Dive into the business intelligence (BI) features in SharePoint 2010—and use the right combination of tools to deliver compelling solutions. This practical guide helps you explore several BI application services available in SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. You’ll learn each technology with step-by-step instructions, and determine which ones work best in specific BI scenarios—whether you’re a SharePoint administrator, SQL Server developer, or business analyst. Choose the BI tools that meet your needs—and learn how they work together Examine the BI lifecycle, from determining key performance indicators to building dashboards Take Microsoft Excel further—gain more control and functionality with web-based Excel Services Mash up data from multiple sources using PowerPivot for Excel 2010 Create data visualizations with objects, context, and metrics using Microsoft Visio Services Build dashboards, scorecards, and other monitoring and analysis tools with PerformancePoint Services Use SharePoint to view BI reports side by side, no matter which tools were used to produced them Your companion web content includes: Interactive exercises that help you try out concepts or techniques Code samples that enable you to work with the exercises

Every business has reams of business data locked away in databases, business systems, and spreadsheets. While you may be able to build some reports by pulling a few of these repositories together, actually performing any kind of analysis on the data that runs your business can range from problematic to impossible. Pro SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services will show you how to pull that data together and present it for reporting and analysis in a way that makes the data accessible to business users, instead of needing to rely on the IT department every time someone needs a different report. Accessible—With a single author's voice, this book conducts a guided tour through the technology that makes it easy to dive into. Solution–oriented—While technically deep, the goal is to focus on practical application of the technologies instead of acting as a technical manual. Comprehensive—This book covers every aspect of analysis services and ancillary technologies to enable you to make the most of SQL Server.

SharePoint 2010 is today’s leading presentation and deployment system for Business Intelligence (BI) solutions based on Microsoft technologies. This book brings together all the information you need to successfully implement and use SharePoint 2010’s powerful BI capabilities. It reflects the unsurpassed real-world experience of five expert consultants at RDA, a Microsoft Gold Partner specializing in delivering advanced BI solutions with SharePoint. You’ll first learn how to prepare SharePoint 2010 for the deployment of BI solutions. Next, the authors walk through integrating, configuring, and using Reporting Services, PerformancePoint Services, PowerPivot, Visio Services, and other key related technologies. Building on what you’ve learned, you’ll walk step-by-step through constructing and integrating two end-to-end BI solutions. Finally, in a comprehensive troubleshooting section, the authors present today’s most common SharePoint BI issues, identify proven solutions, and teach effective problem-solving techniques. Get started fast, by using the Business Intelligence Center’s prebuilt site collection and template Build integrated, end-to-end SharePoint BI solutions Present business data to the enterprise through Excel Services Install, configure, and integrate Reporting Services and the Reporting Services Add-In for SharePoint Define document library content types and manage reports Use Report Viewer Web Parts to render reports on SharePoint web pages Build enterprise dashboards with PerformancePoint Services Secure dashboards via data source delegation, SharePoint permissions, and groups Analyze enormous datasets with PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint Publish Visio 2010 data-driven web diagrams that integrate multiple data sources Utilize the fine-grained security available through Visio Graphics Service Troubleshoot problems with Reporting Services, PerformancePoint Services, PowerPivot, and Visio Services

Foundations of SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence introduces the entire exciting gamut of business intelligence tools included with SQL Server 2008. Microsoft has designed SQL Server 2008 to be more than just a database. It’s a complete business intelligence (BI) platform. The database is at its core, and surrounding the core are tools for data mining, modeling, reporting, analyzing, charting, and integration with other enterprise-level software packages. SQL Server 2008 puts an incredible amount of BI functionality at your disposal. But how do you take advantage of it? That’s what this book is all about. Authors Guy Fouché and Lynn Langit show how to implement end-to-end BI solutions using SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), and other tools in the Microsoft business intelligence toolkit. You’ll learn about all-features such as PowerPivot and Report Builder 3.0. Also provided are clear examples of predictive analysis made possible through powerful data mining features in SQL Server. If you’re an analyst or developer working with SQL Server 2008 who is charged with delivering results that drive business success, you can’t afford to be without this book; you can’t afford to ignore the powerful business intelligence suite that Microsoft has placed at your disposal. Provides the "big picture" of Microsoft’s BI tool suite Covers PowerPivot and other game-changing technologies introduced alongside SQL Server 2008 Release 2 Gives a practical analysis of features based on real-world practices

