Microsoft is hot to change the perception that Office is just a desktop suite.

With the Office 12 release, due out next year, the company will make another move in that direction by positioning the desktop applications, as well as the new Office 12 servers, as the cornerstones of the company's integrated business-intelligence platform.

Some Microsoft watchers are expecting Microsoft executives to begin explaining Redmond's business-intelligence vision on Monday. That day, Microsoft has scheduled a Webcast with its customers and other company watchers to detail "new Microsoft Office system technologies designed to help information workers access and work with business information so they can make faster, more informed decisions and drive improved business performance."

While Microsoft officials did not respond to a request for more information on Monday's Webcast, some Microsoft partners said they expected the company to use the October 24 event to detail the different components of the company's business-intelligence play.

Microsoft already offers a number of products that it touts as "business intelligence" vehicles. These include Excel, SharePoint Portal Server, SQL Server, SQL Server Analysis Services and SQL Server Reporting Services.

But the company has not done much to articulate its comprehensive business-intelligence vision, partners said, which includes a number of still-unavailable products, including Office 12 desktop and servers, as well as a new financial-management application, code-named "Biz#," that is akin to the Business Scorecard Manager product that Microsoft delivered earlier this year.

One partner, who asked not to be named, said Microsoft is looking to position its as-yet-unannounced Excel 12 Server product as a kind of "business intelligence portal." The partner said that Microsoft also could end up packaging together the Excel 12 Server, the Business Scorecard Manager and the Biz# financial management product and labeling them as a "business intelligence application suite."

On the desktop side, Microsoft is likely to tout Excel 12, the next version of its spreadsheet application, as its "business intelligence tool of choice," another partner, who requested anonymity, said.

The new version of Excel, about which Microsoft has released very little public information, is expected to improved formula authoring capabilities; new charting and table functionality; and enhanced PivotTable features, said partners claiming to have been briefed by Microsoft.

The Excel 12 Server product, which will consist of SharePoint on the back end, and new Excel Web services on the front end, will provide users with a centralized place to store and access their spreadsheet data, the partners said.

Microsoft has acknowledged that the company is working on a number of new servers to be launched as part of the Office 12 rollout, but have provided next-to-no specifics about them.

Office 12 is slated to go to Beta 1 in November and to ship in the latter half of 2006.

(This article includes information which originally appeared in the October 19, 2005, issue of the Microsoft Watch newsletter. Want to see what other Microsoft news nuggets you might have missed? Sign up today for a free two-week trial subscription to Microsoft Watch.)