Gene Webb's Blog

Birmingham 2008 Business Intelligence Boot Camp

genewebb — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:12:00 GMT

Wow our 2008 Business Intelligence Boot Camp held November 10th - 14th, 2008 was a great success thanks to our partners and customers. We were fortunate enough to work with Protective Life who provided the facilities and great support for the event. This year Innovative Architects, Profisee, and Northridge Systems did an outstanding job presenting deep content our MDM, SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS.

Each day's presentations are available to the attendees only. I am not able to provide due to confidential information to anywho who did not attend or works within a company that did attend.

You were provided with a password to use to download. These downloads will expired 14 days from upload or November the 23rd. If you forget please email me.

Click on a day to go to the download of content for that day

Monday - All Up Business Intellgience Preview (Microsoft)

Tuesday - SQL Server Integration Services (Innovative Architects)

Wednesday - SQL Server Analysis Services (Profisee)

Thursday - SQL Server Reporting Services (Northridge Systems)

Friday - End User Reporting (Microsoft)

The Week In Pictures

Free SQL 2008 Classes on Microsoft Learning

genewebb — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:58:00 GMT

Clinic 6188: What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Enterprise Data Platform

Published on: 10/30/2007, E-Learning Course

In this 1 hour on-line clinic, IT Professionals will learn about the new features in SQL Server 2008 that will help them to secure the enterprise data platform. More...

Free

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Clinic 6189: What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Business Intelligence

Published on: 10/30/2007, E-Learning Course

In this 1 hour on-line clinic, database developers will learn about the new features in SQL Server 2008 that will help them to improve the Business Intelligence infrastructure. More...

Free

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Clinic 6190: What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Database Development

Published on: 10/30/2007, E-Learning Course

In this 1 hour on-line clinic, database developers will learn about the new features in SQL Server 2008 that will help them to develop database applications. More...

Free

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Clinic 6258: New Features Of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Published on: 4/16/2008, Article

This Clinic covers topics on new Reporting Services Features in SQL Server 2008 (BETA) More...

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Clinic 6258: New Features Of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Published on: 4/8/2008, E-Learning Course

This Clinic covers topics on new Reporting Services Features in SQL Server 2008 (BETA) More...

Free

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Collection 6187: What’s New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Published on: 4/16/2008, Article

In this 3 hour on-line collection, IT Professionals will learn about the new features in SQL Server 2008. More...

Add to My Learning In My Learning

Collection 6187: What’s New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Published on: 4/8/2008, Offer

In this 3 hour on-line collection, IT Professionals will learn about the new features in SQL Server 2008. More...

Free

Add to My Learning In My Learning In My Cart Sign In To Activate

Course 6156A: First Look: What's new in SQL Server 2008

Published on: 11/2/2007, Classroom Training

This half day instructor-led clinic introduces students to new features available in Microsoft SQL Server 2008. This clinic will introduce students to new features in the relational database, business intelligence and development environment. More...

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Course 6157A: What's new in SQL Server 2008

Published on: 1/16/2008, Classroom Training

This series of Hands-on-Labs introduce students to the new feature available in SQL Server 2008. The series focus on new features and components in in the relational database, business intelligence and development environment. More...

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Course 6158B: Updating Your Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Skills to SQL Server 2008

Published on: 9/19/2008, Classroom Training

This three-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to update their skills in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008. More...

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Course 6231A: Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database

Published on: 5/19/2008, Classroom Training

This five-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to maintain a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database. The course focuses on teaching individuals how to use SQL Server 2008 product features and tools related to maintaining a database. More...

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Course 6232A: Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database

Published on: 5/19/2008, Classroom Training

This five-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to implement a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database. The course focuses on teaching individuals how to use SQL Server 2008 product features and tools related to implementing a database. More...

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Course 6235A: Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services

Published on: 5/19/2008, Classroom Training

This three-day instructor-led course teaches students how to implement an Integration Services solution in an organization. The course discusses how to develop, deploy, and manage Integration Services packages. More...

