Intelligent Insight on PerformancePoint : SQL

Kimball is coming

btamblyn — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:09:35 GMT

This guy is rarely in town and this is actually quite a unique opportunity to get your fix of dimensional modeling and learn from the godfather of BI. Thanks to Emma for the heads up.

Dr. Ralph Kimball is as an innovator, writer, educator, speaker and consultant in the field of data warehousing. And he is coming to London to deliver a 4-day course.

In addition, Microsoft can offer you a 10% discount.

The Course:

Excellence in dimensional modeling remains the keystone of a well designed data warehouse. Dimensional Modeling in Depth on 24-27 April 2007 in London is your opportunity to learn from the industry's dimensional modeling leaders - Dr. Ralph Kimball & Margy Ross.

(co-authors of The Data Warehouse Toolkit and The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit)

4 days of learning on:

Classic dimensional modeling from beginning to advanced issues
Snowflaking, degenerate dimensions and the surrogate key pipeline
Slowly changing dimensions, hybrid dimensions and rapidly changing monster dimension
Myths and misconceptions about dimensional modeling
And much more!

The discount:

Complete overview, course outline & discount form is here.

You need to use this form with the Microsoft logo to be eligible for the discount of 10% off the course fee.

Technorati tags: SQL, Dimensional Modeling, Ralph Kimball, SQL Server 2005

Fine Tuning SQL Server 2005

btamblyn — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:59:45 GMT

Here's a link to the SQL Server Best Practices Analyser (BPA). In short it provides guidance for OLAP database analysis and recommendations for fine-tuning performance.

Technorati tags: SQL Server 2005, Microsoft

Microsoft Partner Love-in: Valentines Day

btamblyn — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:36:00 GMT

OK - so if you haven't booked in for the Microsoft Business Intelligence Partner Day/Love-in you're probably too late. But for those who can't make it due to the fact that you're not in the UK I'll provide a synopsis of the Gartner overview in a blog post later next week.

For those of you who are attending here's what you'll hear:

Overview from Gartner on the opportunity for Partners making investments in Business Intelligence skills.
Explanations and demonstrations of the complete Microsoft solution offering, from SQL Server 2005 to front-end analytic tools such as ProClarity and Microsoft Office Excel 2007.
Hear details on Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007.
Understand the benefits of the Microsoft Partner Programme.

I'll be around all day with Chuck Mitten who's over from the OBA team in Redmond - so feel free to drop in and say Hi if your in London on Wednesday.

Location

Browns
Albemarle Street
Mayfair

London W1S 4BP

Don't forget to enrol all your loved ones on the PerformancePoint CTP and failing that get down to your local PC-World and buy them Vista and Office 2007.

Much better than flowers or chocolates.

Technorati tags: Performance Management, SQL Server 2005, ProClarity, CTP, Training, Gartner, Business Intelligence

SQL Server 2005 BI Training

btamblyn — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:07:29 GMT

Amazingly this has only just become available. Perhaps everyone in the UK understands SQL BI so well that we didn't need to publish training options until 18 months after launch. I know this has been something Emma has been pushing for a while now so it's nice to see it's arrived.

SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Bootcamp

Dates:

26th Feb: London
19th March: Maidenhead
16th April: Maidenhead

Technorati tags: SQL, SQL Server 2005, Microsoft, Training, Business Intelligence

Performance Management Training and Enablement - QuickStart Programme

btamblyn — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:11:00 GMT

This was announced internally at Microsoft just before the holidays by Jodi Maupin the OBA Partner Marketing Manager. I've reviewed some of the existing training and whilst it's not for the faint-hearted engagement on this programme will help all our partners align themselves more closely to Microsoft. However, the greatest benefit I believe is the opportunity to participate in launch activities.

The Early Start Program is designed for partners to learn and ready themselves for the upcoming Performance Management Specialization (Information Worker Competency) before it officially becomes available later in 2007.

By participating now, partners gain early access to special resources such as:

Training
Invitation-only briefings
Monthly communications
Exams required to achieve the upcoming specializations;

Partners completing all 3 phases of the Early Start Program can expect to receive the following benefits:

Company logo listed in the partner directories on www.microsoft.com/performancepoint and www.microsoft.com/bi
Customer solutions featured in Newsletters and on Office Solution Showcase
Participation in PerformancePoint 2007 Launch Activities
Access to Microsoft BI Hands-on-lab VPC Images
Specialization exam voucher

Sign-up Now!

PerformancePoint Server Data Sheets

btamblyn — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:30:00 GMT

Thanks to Patrick Husting who posted these (PDFs)which includes product data sheets: overview, analytics, monitoring, reporting, and planning.

