Microsoft BI Conference

Ok so I have not blogged in a long while. So time for an update!

I have been very busy working on a few data warehouse projects and have not had the time to blog. So I am glad to get sometime out to go to Microsoft's first BI conference in Seattle next week.

It's a Conference of many firsts, first time Microsoft has created a forum for BI using Microsoft products. Sure there has been many a 'TechEd Session' on SSRS, SSAS and SSIS. But this is the real deal best practices, case studies and the like. And I am not talking about project real either. The big difference with this conference is there is not mix bag of sessions.

As a part of the trip I am going to blog every day of the conference to let you know what went to.

It's very exciting.

Microsoft and Teradata Collaborate

Microsoft and Teradata have formally announced a partnership. It looks like SSIS, AS2005 and RS2005 will be able to access Teradata enterprise warehouse. This will help Tetra data access Performance Point.
check out:

Microsoft and Teradata Collaborate to Offer Business Intelligence Solutions
http://www.teradata.com/t/

Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005: Transform Data into Decisions

Just came across a set of PerformancePoint webcasts on http://thesource.ofallevil.com/events/series/sqlserverbi.mspx. Check out:

TechNet Webcast: Performance Management 101 with PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)
Thursday, January 18, 2007
1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time
Join us and learn how Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 enables businesses to deliver performance management capabilities broadly by providing an application that is easy to use and less costly to deploy than traditional solutions.

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Business Intelligence: Introduction to PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, January 19, 2007
8:00 A.M.–9:00 A.M. Pacific Time
Discover how Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 provides you with critical visibility into the factors that affect your business, allowing you to make decisions and take actions that drive better business outcomes.

Round up for 2006

Happy New Year! I am sorry I have not blogged in awhile. It’s largely due to a house we are building in Auckland. Building a house is very similar to building a data warehouse, best left to the experts.

What a year 2006 it has been. I have to say Business Intelligence on SQL server has definitely seen some big changes this year. After the release of SQL Server 2005, big things had to happen to top the release and what a year it has been.

Service Pack 1 Was not long in coming after the November release of SQL, helped a lot of companies to get of over the ‘not until SP1’ issue. The release was not without controversy. The removal of the ‘Select All Parameter’ caused some developers concern. Microsoft removed it due to performance issues. At the same time MS released the feature pack with a series of great free add-ons. Such as a SAP .Net OLE DB driver and data mining viewer controls. Check out:

Rather Ripped (Select All in Service Pack 1)

Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005


The acquisition of Proclarity has shown Microsoft continued commitment to build its BI platform. Seeing the direction and integration of Proclarity, Balance Scorecard Manager, etc into Performance Point is very exciting and will start to give some of the Analytical BI vendors a run for their money. Check Out:

Performance-Point-Screenshots

Performance Point Home

Office 2007 was shown off at TechEd and is very exciting from a BI point of view. The new excel features are going to continue Excels front-end dominance. Although the new Excel front-end may take some getting use to for some users the new BI features are well worth the upgrade. Check out:
Business Intelligence in Excel 2007

Service pack 2 CTP is going to continue to enhance the BI features of SQL 2005. Report builder will now support Oracle as a data source. The ‘Select All’ parameter is now back in en-vogue. Of course there will be the standard bug fixes. So best get to testing and seeing the new fixes/enhancements. Check out:

A list of the bugs that are fixed in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Community Technology Preview (CTP)