SharePoint Business Intelligence

How to configure SharePoint 2010 with Kerberos

PejmanJ Microsoft — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:20:01 GMT

Just released a new whitepaper to help you configure SharePoint 2010 with Kerberos focusing on BI Scenarios.
Check out the doc and send us your feedback.

This document gives you information that will help you understand the concepts of identity in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products, how Kerberos authentication plays a very important role in authentication and delegation scenarios, and the situations where Kerberos authentication should be used or may be required in solution designs.

The document also shows how to configure Kerberos authentication end-to-end within your environment, including scenarios that use various service applications in Microsoft SharePoint Server. Additional tools and resources are described to help you test and validate Kerberos configuration. The "Step-by-Step Configuration" sections of this document cover the following scenarios for SharePoint Server 2010.

Scenario 1: Core Configuration
Scenario 2: Kerberos Authentication for SQL OLTP
Scenario 3: Identity Delegation for SQL Analysis Services
Scenario 4: Identity Delegation for SQL Reporting Services
Scenario 5: Identity Delegation for Excel Services
Scenario 6: Identity Delegation for Power Pivot for SharePoint
Scenario 7: Identity Delegation for Visio Services
Scenario 8: Identity Delegation for Performance Point Services
Scenario 9: Identity Delegation for Business Connectivity Services

Download the doc from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1a794fb5-77d0-475c-8738-ea04d3de1147&displaylang=en

WorldCup Fever

PejmanJ Microsoft — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 06:02:44 GMT

If you’ve been checking out the games you might be wondering just how well the teams have been doing compared to past WorldCups, or performing your own analysis of the games. If so, or you just have a curiosity of the games, or just like seeing the numbers, check out the WorldCup Analytics Excel spreadsheet we’ve created with the help of our partners. You’ll need Excel 2010 and the new PowerPivot for Excel add-in.

Download Excel 2010 here and PowerPivot add-in here. Lastly, you can find the Excel workbook here.

The workbook contains data from 1930 until 2006 on all the games, players, and teams. Find out which days teams are most likely to win their matches, which players have scored the most goals by birth month, and which are the top scoring countries.

If you are running SharePoint Server 2010 and PowerPivot for SharePoint, upload the workbook and create your own unique dashboards and share your analysis. If you are not already aware, head on over to the Excel blog to hear about their Developer Challenge – Soccer Edition, and check out this video of AC Milan to hear how they use Microsoft Business Intelligence. Enjoy the games.

On the eve of launch

PejmanJ Microsoft — Sun, 09 May 2010 03:58:41 GMT

We are almost there. Check out all the launch activities and watch the event from your own PC here. We are running the whole event on SharePoint 2010 which is a great testament to the work we’ve done in this release. SharePoint’s marketing site, sharepoint2010.microsoft.com has been running the beta for quite sometime and gives you an idea of all the things you can accomplish with this release.

For those who have access to MSDN and Technet downloads, Office and SharePoint 2010 are available for download as is SQL Server 2008R2. And if you want to test drive the software download the newly available Hyper-V image here. There are two images with the following evaluation software:

Virtual machine “a” contains the following pre-configured software:

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, running as an Active Directory Domain Controller for the “CONTOSO.COM” domain with DNS and WINS
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition with Analysis, Notification, and Reporting Services
Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Office Web Applications
Microsoft FAST Search for SharePoint 2010
Microsoft Project Server 2010
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
Microsoft Visio 2010
Microsoft Project 2010
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2

Virtual machine “b” contains the following pre-configured software:

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, joined to the “CONTOSO.COM” domain
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

In my typical config, I run image “a” with as much memory as possible, and image “b” with about 2048 MB.

And while you are waiting for the launch event, check out the Microsoft Vision video.

SharePoint 2010 reaches RTM!!!

PejmanJ Microsoft — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:29:09 GMT

We announced today on the SharePoint Team blog that SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 have reached RTM. This is the final engineering milestone and major achievement for all of the internal teams who have worked hard to get to this point.

Volume license customers with SA will be able to download the product starting April 27th, 2010. As a reminder, the main launch event is on for May 12th. Catch all the info and stay up-to-date with what’s going to take place (and get engaged in the discussion) at http://www.the2010event.com

We couldn’t have done this without you, our customers and partners…

(this also explains why I’ve been so quiet lately! :))

Launch date – are you ready?

