Intelligent Insight on PerformancePoint

We've just concluded the formal conference season - with the completion of Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston and Microsoft's internal MGX Sales Conference in Atlanta.

Having just completed a phenomenal fiscal year we typically spend the first two weeks of July setting plans and objectives for the coming year.

This kicked off with some 12,500 partners in Houston two weeks ago. From a BI perspective there's some incredible excitement within our partner community and also within the Microsoft business to deliver another stellar year. Most of the major keynotes from Steve Ballmer, Simon Witts and Chris Caposella outlined the importance of Business Intelligence for Microsoft in the upcoming 12 months - all three talked about the "democratization of BI" - which outlines our strategy around providing business intelligence to the majority of decision makers up and down the organization.

You can review the keynote information and major messaging here at the digital WPC site. I'd especially encourage you to look at Chris Caposella's keynote and in particular the demonstration from Kirk Koenigsbauer which showcased not only our core business intelligence assets in PerformancePoint and SQL but also provided some guidance as to how we also leverage the Microsoft SharePoint Server platform and FAST to deliver a truly compelling business intelligence and decision support experience.

In case you weren't aware of this...last week we released the Service Pack for PerformancePoint Server 2007.

With this new Service Pack, enhancements have been made to the monitoring, analyzing and planning functionality found in PerformancePoint Server to  help organizations improve decision making. Usability, stability and performance enhancements are key focus areas for PerformancePoint Server SP1. 

Organizations will be able to take advantage of new workbook options for improved performance of queries, as well as see the effects of changes in planning assignments for better “what-if” analysis.

Organizations using strategy maps and KPI’s for monitoring and analytics will see improvements to scorecard and filter usability.  Scorecards with negative numbers have improved formatting and are easier to read, while dashboards with filters are now faster to render and provide the ability to link reports directly to KPI’s. There are also improvements to Tabular filters and Time Intelligence Post Formula filters.

In addition, SP1 adds certified support for Windows Server 2008.  Support for SQL Server 2008 will be available later this year following the release of SQL Server 2008.

For more details:

http://office.microsoft.com/enus/performancepoint/FX102380591033.aspx

The PerformancePoint Server 2007 Planning Data Migration Tool is now available on TechNet and the MS Download Center.

Norm Warren has provided some great additional guidance to support this here.

Documentation: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc512833.aspx

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FA1C6CAD-45BD-4E5C-A257-4BBA84FA4224&displaylang=en

A wealth of new content (templates, project plans and worksheets) has been made available on TechNet to assist partners and customers with implementing PerformancePoint Server 2007.

There are links to this content below:

• Project Plan Framework (.pptx)

• Dimension Mapping for Input Forms/Output Reports (.xls)

• PerformancePoint Server Configuration (template) (.xlsx)

• Monitoring and Analytics Project Plan (template) (.mpp)

• Operations and Maintenance Guide (template) (.docx)

• Planning Design Configuration (template) (.docx) [Forthcoming]

• Planning Project (template) (.mpp)

• PerformancePoint Server Specifications (template) (.docx)

• Preliminary Requirements Gathering and Scoping Questionnaire (.docx)

• Source Dimension Fact Data Mapping (.xlsx)

• Test Plan (template) (.docx)

• Training Plan (template) (.docx)

As always we'd welcome your feedback on these.

This three-part webcast series has been created specifically for Microsoft partners and will provide guidance and best practices around implementing PerformancePoint Server 2007.

The first two webcasts will take partners through the suggested phases of a generic PerformancePoint Server Monitoring and Analysis and Planning implementation; what to look out for - and the "do's" and the "don'ts." In addition, a webcast detailing Microsoft's internal implementation of PerformancePoint Server 2007 is also scheduled. The objective of this series is to train partners how to use the Implementation Methodologies developed by Microsoft's BI CoE in order to successfully and correctly implement PPS at customer sites.  The series will take place the first three Tuesdays in May at 9:30am PT. Registration links below:

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007:  M&A Implementation Methodologies and Best Practices

This webcast will introduce you to Microsoft Consulting Services’ Performance management Center of Excellence (PM-CoE). The PM-CoE is responsible for documenting implementation methodology and best practices for Performance Point Server 2007. The presentation will take you through the suggested phases of a generic PerformancePoint Server M&A implementation; what to look out for – and the “do’s” and “don’ts”.

Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007: Planning Implementation Methodologies and Best Practices

This webcast will introduce you to Microsoft Consulting Services’ Performance Management Center of Excellence (PM-CoE). The PM-CoE is responsible for documenting implementation methodology and best practices for Performance Point Server 2007. The presentation will take you through the suggested phases of a generic PPS Planning implementation; what to look out for – and the “do’s “ and”don’ts”.

Microsoft Finance Case Study: PerformancePoint Server 2007 Planning Implementation Do’s and Don’ts

Microsoft is on the path of migrating all current planning and forecasting applications with an integrated solution based on Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. This webcast will address the financial management challenges addressed by PerformancePoint Server 2007 and lessons learned.

Completely off topic but I saw this post today from Seth Godin which prompted me to share this. Ever since I was a child Puma has been my sports footwear of choice. Why? Put simply my best friend's father was a brand manager for their footwear division in Australia and even at a young age this prompted me to become a brand advocate for Puma. Something I still advocate today as I think they have a cool and unique brand and we're unquestionably pioneers in making the transition from providing high-performance sports footwear and casual footwear. Now all brands have a similarly diverse set of offerings but whilst Nike and Adidas still focus on inspiring people through strong brand advocates such as Michael Jordan and David Beckham, Puma have adopted a different strategy that's historically focused more on word of mouth. Now they're teaming up with Alexander McQueen and Yasahiro Mihara to really emphasise their focus into "sports-fashion".

