1. Better decision making with integrated, end-to-end business intelligence ( BI )

2. Improved performance from both IT and human assets

3. Improved security

4. Increased developer productivity

5. Lower overall costs

Organizations are increasingly looking for ways to lower their IT infrastructure and IT management costs while improving employee access to the right information enabling them to make strong decisions at the right time. Through the efficient use of business intelligence solutions based on SQL Server features such as Analysis Services, data mining, Integration Services, Notification Services, and Reporting Services, decision makers can unlock the business secrets that might enable their success. By using SQL Server together with tools such as Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager, your customers can gain a broad view of their opportunities, enabling them to understand their challenges better, effectively shape solutions, and quickly act on their objectives. As you know, decision-making happens across all levels of an organization, and empowering employees with powerful business intelligence solutions can help them make a greater impact on the bottom line.

SQL Server 2005 provides the power and the tools demanded by today’s strategic decision makers at a fraction of the cost of the competition. Because SQL Server’s reputation for having the industry’s lowest costs is well known, many organizations have considered moving away from Oracle. However, for many years, SQL Server, while extremely powerful, could not match Oracle’s scalability. Many customers felt they had little alternative but to remain with Oracle—that is until now.
SQL Server 2005 has reached feature parity with Oracle, even in high-end capabilities, while retaining the lowest costs in the industry. It has become the preferred solution for customers deploying business intelligence applications on the Microsoft Windows platform. It includes numerous features, such as enhanced BI, security, and scalability capabilities, that are expensive add-ons for Oracle customers. Microsoft has been able to match Oracle technology while providing the best value for the mid-sized organization.

Because databases are typically critical and costly IT assets, they often serve as a focal point for efforts to cut costs and improve efficiency. Oracle has long held the reputation of being the most powerful database available, but it also has a well-earned reputation for being extremely expensive. Beyond the obvious cost savings, the tight integration between SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 embodies and advances the trend towards data-driven application development. More and more Web sites, for example, dynamically present content based on a variety of factors such as user interests. This new world of development demands a fundamental alteration in how database administrators and developers interact with databases and with each other.

So SQL Server is the right alternative to Oracle not just for the obvious reasons of cost and high-end capabilities but because it is the embodiment of a new development paradigm that will enable the creation of substantially more powerful applications with less time, effort, and cost.