Free Microsoft product

Microsoft Corp. has announced the release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Analytics Foundation, touted as nothing less than “a new way of using business intelligence tools from Microsoft.”

Analytics Foundation seeks to enable business performance to be tracked continuously through dashboards; managers and employees to quickly create reports and drill down into areas of interest; and helps sales, marketing and service employees to use more predictive analytics.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Analytics Foundation uses data management and analytic technologies from the Microsoft suite of business intelligence products including Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft SharePoint Technologies, Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager and Microsoft Office Excel.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Analytics Foundation is available as a free shared-source download for customers and partners. It is currently available via CodePlex.