to Buma.

"I can now track how my sales to my specific customer, and my specific region rolls up to the corporate objective for revenue," he said.

Maestro gathers data from SQL Server, Reporting Services and Analysis Services and serves it to users through Microsoft SharePoint portal server.

Dan Vesset, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based market research company IDC, said the move signifies Microsoft"s entrance to the market for front-end components of BI that touch end users.

"Office remains the No. 1 tool for BI purposes -- especially Excel," Vesset said. "Exposing some of the functionality thru Excel, [Microsoft] has a captive audience that is looking for that type of interface."