Business Intelligence

Master the Next-Generation Business Intelligence Tools in SQL Server 2008 R2

Effectively convey meaningful business insights to users across your enterprise with help from this practical guide. Written by a team of business intelligence experts, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analytics & Data Visualization shows how to achieve greater information absorption using the latest reporting tools. Learn how to build maps and gauges, integrate OLAP data, and develop dashboards. Security, performance tuning, and cloud computing techniques are also covered in this comprehensive resource.

• Design and deploy chart-based reports using SSRS 2008 R2
• Display geo-spatial map data with location-based indicators
• Visually represent metrics and KPIs on graphs and gauges
• Distribute reports through SharePoint and PerformancePoint
• Create and publish web page parts, dashboards, and mash-ups
• Set up and manage cloud-based services using SQL Azure
• Incorporate data mining and forecasting features with Visio
• Integrate large amounts of data using PowerPoint for Excel
• Derive matrix, table, and chart data from OLAP cubes

Doug Harts is a Services Executive at Microsoft currently helping U.S. Federal agencies implement Microsoft technology roadmaps. He is the author of Microsoft Office 2007 Business Intelligence, and maintains a BI community website at www.OfficeBIcentral.com.

Jim Dugan is a Solutions Architect with the Microsoft Healthcare and Benefits team in Microsoft Federal. He previously served as Technical Director of Microsoft's Technology and Innovation Center in Reston, Virginia.

Praise for Successful Business Intelligence

"If you want to be an analytical competitor, you've got to go well beyond business intelligence technology. Cindi Howson has wrapped up the needed advice on technology, organization, strategy, and even culture in a neat package. It's required reading for quantitatively oriented strategists and the technologists who support them." --Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor, Babson College and co-author, Competing on Analytics

"When used strategically, business intelligence can help companies transform their organization to be more agile, more competitive, and more profitable. Successful Business Intelligence offers valuable guidance for companies looking to embark upon their first BI project as well as those hoping to maximize their current deployments." --John Schwarz, CEO, Business Objects

"A thoughtful, clearly written, and carefully researched examination of all facets of business intelligence that your organization needs to know to run its business more intelligently and exploit information to its fullest extent." --Wayne Eckerson, Director, TDWI Research

"Using real-world examples, Cindi Howson shows you how to use business intelligence to improve the performance, and the quality, of your company." --Bill Baker, Distinguished Engineer & GM, Business Intelligence Applications, Microsoft Corporation

"This book outlines the key steps to make BI an integral part of your company's culture and demonstrates how your company can use BI as a competitive differentiator." --Robert VanHees, CFO, Corporate Express

"Given the trend to expand the business analytics user base, organizations are faced with a number of challenges that affect the success rate of these projects. This insightful book provides practical advice on improving that success rate." --Dan Vesset, Vice President, Business Analytics Solution Research, IDC

Too many organizations invest in performance management and business intelligence projects, without first establishing the needed conditions to ensure success. But the organizations that lay the groundwork for effective change first reap the benefits.

In Profiles in Performance: Business Intelligence Journeys and the Road Map for Change, Howard Dresner (author of The Performance Management Revolution) worked with several extraordinary organizations to understand their thriving "performance-directed culture." In doing so, he developed a unique maturity model-which served as both a filter to select candidates and as a lens to examine accomplishments.

• Interviews with people from all sides of the organization: business users, finance, senior management and the IT department
• Provides a complete picture of their progress from inception to current state

PivotTables may be Excel's most powerful feature, but Microsoft has estimated that only 15% of Excel users take advantage of them. That's because PivotTables (and their companion feature, PivotCharts) have a reputation for being difficult to learn. Not any more! In this book, Excel legends Bill Jelen ("MrExcel") and Michael Alexander teach PivotTables and PivotCharts step-by-step, using realistic business scenarios that any Excel user can intuitively understand. Jelen and Alexander go far beyond merely explaining PivotTables and PivotCharts: they present practical "recipes" for solving a wide range of business problems. Drawing on more than 30 combined years of Excel experience, they provide tips and tricks you won't find anywhere else, and show exactly how to sidestep common mistakes. Coverage includes: " Creating PivotTables, customizing them, and changing the way you view them " Performing calculations within PivotTables " Using PivotCharts and other visualizations " Analyzing multiple data sources with PivotTables " Sharing PivotTables with others " Working with and analyzing OLAP data " Making the most of Excel 2010's powerful new PowerPivot feature " Using Excel 2010's Slicer to dynamically filter PivotTables " Enhancing PivotTables with macros and VBA code This book is part of the new MrExcel Library series, edited by Bill Jelen, world-renowned Excel expert and host of the enormously popular Excel help site, MrExcel.com.