PerformancePointServer 2007 Overview - [download]

PerformancePointServer 2007 Analytics - [download]

PerformancePointServer 2007 Monitoring - [download]

PerformancePointServer 2007 Planning - [download]

PerformancePointServer 2007 Reporting - [download]

Technorati tags: ProClarity, Performance Management, PerformancePoint Server, PerformancePoint, SQL, Analytics, Monitoring, Reporting, Planning

Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference (May 9th - 11th 2007)

btamblyn — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 03:27:03 GMT

Here's some early information about Microsoft's BI conference planned for May 9th.

With the release of SQL Server 2005, Business Scorecard Manager 2005, the 2007 Office system, the ProClarity acquisition and the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, it is clear that Microsoft is investing deeply in business intelligence. Microsoft is poised to fundamentally transform the business intelligence (BI) industry by making it a ubiquitous technology. Now we will have a Microsoft Conference dedicated to BI to showcase our market-leading products and solutions, expertise and customer successes!

SAVE THE DATE for the first-ever Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference to be held May 9-11, 2007 in Seattle at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. This event will feature keynotes by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, and Jeff Raikes, President of the Microsoft Business Division. Additionally, technical and business-focused session tracks, chalk talks, Partner and Microsoft solution expo, hands-on labs, and numerous highlighted customer success stories are sure to make this event a HUGE success!

The conference is designed to educate customers and you, our valued partners, on nearly every aspect of Microsoft’s BI offering. We are expecting to host between 1,500 and 2,000 IT Professionals, business decision makers, existing customers and partners from the world at the event.

We know that you probably have a lot more questions so we have provided some additional information below to answer a few of your questions:

1. How can I get involved?

We are already seeing an overwhelming amount of interest from the partner community to participate in the conference. The primary way that you can get involved is to Sign up as a Conference Sponsor. We will offer various levels of sponsorship and exhibit opportunities. Certain sponsorship packages will include the opportunity for partner presentations in a partner breakout track. More details will be available in January when the sponsorship packages become available. In the meantime, please visit the Microsoft Partner Pavilion & Expos site for more information about the conference. In addition, if you are interested in receiving exhibiting and sponsorship information when it becomes available, please send an email to pavilion@microsoft.com with ‘Microsoft BI Conference 2007’ in the subject line and you will be added to the list.

2. How do I invite our top customers to the event?

We are expecting the event to sell out due to the enthusiasm that we are already seeing from customers and the fact that the event is limited to 1500 attendees. Please encourage your co-workers and customers to sign up as soon as the worldwide registration site goes live in mid- to late February. We will be sure to notify you when registration goes live. Early bird pricing will be available through March 15, 2007, so by registering early you and your customers will have a guaranteed seat at the best price!

3. How do I nominate my customer to present and/or possibly present on stage with Steve Ballmer?

There are three key ways to get your customers involved in the conference. First, it is our goal to have two of our top BI customers on stage with Steve Ballmer during his keynote address on Friday, May 11^th.

Second, we are dedicating an entire track to customer presentations! You will have the opportunity to introduce or co-present with your customer provided the session is success/case study focused. More information about the nomination process will be available when the Conference website goes live in early January.

And finally, we will be presenting the first-ever Microsoft BI customer awards at the conference. More information about the awards will be available on the event website when it goes live. In the meantime, if you have customer suggestions or questions specifically relating to getting your customers involved in the conference, please contact Jason Blumberg.

The criteria that will help determine which customers are selected are:

- The customer can speak to the real-world benefits of using Microsoft BI

- Size and scale of deployment (# of users, # of sites/locations, different user types , etc.)

- Using multiple products within the Microsoft BI product family

- Brand-name customer

- Competitive replacements or head-to-head competitive wins are also desirable

4. What are the expected attendee fees for the Conference?

Attendee fees will be $895 during the early bird registration period, which will run from February until March 15, 2007. Prices go up to $1095 after midnight on March 15^th, so encourage your customers to register early! A limited number of attendee and booth staff passes will be included with the various sponsorship packages, so these fees would only apply to non-sponsoring partners or attendees above and beyond the number allocated for the sponsorship level.

5. Do you have any other details about registration?

We expect the conference marketing website to go live in late December or early January and the worldwide registration section of the site to go live in mid- to late February. Expect to hear more as the event site goes live and as registration nears!

We hope that you are as excited as we are to showcase Microsoft’s BI solutions at the first annual Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference in May! Be sure to lock these dates (May 9-11, 2007) on your calendar now.

Technorati tags: business Intelligence, Business Scorecard Manager, ProClarity, Partner, SharePoint Server 2007, SQL, OBA, Office 2007, PerformancePoint