PejmanJ Microsoft — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:19:03 GMT

Wanted to give everyone a quick update on the launch date that was just announced. Mark your calendars and join Stephen Elop as he introduces Office and SharePoint 2010. http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/proof/pages/2010-launch-events.aspx#fbid=b-1mDy5CD5I

Add to Outlook –> Microsoft keynote speaker Stephen Elop talks about Office 2010 & SharePoint 2010

What’s in Insights

PejmanJ Microsoft — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:50:43 GMT

I got a lot of questions asking just what is SharePoint insights, what features / capabilities are available, and what happened to my favorite feature.

Here’s a quick "market-techture” diagram of what services are in insights with a brief description of each. Keep your questions coming…

PerformancePoint Services – Now completely integrated with SharePoint, PerformancePoint Services (PPS) enables you to create rich, dynamic, and interactive dashboards combining structured and unstructured information together into a single view. PPS now uses the same security as SharePoint, filter framework, and repository is a SharePoint list. A migration tool exists to help move your repository to SharePoint, as well as migrating your content using Dashboard Designer. Lots of new features including DecompTree, advanced sorting/filtering, time-intelligence, and streamlined administration. See a complete list here

Excel Services – Improved to support the latest capabilities in Excel 2010 including Sparklines and Visual Slicers, as well as improved fidelity with Excel workbooks. Now, if there is a feature that is not available in Excel Services, the workbook will still be displayed but not executed (i.e. VBA and Macros in a workbook won’t stop the workbook from being loaded by Excel Services, but the code will not execute in the browser). We’ve also introduced two new API’s, JavaScript Object Model and REST to enable you to create richer web-based applications using your Excel workbooks, and embed Excel content in the places that matter most. Full list of features here. With the Office Web Apps, you have a fully rich and immersive Excel experience in SharePoint.

*PowerPivot for SharePoint – Sharing your PowerPivot enabled Excel workbooks uses Excel Services. All of the above applies to these workbooks as well. Per the PowerPivot for SharePoint requirements, you’ll need the plugin and SQL Server 2008R2.

Visio Services – Like Excel Services, display your Visio diagrams and other data-driven objects using just a browser. Rendered in either SilverLight or PNG, you can now share your Visio diagrams with other using just a browser, embed your diagrams in rich SharePoint dashboards, or integrated with PerformancePoint Services. With support for refreshing content built into Visio Services, you’ll have access to real-time (or what I like to call, right-time) data 24/7. Check out the new features here.

Chart Web Parts – As the name implies, this web part will allow you to add a chart to your SharePoint page and attach to any data that lives in SharePoint which includes an External List and Excel Services. There is a wizard that walks you through the data connection, and display of your chart so this becomes really easy for users to quickly create dashboards.

Status Indicators – these are the SharePoint 2007 KPI Lists. Allows users to quickly create and visualize the key indicators they want to track on a SharePoint page.

Business Connectivity Services – Lots of great features added here with my favorite, full CRUD support (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) and exposing items from an external source as a SharePoint List and offline with Office 2010. Creating and updating content that lives in ERP/LOB or your own application just got a lot easier, with improved tooling and abilities. Head on over to the team blog to learn more and how you can use this to enhance your Business Intelligence Dashboards with real-time/right-time, and historical information in a single view.

What a year… how to get started with 2010

PejmanJ Microsoft — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:20:15 GMT

It’s been an incredible year, and I want to personally thank everyone for their comments, suggestions, engagement at all levels with SharePoint 2007 and with SharePoint 2010.

As you are fully aware by now, we have released the public beta of SharePoint and Office 2010 along with SQL Server 2008R2 CTP. Here’s how you can get started with your own SharePoint 2010 environment and take a look at all the exciting new features, capabilities, and problems you can begin to solve.

The main site for all your SharePoint 2010 information – SharePoint2010.Microsoft.com

Here’s a quick link to the various pieces you can download to get the ultimate business intelligence experience. While not all are required, I think once you get to see, touch, feel, and smell (had to throw it in there) what you can do, how easily all the components fall together, and the sheer magnitude of capabilities you’ll be very impressed.

