There are several options. SharePoint is definitely one, but not the only option. I will add that it is not as scary as it sounds--WSS is free, if you are just using it for a dashboard, you can install and run it from your CRM server, and the CRM list web part is fantastic to take a view that you create in CRm (like a pipeline view) and display it in a web part. It is the fastest way I've found to set up a
Just a simple sales pipeline could be a SSRS report that is launched from the nav bar in CRM. We have done several that are just simple SSRS reports showing multiple tables/charts. This can be embedded in an iframe or launched from the nav bar.
You could also have a dynamic spreadsheet/pivot table that you upload as a report and create a link to it.
Here is an example of using Excel services
http://blogs.msdn.com/midatlanticcrm/archive/2008/06/30/creating-a-dashboard-using-moss-excel-web-services-excel-2007-and-microsoft-crm.aspxYou will also see several examples on the web of using ASPX pages, silverlight, and other technologies.
The cool thing is that anything that is web addressable can be displayed via an iframe or nav bar link and displayed within CRM.