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Course 6236A: Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Published on: 5/16/2008, Classroom Training

This three-day instructor-led course teaches students how to implement a Reporting Services solution in an organization. The course discusses how to use the Reporting Services development tools to create reports, and how to use the Reporting Services management and administrative tools to manage a Reporting Services solution More...

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Infrastructure Optimization Assessment

genewebb — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:38:00 GMT

Use this assessment tool to obtain a personalized and private infrastructure optimization score, peer comparison and value assessment — a comprehensive report which can serve as a roadmap and incentive for optimizing your infrastructure.

http://www.microsoft.com/business/peopleready/assessment/launch.mspx

Magic City Technology Presentation - Real World SOA - A Pragmatic Approach to the Agile Business

genewebb — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:21:00 GMT

To download the presentation click here.

Windows Mobile: Delivering Advanced Communications and Mobile Applications

genewebb — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:59:00 GMT

Windows Mobile: Delivering Advanced Communications and Mobile Applications

Learn how you can help improve the productivity and collaboration of your company's mobile workforce by using Windows Mobile powered smartphones and PDAs and Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager. Join our technical experts for this webcast series and discover how you can efficiently deploy and manage mobile devices and applications from a centralized location and help safeguard corporate data. Find out how the Windows Mobile platform integrates into your existing IT infrastructure and uses familiar management tools to provide a highly scalable and affordable solution.

Evaluate Microsoft Server Products and You Can Win A Server for Your Home!

genewebb — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:59:00 GMT

Evaluate Microsoft Server Products and You Can Win A Server for Your Home!

Try Microsoft server products and a Windows Home Server could be yours. Take part in a virtual lab or download a free trial and you could win* big prizes.

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to legal residents of the 50 U.S. (includes D.C.) 18+ employed in an IT or software development role. Sweepstakes ends June 30, 2008. For details including free, alternate method of entry, see the official rules.

24 Hours of SQL Server 2008

genewebb — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:56:00 GMT

24 Hours of SQL Server 2008

Watch the miniseries, 24 Hours of SQL Server 2008, and learn how you can be more productive by accessing data from a variety of devices and applications. These webcasts provide detailed information for IT professionals and developers about Microsoft SQL Server 2008 features. During the webcasts for IT professionals, learn how SQL Server creates a more secure, reliable, and scalable platform and helps ensure that data is available and secured in SQL Server and the Windows operating environment. Also, learn how SQL Server 2008 helps deliver a superior business intelligence platform for the expanding business intelligence market

Practical SQL Server for Oracle DBA Class

genewebb — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:50:00 GMT

Just wanted to thank all of the attendees for our Practical SQL Server for Oracle DBA class this week. If you would like an electronic version of the student handbook please send me a request and I will forward a download link to you. Send request to genew@nospam<remove>.microsoft.com

Atlanta Microsoft SAP Forum - People Ready Solutions

genewebb — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:36:00 GMT

You are Invited: Microsoft SAP Forum
People-ready solutions for real world problems

Don't miss out—the Microsoft SAP Forum has limited seats available:

Register Today!

Atlanta
November 28th, 2007
Buckhead Club
3343 Peachtree Road, NE
Suite 1850
Atlanta, GA 30326

Agenda:

8:30–9:00am
Registration & Breakfast

9:00–9:45am
Microsoft Keynote: Maximize The Value Of Your SAP Investment

9:45–10:15am
Customer Case Study

10:15–10:30am
Break / Refreshments

10:30–11:30am
The Value of Microsoft Duet

11:30am–12:00pm
Optimize your SAP Infrastructure with Microsoft Application Platform

12:00–12:45pm
Lunch

12:45–1:15pm
Intel’s Journey with SAP

1:15–2:00pm
Interoperability between Microsoft and SAP:
Portals, BI and Application Development

Register Today!

