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Home > About Us
About MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy was founded in 1989 and has grown to become a leading independent public business intelligence software vendor (NASDAQ: MSTR). With direct operations in 26 countries worldwide and over 3,200 employees, MicroStrategy is a leading global provider of enterprise software platforms for business intelligence (BI), mobile intelligence, and network applications. With over 25% of our workforce and nearly $100M annually dedicated to R&D, we have over 80 patents issued. MicroStrategy is proud to serve millions of business users at nearly 4,000 companies across 20 industries around the world.
Timeline
MicroStrategy was founded in 1989 in Wilmington, DE. Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Saylor and Chief Operating Officer Sanju Bansal have led the company since inception. MicroStrategy's early focus was on data mining software for businesses.
In 1991, MicroStrategy released its first Business Intelligence product, an executive information system that allowed users to create graphical views and analyses of their data. As with subsequent products, users needed no knowledge of coding or programming.
In 1994, MicroStrategy headquarters moved to Tysons Corner, VA, with an eye towards attracting elite talent in a major metropolitan hub. MicroStrategy's then 50-employee workforce grew quickly, with MicroStrategy becoming a leading employer in the Washington, DC area.
MicroStrategy launched its Initial Public Offering in 1998 with an initial stock offering of 4 million shares priced at $12 each. MicroStrategy is listed on NASDAQ under the ticker MSTR. For more information, see the Investor Relations site.
In 2000, MicroStrategy released MicroStrategy 7, a Business Intelligence platform with a Web interface, revised architecture, and multi-level caching. The platform was chosen as a PC Magazine Editor's Choice. For more recent accolades, see Awards.
In 2003, MicroStrategy became "the first vendor to release a fully integrated formal reporting tool that provides traditional list reports, BI-style dashboards and interactive OLAP analyses, in any combination, all in a single module that uses the same infrastructure, security, calculation engine and deployment options as the rest of MicroStrategy's product line," as per analyst Nigel Pendse. See more Analyst Reviews.
In 2005, MicroStrategy released MicroStrategy 8, showcasing an updated Web interface with more one-click actions and drag-and-drop interactivity for report and dashboard design. Other highlights included the ability to embed OLAP directly within reports, enhanced data mining and advanced analytic capabilities, and even broader data source support.
2009 brought the launch of MicroStrategy 9, extending the performance and scalability of enterprise Business Intelligence and simplifying the deployment of departmental Business Intelligence applications. Considered the company's most significant release in nearly a decade, the platform delivered a seamless consolidation path from departmental BI to enterprise Business Intelligence.
Mobile revolutionized the landscape in 2010. MicroStrategy unveiled new mobile Business Intelligence capabilities for iPad and iPhone in July and by September, MicroStrategy's iPad App was featured on the iTunes Best Seller App List. Also met with fanfare was the release of MicroStrategy Mobile Suite, a free software package for designing mobile BI apps.
In 2011, MicroStrategy released MicroStrategy Cloud, bringing together world class enterprise BI, analytical database, and data integration capabilities in one integrated service. The enterprise product was followed by MicroStrategy Cloud Personal, a free tool that lets users upload data to the cloud, analyze it with rich visualizations, and share insights instantly with others.
MicroStrategy's Wisdom application is playing an influential role in providing insights into the U.S. presidential election. CEO Michael J. Saylor's groundbreaking analysis of mobile intelligence, The Mobile Wave, was published this year. And if you didn't make it to Miami for MicroStrategy World 2012, watch the keynote »
MicroStrategy is positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the "Leaders" quadrant in Gartner's 2013 "Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms" report. And if you didn't make it to Las Vegas for MicroStrategy World 2013, watch the videos »
Customers
"With MicroStrategy, we will have a true enterprise view across our value chain, providing management with greater operational insights and actionable data. MicroStrategy's single metadata and object reuse has reduced our administrative costs."
Thomas H. Murphy, Senior Vice President and CIO
AmerisourceBergen
"Campbell Soup Company is utilizing MicroStrategy for Sales, Finance, Customer Service and Marketing applications. MicroStrategy provides many options for presenting highly formatted information in a consistent user-friendly format."
Paul Williams, Director IT
Campbell Soup Company
"MicroStrategy gives our buyers and executives an up-to-date picture of our business and enables us to better understand what we sell, when we sell it and where we sell it, which ultimately influences our high levels of customer service."
Beth Gonzalez, Merchandise Systems Director
The Container Store
"MicroStrategy's user-friendly reporting capabilities coupled with its powerful analytics are tailor-made for our needs."
Mark Snow, Director of Marketing Analytics
Cox Communications
"eBay selected MicroStrategy because of its exceptional user scalability and its ability to support advanced reporting and analysis, MicroStrategy also provides excellent query performance with our rapidly growing multi-terabyte data warehouse."
Brad Peterson, CIO
eBay
"MicroStrategy was the natural choice because it is so well aligned with the other technologies that we rely on. In addition, MicroStrategy has a strong reputation as the reporting platform of choice among many of the largest tech companies in Silicon Valley."
Mark Johnson, Chief Data Officer
Groupon
"We are seeing our business in a whole new light. Deploying MicroStrategy to our executives is the next achievement in delivering actionable, accessible, and visually compelling information."
Bruce Yen, Director of Business Intelligence
GUESS?, Inc.
"MicroStrategy is way ahead of the competition in providing a high performance platform to quickly build and distribute custom Business Intelligence applications that fit our mobile devices."
Terry Adams, Senior Director of Development
Herbalife
"The enhanced performance in MicroStrategy will allow us to distribute more information to our Business Intelligence user population in much less time."
Joyce Vonada, SVP IT Business Solutions
Lowe's Companies
"We're substantially expanding our deployment of MicroStrategy because it uniquely meets METRO Group's rigorous requirements for sophisticated yet user- friendly Business Intelligence reporting features and for a highly scalable platform."
Silvester Macho, Division Manager
METRO Group Information Technology
"Hospital members are now able to instantly track supply prices, make quicker decisions, and lower their overall supply costs."
Guillermo Ramas, VP of Information Strategy
Novation
"We were looking for a Business Intelligence product that provides excellent query performance against our multi-terabyte data warehouse. With MicroStrategy, our marketing team will have the information they need to make strategic, data-driven decisions."
Ron Rose, CIO
Priceline.com
"MicroStrategy's Business Intelligence software will help us to improve our customer support and service with enhanced analytical tools. This information will enable us to meet our customers' needs more accurately and quickly."
Martin Henz, Head of Customer Process Analytics
Swisscom
"By adopting MicroStrategy technology across the enterprise, we have seen the speed by which decisions are made and productivity levels increase. Users analyze and share corporate data with ease."
Luis Morán Abad, Manager of Technology Architecture and Information Systems
Telefónica
"MicroStrategy has been an integral component of our IT department since 1997, and its technology has enabled us to make remarkable improvements in areas including operational efficiency, financial performance, transportation logistics, and customer service."
Robert Otto, Chief Technology Officer
USPS
"We were amazed at how much information we could consolidate into one of MicroStrategy's new dashboards. Every day, our executives rely on our information dashboards for a snapshot of our business performance."
Prashanth Narella, Engineering Manager, Data Services
Yahoo! Inc.
"MicroStrategy is the Business Intelligence standard across our U.S. operations. Unlike its competitors, the MicroStrategy platform offers the power, flexibility and ease of use that we need 24/7."
Tom Rosing, Director of Decision Support
Yum! Brands