Master Microsoft's Business Intelligence Tools Building Integrated Business Intelligence Solutions with SQL Server 2008 R2 & Office 2010 explains how to take full advantage of Microsoft's collaborative business intelligence (BI) tools. A variety of powerful, flexible technologies are covered, including SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), Excel, Excel Services, PowerPivot, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SharePoint Server 2010, PerformancePoint Services, and Master Data Services. This practical guide focuses on deveoloping end-to-end BI solutions that foster informed decision making. Create a multidimensional store for aggregating business data with SSAS Maximize the analysis capabilities of Excel and Excel Services Combine data from different sources and connect data for analysis with PowerPivot Move data into the system using SSIS, InfoPath, Streamsight, and SharePoint 2010 External Lists Build and publish reports with SSRS Integrate data from disparate applications, using SharePoint 2010 BI features Create scorecards and dashboards with PerformancePoint Services Summarize large volumes of data in charts and graphs Use the SSRS map feature for complex visualizations of spatial data Uncover patterns and relationships in data using the SSAS data mining engine Handle master data management with Master Data Services Publish the components of your BI solution and perform administrative tasks

Updated guidance on how to take advantage of the newest features of SharePoint programmability More than simply a portal, SharePoint is Microsoft's popular content management solution for building intranets and websites or hosting wikis and blogs. Offering broad coverage on all aspects of development for the SharePoint platform, this comprehensive book shows you exactly what SharePoint does, how to build solutions, and what features are accessible within SharePoint. Written by a team of SharePoint experts, this new edition offers an extensive selection of field-tested best practices that shows you how to leverage the vast power of this multi-faceted tool to build custom workflow and content management applications. Plus, you'll discover how to take advantage of the new features to roll out new SharePoint sites or upgrade existing sites. Keeps you thoroughly up to date on all the most recent changes to SharePoint 2010 Reveals broad and deep coverage of social media features, content management applications, enterprise search, business connectivity services, user experience development, and custom workflow Examines SharePoint Server 2010 vs. SharePoint Foundation Server Highlights ways you can take advantage of improvements to offline and mobile client capabilities, improvements to SQL Server table support, Cloud-based offerings with Azure integration, social networking additions, and more Professional SharePoint 2010 Development, Second Edition presents you with authoritative coverage on all aspects of development for the SharePoint platform.

Best practices and invaluable advice from world-renowned data warehouse experts In this book, leading data warehouse experts from the Kimball Group share best practices for using the upcoming “Business Intelligence release” of SQL Server, referred to as SQL Server 2008 R2. In this new edition, the authors explain how SQL Server 2008 R2 provides a collection of powerful new tools that extend the power of its BI toolset to Excel and SharePoint users and they show how to use SQL Server to build a successful data warehouse that supports the business intelligence requirements that are common to most organizations. Covering the complete suite of data warehousing and BI tools that are part of SQL Server 2008 R2, as well as Microsoft Office, the authors walk you through a full project lifecycle, including design, development, deployment and maintenance. Features more than 50 percent new and revised material that covers the rich new feature set of the SQL Server 2008 R2 release, as well as the Office 2010 release Includes brand new content that focuses on PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint, Master Data Services, and discusses updated capabilities of SQL Server Analysis, Integration, and Reporting Services Shares detailed case examples that clearly illustrate how to best apply the techniques described in the book The accompanying Web site contains all code samples as well as the sample database used throughout the case studies The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit, Second Edition provides you with the knowledge of how and when to use BI tools such as Analysis Services and Integration Services to accomplish your most essential data warehousing tasks.

An authoritative guide to extending SharePoint's power with cloud-based services If you want to be part of the next major shift in the IT industry, you'll want this book. Melding two of the hottest trends in the industry—the widespread popularity of the SharePoint collaboration platform and the rapid rise of cloud computing—this practical guide shows developers how to extend their SharePoint solutions with the cloud's almost limitless capabilities. See how to get started, discover smart ways to leverage cloud data and services through Azure, start incorporating Twitter or LinkedIn into your solutions, find the best ways to secure everything, and much more. Shows developers how to use Microsoft SharePoint 2010 to create scalable, cloud-based solutions Melds the hottest new trend in the industry—developing, hosting, managing, or storing code in the cloud—with what SharePoint developers need to know to weave these technologies into their solutions Provides developer patterns, real-world examples, and invaluable walkthroughs Topics include SQL Azure for data management and BI, building an Azure-based corporate tax service, connecting Linked In and SharePoint profile data, creating a filterable Twitter dashboard, leveraging Bing Maps Geo services, maintaining security, and more SharePoint developers, discover exciting new ways to extend SharePoint's functionality with this practical and content-rich guide.

Microsoft's BI growth rate is twice that of the industry, averaging close to 30 percent annually with analytics growing 40 percent Technical editor is Sean Boon, Microsoft Product Manager for the new Dundas Analytics for SQL Server 2008