Beyond TCO - Driving SAP Reach and Agility

Please join us for this great opportunity to get up-to-date information about Microsoft's latest developments in solutions and technologies with SAP.

Partners since 1993, Microsoft and SAP have collaborated closely to deliver significant value to customers – from SAP R/3 running on Windows® in 1993 to the introduction of DUET in 2006. Committed to delivering productivity-enhancing, interoperable and integrated solutions for our customers, our investments in co-innovation help you to bridge your Microsoft and SAP platform and applications.

You've made substantial investments in Microsoft and SAP enterprise technologies. Now let us help you to maximize those investments.

Why Should You Attend?

Every business is looking for a competitive edge, a way to optimize and garner the most out of their technology investments to effect transformational changes. Our team of experts will discuss and share the latest updates on how:

DUET revolutionizes the way information workers interact with enterprise applications – learn about the latest scenarios and roadmap
A new database platform migration offering from Microsoft and SAP can enable your company to easily transition to SQL Server and leverage the benefits of enterprise SOA
Microsoft's application platform can accelerate innovation and improves ROI through enhanced interoperability and extensibility
Intel IT maximized their investments in SAP – gain insight as well into Intel's latest technology roadmap to help you strategically plan your hardware and software migrations

Who Should Attend?

Executives, business managers, decision makers, technology and SAP stakeholders that have responsibilities for decisions and implementations around SAP and Microsoft enterprise applications and platforms.

Please join us at the Microsoft SAP Forum. Visit Microsoft SAP Forum for more details and to register today!

and/or other countries. Privacy Statement.

If you prefer not to receive future promotional e-mails of this type from Microsoft, please click here to unsubscribe. We will promptly update your preferences; however, you may still receive previously initiated promotional communications from Microsoft. This e-mail is intended for distribution within the United States. Please contact your local Microsoft® Subsidiary for similar offerings outside the U.S. (Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052)

From Good to Great through Business Intelligence Applications" featuring Dr. Maryam Alavi

genewebb — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:33:00 GMT

On December 4, 2007, Microsoft and HP will be hosting the Vice Dean of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Dr. Maryam Alavi, who will be presenting “From Good to Great through Business Intelligence Applications.” Microsoft and HP are excited to have Dr. Alavi present an insightful look at how companies are able to impact the effectiveness of their decision making processes by applying IT solutions to their existing business data. In addition to the keynote presentation, we invite you to join us for a reception that will immediately follow. I would enjoy the opportunity to personally introduce myself and give you a chance to meet and talk with Dr. Alavi and other key members of Atlanta’s business community.

Dr. Maryam Alavi, our keynote speaker, is the Vice Dean and is also the John M. and Lucy Cook Chaired Professor of Information Strategy at Emory’s Goizueta Business School. As an expert in knowledge management and strategic information systems, Dr. Alavi has authored 72 published papers and has served on editorial boards of several prestigious academic journals. She has consulted with organizations including AT&T, IBM, KPMG Peat Marwick, Marriott Corporation, the American College of Physicians, the General Accounting Office, and the World Bank. She is a two-term board member of the Georgia Technology Authority appointed by the Governor of the State of Georgia.

I hope that you will be able to attend on December 4. Please RSVP for our event by calling Microsoft at 1-877-MS-EVENT (1-877-673-8368) and reference event #1032354166 or use the internet link below. I look forward to seeing you there.

Registration Link: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032354166&culture=en-US

Microsoft Data Warehouse in Depth by Joy Mundy and Warren Thornthwaite, co-authors of the newly published Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit

genewebb — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:17:00 GMT

Duration: 4 days

Why Attend
With SQL Server 2005, Microsoft provides a complete suite of tools for you to build data warehouse and business intelligence systems using software from a single vendor. This course prepares you to deal with the many facets of developing, deploying, operating, and growing your Microsoft data warehouse system.

