Microsoft Business Intelligence For Dummies

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Microsoft System Center Enterprise Suite Unleashed is the first and only definitive real-world guide to the entire Microsoft System Center Enterprise Suite. It brings together tips, tricks, best practices, and lessons learned by top consultants who’ve deployed System Center in some of the world’s largest enterprises and most successful small businesses.

Drawing on years of early adopter and production experience, Rand Morimoto, Chris Amaris, and their team cover the entire System Center lifecycle and its components for system configuration, operations management, data protection, virtual machine management, help desk support, change management, asset control, capacity planning, and mobile device management. You’ll learn about individual components and how to integrate them to build automated, exceptionally efficient managed environments.

For smaller businesses, the book also presents Microsoft’s streamlined, lower-cost IT management offering, System Center Essentials 2010.

• Use System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to image, update, manage, and support servers and clients
• Proactively monitor your systems to identify and fix problems before they fail
• Use System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 to provide reliable, timely backup/recovery
• Implement and manage all aspects of virtualization, including virtual guest sessions on both Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware
• Make the most of System Center Service Manager 2010’s integrated tools for managing help desks, incidents, assets, and changes
• Use System Center Capacity Planner to properly size, procure, and deploy new systems
• Remotely track, secure, patch, update, and support mobile devices with System Center Mobile Device Manager
• Simplify small business IT management with System Center Essentials 2010’s wizards and auto-configuration components

Even if it’s your first look at a business performance management system, you’ll find this handy guide makes you look like a pro! You’ll find out how to set goals, create plans to get you there, and produce reports to track your progress. You’ll also discover how to:

• Develop a plan and set goals to drive performance and accelerate business decision-making
• Configure security features to protect your information
• Navigate the reporting interface to quickly find the data that will help you make the right decisions
• Use different data source types
• Create key performance indicators to find out how your business is really doing
• Work with dashboards and scorecards to quickly view business-critical information

The Business-Focused, Best-Practice Guide to Succeeding with ITIL Capacity Management

Using ITIL® capacity management processes, IT organizations can eliminate waste and overbuying, reduce both equipment and staffing costs, drive more value from existing investments, and consistently provide the right resources to meet the needs of the business. Now, in this comprehensive, best-practice guide, leading ITIL expert Larry Klosterboer systematically explains how to manage capacity using the ITIL framework and techniques.

Drawing on his extensive ITIL experience, Klosterboer covers all facets of ITIL-based capacity management, and offers proven solutions to the challenges IT organizations encounter in implementation. He presents expert guidance on accurately projecting demand and growth, planning and staffing, tool selection, process implementation, and much more.

This book’s practical insights will be invaluable to every IT leader who wants to leverage ITIL’s best practices for capacity management, and for every business and technical manager who wants IT to deliver greater value, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Coverage includes

• Making the business case for capacity management
• Establishing specific goals for capacity management
• Mastering ITIL capacity management terminology
• Predicting capacity in dynamic, fast-changing organizations
• Implementing systems that help you anticipate trends
• Defining capacity plans, staffing capacity management teams, and implementing ongoing processes
• Linking capacity with performance management and with other ITIL processes
• Selecting the right capacity management tools for your environment
• Integrating capacity issues into your IT project management discipline
• Using “business capacity planning” to help the entire business become more agile

With the Azure Services Platform, processing and storing data moves from individual corporate servers and Web sites to larger, more reliable, and more secure data centers. Roger Jennings, author of more than 30 books on Microsoft technologies, shows you how to leverage the power of Azure and its related services for cloud computing.

The book begins with a look at the differences between cloud computing and application hosting and examines the various issues that .NET developers and IT managers face in moving from on-premise to cloud-based applications, including security, privacy, regulatory compliance, backup and recovery, asset cataloging, and other common technical issues. The author then drills down, showing basic programming for individual Azure components, including storage, SQL Data Services, and .NET Services. He then moves on to cover more advanced programming challenges.

• Explains the benefits of using the Azure Services Platform for cloud computing
• Shows how to program with Windows Azure components, including Azure Table and Blob storage, .NET Services and SQL Azure
• Addresses advanced programming challenges of creating useful projects that combine cloud storage with Web applications or services
• Companion Web site features complete, finished applications that can be uploaded to jump start a Windows Azure project

Jobs: What does process-centering do to the nature of jobs? What does a process-centered workplace feel like?

Managers: What is the new role of the manager in a process-centered company?

Education: What skills are vital in the process-centered working world, and how can young or inexperienced workers prepare?

Society: What are the implications of process-centering for employment and the economy as a whole?

Investment: What are the characteristics of a successful 21st-century corporation?

An informed look at one of the most profound changes to ever sweep the corporate world, Beyond Reengineering is the business manual for the 21st century.

"A must-read for anyone performing business process mapping! This treasure shares step-by-stepapproaches and critical success factors, based on years of practical, customer-focused experience.A real winner!"
—Timothy R. Holmes, CPA former General Auditor, American Red Cross

"Paulette and Mike make extensive use of anecdotes and real-life examples to bring alive the topic ofbusiness process mapping. From the outset, this book will engage you and draw you into the worldof business process mapping. Who would have thought that reading about business process mapping could make you smile? Well, Mike and Paulette can make it happen! Within each chapter, theauthors provide detailed examples and exhibits used to document a process. Each chapter also includes a 'Recap' and 'Key Analysis Points' which enable the reader to distill the highlights of the chapter."
—Barbara J. Muller, CPA, CFE, Senior Lecturer, School of Accountancy W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

"Keller and Jacka cut through the drudgery of process mapping with a path-breaking approach thatenables the reader to better understand processes, how they work and how they work together toward successful achievement of business objectives. With great style and flair, this book will provide youwith a different way of thinking and new tools to assist you in process analysis and improvement. This book is a must-read for auditors, risk managers, quality improvement management, and businessprocess engineers."
—Dean Bahrman, VP and Internal Audit Director (Retired) Global Financial Services Companies