MicroStrategy Eyeing Casual Business Users With New Software.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: MARILYN MUCH

In a move to gain muscle in the competitive business intelligence software arena, MicroStrategy has kicked its product line up a notch.

The newest generation of the company's software, MicroStrategy 8, fills in some gaps. It makes the company a stronger player in selling products designed to help corporate customers make better use of their data in making strategic decisions, some analysts say.

"MicroStrategy's claim to fame has been its unparalleled capability to leverage enormous amounts of data," said analyst Peter Goldmacher of SG Cowen & Co. "It's taken its core product and adapted the technology to be easier to use and more appropriate in a departmental setting."

The McLean, Va.-based company released MicroStrategy 8 in January, amid a solid outlook for the company and for the field of data-analysis software, usually called business intelligence software.

But the company's independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, resigned in mid-March.

While PwC and the MicroStrategy said the two had no material accounting disagreements, at least three investment houses quickly downgraded MicroStrategy's stock.