Taught by Joy Mundy and Warren Thornthwaite, co-authors of the newly published Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit, this lecture and demo course will provide you a detailed technical introduction to building a Microsoft data warehouse / business intelligence system that meets the needs of your business users. The class will provide Microsoft-specific detailed guidance for working through the data warehouse lifecycle, from requirements gathering and design through the ETL system, relational data warehouse, OLAP and data mining applications, to reporting and other BI applications. We’ll discuss issues around deploying, operating, and securing the Microsoft data warehouse system. This course covers a lot of material in a short time.

Who should attend
We’ve designed this course to appeal to all major roles on a data warehouse project on the Microsoft platform. It’s for data warehouse team managers, system architects, ETL system architects and developers, data warehouse operational staff, and BI application designers and developers.

About This Course
The focus of the course is architectural—how should you design the components of the system. We expect our attendees to be able to read documentation and follow Microsoft’s generally straightforward user interfaces. Our goal is to teach you the hard stuff: not which button to push, but how to design and build a successful Microsoft DW/BI system. The pace of the course permits only demos by the instructor; do not expect hands on tutorials during class time. You should be familiar with the basic principles of dimensional modeling; the class briefly reviews dimensional modeling topics at a high level, but does not teach them in depth. These principles are summarized in the first four articles of the Fundamentals series on this web page.

COURSE OUTLINE
Day 1
Introduction to the Business Dimensional Lifecycle
• Roadmap for the DW/BI system

Project Planning and Management
• Assess readiness
• Define and plan the project
• Manage the project

Defining Business Requirements
• Gathering business requirements
• Requirements prioritization session
• Tips and tactics for achieving milestones and avoiding pitfalls
• Exercise: Translating requirements into the DW Bus Matrix

Designing the Business Process Dimensional Model
• Basic dimensional modeling concepts
• Conformed dimensions
• Slowly changing dimensions
• Additional concepts in dimensional modeling
            -Hierarchies and snowflaking
            -Degenerate and junk dimensions
            -Many to many dimensions
• The dimensional modeling process

Microsoft DW/BI System Architecture
• Common components of DW/BI system architecture
• Mapping Microsoft components to the general DW/BI architecture
• Process: How to create an architecture plan
• The conformed data warehouse
• Exercise/discussion: Develop and present summary architecture for attendees’ systems

System Setup
• System configuration
            -Distributing SQL Server components across servers
            -Memory
            -Storage
• Rough system sizing
• Installing SQL Server
            -Choosing the edition of SQL Server
            -Issues to consider during installation and configuration
            -Planning early for development, test, and production systems

Day 2
SQL Server Relational DW Physical Design
• Column names and data types
• Primary and foreign keys
• Initial index plan
• Fact table partitioning

ETL System Design
• Develop a high-level map
• Exercise: High-level map for MDWT_AdventureWorksDW
• Develop standard strategies for common tasks
• Develop table-level details
• The ETL system specification

ETL System Development Using Integration Services
• Introduction to Integration Services and the BI Studio tools
            -Control Flow elements
            -Data Flow elements
            -Debugging within the BI Studio development environment
• General SSIS design techniques
            -Modularize packages
            -Variables, expressions, and configurations
            -Save extracted data before transformation
            -Template packages
• Populating dimension tables
            -Using the slowly changing dimension wizard
            -Avoiding the slowly changing dimension wizard
• Populating fact tables
            -Basic fact table processing
            -The surrogate key pipeline
            -Advanced issues in fact table processing
• A simple Audit system

The Analysis Services OLAP Database: Designing Dimensions
• Why Use Analysis Services OLAP?
            -Aggregation design and management
            -Query performance
            -Complex calculation logic
• Getting Ready
            -Partially populate the relational DW
            -Create a data source and data source view
• Designing Dimensions
            -The vocabulary of dimensions
            -The Dimension Wizard
            -The Dimension Editor