Oh yeah - and a few years back in 1994 I was asked to do a fashion shoot for Puma Australia "then new" street shoes. I don't think the series of photographs taken ever went any more broadly than some basic catalogues - which is probably a good thing. Perhaps unsurprisingly I now work in BI and Puma are teaming up with professionals. You can do the maths.

Great news - We've decided to create THE BI BLOG. I've been asked to contribute (which is a great honour) and we'll look to make sure there's something in here for everyone from the customer, partner, developer, and implementer.

For the BI BLOG I'll be teaming up with Nic Smith and Guy Weismantel from the Performance Guys. Maybe we'll even encourage Dennis to contribute as a guest blogger.

From a partner perspective I'm keen to make sure we're able to showcase some of the great solutions our partners are building on top of the PerformancePoint platform so I'd really encourage you to reach out to me if you've got an interesting and innovative story to tell.

So SAP/BOBJ are using Sir Mixalot as their unofficial mascot with the release of Baby got BI. Our approach is a little different but here's how the Softie's do it. I'll leave you to be the judge of who's best in the "war on talent".

This is a great set of resources from Jeff Carr that expands upon the information I posted earlier on the PerformancePoint Planning and Architecture Guides.

Jeff's taken this one step LEAP further - This is your PerformancePoint Bible:

Help, How To, Guides, Manuals, & Forums

Planning Help: How do I ...

• Roadmap: How do I write a business rule?
• How do I export data with an outbound rule?
• How do I use an association to move data between models?
• PeformancePoint Planning Server capabilities?
• See more Planning "How do I" topics

Monitoring Help: How do I ...

• Link scorecard KPI's to analytic reports
• Keyboard shortcuts in Dashboard Designer
• Create a strategy map
• Create a Web page report
• Filters in Dashboard Designer
• See more Monitoring "How do I" topics

Guides and Manuals

• PerformancePoint Server 2007 Deployment Guide
• PerformancePoint Server 2007 Operations Guide
• PerformancePoint Server 2007 Planning and Architecture Guide
• PerformancePoint Planning Business Rules Development Guide
• PerformancePoint Monitoring SDK Reference Manual

User Forums on TechNet

• PerformancePoint Planning
• PerformancePoint Monitoring & Analytics

This is a GREAT resource for both customers and partners.

The PerformancePoint Server 2007 Planning & Architecture Guide, Deployment Guide, and Operations Guide are now available as downloadable books from TechNet.

Information about how to plan a PerformancePoint Server deployment in a large enterprise environment is a common partner request so hopefully this should assist in addressing some of these questions.

Feedback as always is welcome and encouraged.

Here's a great tool that allows you to build your own search engine. Live Search Macros.

Norm Warren has created a search macro for PerformancePoint which you can use to find documentation, whitepapers, VPC's, and other information around Microsoft BI.

Check it out

Vendor consolidation has prompted a number of customers and vendors to look at BI differently.

This is certainly different.

Hat-tip to the Performance Guys.

UPDATE: This is written with no agenda, prejudice or ulterior motive but it seems this video is no longer available. From all reports Business Objects/SAP has made the decision to pull this.

Lot's of news this week from Oracle's decision to buy BEA, Sun's decision to purchase MySQL, Cognos 8.3 launch, and a joint announcement from SAP and BOBJ. Phew.

I like the Performance Guys take on this weeks news. If you've not added this to you're regular reading list I'd encourage you to do so.

Oh - and my good pals Adrian and Nick down-under have released The Rational Guide to Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. If you want a full chapter breakdown and more here. Great job guys - you both rock.

If you've got to get your hands on a copy of the book immediately you should order it directly from Rational Press.

This is a great series of sessions as part of the Microsoft Partner Academy presented by Mike Tejedor and Alyson Powell Irwin.

Here's the session abstract and joining details:

Description:

This is the first in a series of sessions that will explore advanced topics in dashboard creation such as, integrating SSRS, ProClarity and Excel Services reports in dashboards, using advanced filtering capabilities, advanced scoring topics and dashboard creation tips and tricks. It is recommended that Monitoring Essentials be viewed prior to this session.

Register here:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=241457

Before the Webcast:

To attend our upcoming Webcast you will need:

1. A computer with access to the Internet to view the visual portion of the event.

2. A functioning sound card and speakers or headphones for your PC.

3. Windows Media Player 9 (WMP 9).

4. A compatible computer configuration. Verify Microsoft Live Meeting 2007 System Requirements

5. Use the Microsoft Live Meeting 2007 Windows Console Compatibility Test to join a meeting to see if your computer is compatible with Live Meeting 2007.

During the Webcast- Join the Webcast by clicking the link below:

· Webcast Link: https://www107.livemeeting.com/cc/msevents/join?id=BI29AL&role=attend&pw=KDC178

· Passcode:  KDC178

· Telephony: 1-877-208-6695 or 1-503-295-8000 (International)

· Pin:  2706

The 2nd Annual Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference 2008 will run from October 6th-8th 2008. This is great news - the first conference was a fantastic 3 days and I'm sure with the launch of SQL Server 2008 this will provide a great opportunity for learning, networking and some super keynote presentations.

More information about the Conference is available on the Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference website. Stay tuned to the site for regular updates, including registration, Call for Presentations and Customer Awards Program information.