The bits:

Download the Beta of SharePoint 2010
Download the Beta of Office 2010
Download SQL Server 2008R2 CTP (64-bit)
Download PowerPivot for Excel 2010 (server bits for SharePoint come with SQL Server 2008R2 CTP)

Key Info:

SharePoint Server 2010 Evaluation Guide
Getting started with SharePoint 2010
SharePoint 2010 Insights Poster
SharePoint 2010 TechCenter and Business Intelligence TechCenter
Configuration guide for PowerPivot in SharePoint and for Reporting Services in SharePoint
PowerPivot site for some good examples, and general info.

Also check out what’s new for Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services, and some of the things that you can do today.

Wishing everyone every bit of happiness and health for the holidays, and New Year.

A New Day for Business Intelligence

PejmanJ Microsoft — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:14:45 GMT

SharePoint Insights enables users to find the information they need across unstructured assets (blogs, wikis, presentations, documents) and structured assets (reports, spreadsheets, analytical systems). Empower users to discover the right people and expertise to make better informed and more agile business decisions.

What’s really exciting is that this is now a reality and not just some marketing speak or fabricated in a sales demo. SharePoint 2010 brings your informal and formal information together to enable users to access the information they need, and make timely, more relevant business decisions. After all, what happens when you get more information. You ask more questions and SharePoint 2010 provides the platform for your users to continuously ask the questions to get the insights they need and move the business forward. Users can create, deliver, and share their own business views and by mashing-up the data that’s relevant to them, securely maintained by IT.

At the conference, we announced and showed a number of new capabilities pertinent to your Business Intelligence discussions. The first, Project Gemini, is now called SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel and SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint. Check out the the information posted on www.powerpivot.com. Secondly, at SharePoint conference we displayed the new PerformancePoint Services inside of SharePoint. PPS is now a service in SharePoint and available in SharePoint 2010 to create contextual-driven dashboards and scorecards. This will not only consolidate information from multiple systems, but also from multiple content. Sat tuned, there’s more including Excel Services, Visio Services, Chart web parts, and the Business Connectivity Services.

Check out the SharePoint Insights page and download the new datasheet and whitepaper to help you start thinking about what SharePoint 2010 can help your organizations use Business Intelligence. Check out the Excel and PerfromancePoint Blogs for more updates and check back here soon.

Business Intelligence @ SharePoint Conference 2009

PejmanJ Microsoft — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:18:18 GMT

We’ve completely sold out SPC’09. That’s over 7000+ SharePoint experts, enthusiasts, developers, partners, everyday users, MVPs, and everyone else who wants to learn and talk about SharePoint. See you in T-Minus 7 days at the largest SharePoint conference EVER!!

Wanted to also share with you a sneak peak of the Insights sessions (Business Intelligence). We have lots to talk about including Project Gemini, PerformancePoint Services, Excel and Excel Services, Reporting Services and Report Builder 3.0 in SQL Server 2008R2 That’s in addition to all the other great SharePoint talks, customer sessions, and partners who are deploying and building solutions that enable greater insights!

You’ll definitely want to register for Microsoft Vision and Strategy session to hear Tom Casey discuss the direction and investments Microsoft is making in its Business Intelligence strategy, what you can expect in the upcoming release, and where we are heading as we democratize business intelligence and bring it to the masses in your organization. As an added incentive, we’re going to give away an XBOX 360 during the session so be sure to grab your ticket. Download the full brochure here.

Look forward to seeing you there, Pej.

SharePoint Conference 2009

PejmanJ Microsoft — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:03:10 GMT

If you haven’t registered for the conference (yet), or receiving the news feed, check out the recent blog post on the SharePoint team site which reveals another sneak peak at the sessions that will be at the event.

For those who have asked me what’s going to be covered for Business Intelligence, all I can say is that there will be a lot of content spanning Office, SharePoint and SQL Server capabilities. We will definitely be talking about Project Gemini, and how PerformancePoint Services is part of SharePoint Server 2010. You’ll hear first hand about the new technologies and get a chance to meet and discuss this with the product teams. We’ll also have a great product area in the pavilion which you’ll definitely not want to miss. There will be host of us tweeting so check for #SPC09 as well as blogging so stay focused here.

If you are attending, why not let everyone know with the images below. Check out www.mssharepointconference.com for more info and I look forward to seeing you there next month.

The SharePoint Business Intelligence Team