Day 3
The Analysis Services OLAP Database: Designing Cubes
• Designing cubes
            -Analysis Services cube terminology
            -Cube structure
            -Dimension usage
            -Process and browse the cube
            -Calculations, KPIs, and Actions
            -Translations and Perspectives
• Physical design considerations
            -Physical design terminology
            -Storage mode
            -Aggregations
            -Partitions
• Processing cubes

BI Applications
• Basic BI application concepts
• The reporting system design process
            -Standard report template
            -Report specifications
            -Reporting system navigation design
• The BI application development process

Delivering BI Applications with Reporting Services
• Reporting Services overview
• Designing a report
            -Sourcing from the relational database
            -Sourcing from Analysis Services
• Deploying a report
            -Report Manager
            -The BI portal
• Reporting Services metadata
• Report Builder

Adding Business Value with Data Mining
• Data Mining overview
• The SQL Server 2005 data mining architecture
• The data mining process
• Extended demo: Creating a data mining model
            -Developing the input data set
            -Selecting algorithms
            -The data mining designer
            -Iterating
• Validating the model
• Using the data mining model in production
• Data mining metadata and maintenance

The Metadata Morass
• Defining metadata
• Managing metadata
• Metadata in SQL Server 2005
• A simple business metadata data model

Day 4
Securing the Microsoft DW/BI System
• Getting ready
• Developing a plan
            -Providing open access
            -Itemizing sensitive data
            -Securing various types of data access
• Securing SQL Server components
            -Relational database
            -Analysis Services
            -Reporting Services

Deployment: The Great Unveiling
• System deployment
            -Pre-deployment testing
            -Testing the deployment process
            -Deploying the relational database
            -Deploying Integration Services packages
            -Deploying Analysis Services databases
            -Deploying Reporting Services reports
• User readiness
            -DW/BI documentation
            -User training
            -User support
            -Desktop readiness and configuration

Operations and Maintenance
• Providing ongoing user support
• Executing SSIS packages in production
• Monitoring the DW/BI system
            -General operating system monitoring
            -Monitoring the relational data warehouse
            -Monitoring Integration Services
            -Analysis Services
            -Reporting Services
• Performance tuning
• Backup and recovery

Growing the DW/BI System
• Technical work: Iterating the Lifecycle
• Organizational work: Marketing and managing expectations
• System interconnections

Real Time Business Intelligence
• Defining real-time BI
• Making the case for (and against) real-time
• Alternative approaches to providing real-time data
            - Executing reports in real-time
            - Loading the DW/BI system in real-time
            - Using Analysis Services with real-time data

1st Annual Microsoft Business Intelligence Boot Camp - Birmingham Alabama

genewebb — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:33:00 GMT

We had a great week! The download link is now active.

Monday we looked at SQL, end of life of SQL 2000, improvements in SQL 2008, a demo of our all up business intelligence stack and case studies
Tuesday SQL Server Integration Services Hands on LABs
Wednesday SQL Server Reporting Services Hands on LABs
Thursday SQL Server Analysis Services Hands on LABs
Friday Office and MOSS Integration for BI, Data Mining, and Performance Point with Proclarity

You will find the presentations HERE (available on or after October 4th).

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Presentation (MTC May Meeting)

genewebb — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:33:00 GMT

This is the MTC presentation I gave in May. To download click here.

Quick Updates

genewebb — Sun, 13 May 2007 05:59:00 GMT

Well I am about 3 months into the move from Dallas to Birmingham and I have to say I love it! We moved to a small town about 25 miles from downtown pop. 1200 and it reminds me of growing up in South Mississippi. The customers and people in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia are great. Every time I would visit home (South Mississippi) I would remember how much I missed. I spent a few days in Jackson, Mississippi visiting customers and really enjoyed it. I am working diligently to catch up my skills and knowledge around Business Intelligence and as much as I love working with our developer tools I think BI will step it up a notch. There is so much to know and learn that I could spend a month just taking classes and still not be caught up!