TechDays 2010 Preconference: BI with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Office System 2010

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BI with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Office System 2010

We will examine an end-to-end approach to building and delivering a BI solution using the Microsoft BI platform. We will focus on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Office System 2010, in particular on PowerPivot, SharePoint 2010, and PerformancePoint Services. To make this seminar easier and more pleasant to follow we have structured the first half to focus on the concepts of BI and the knowledge worker and the second half to focus on underlying technologies.

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Session1: The Big Picture of Business Intelligence: Goals, Concepts, and the Platform
This session will introduce the overall picture of Business Intelligence and will relate the Microsoft BI Platform to it. Fundamental concepts, such as Master Data Management, Data Warehousing, Self-service Analysis, Dimensions, Facts, and Measures will be introduced, too. Technology, stressing the newly released products, will be briefly discussed and the overall road ahead will be outlined.

Session2: The Knowledge Worker’s Perspective: Self-Service of BI The most demanded and the fastest growing form of BI is the self-service, personal BI. This session will concentrate on how Office System 2010, in particular SharePoint 2010 and its PerformancePoint Services enable anyone to create and use BI in an organisation. We will also introduce the very new Microsoft PowerPivot stressing how existing Excel skills enable self-service analysis by intermediate and more advanced users. We will also mention other self-service aspects of BI, such as self-service reporting. This session will also discuss the IT Professional challenge of managing the life cycle of a potentially fast, organically growing BI system built by its users.

Session3: The IT Perspective: Data Warehousing, Management, and Analytical Structures
This session aims to take a look at BI capabilities of the SQL Server 2008 R2. We will introduce Master Data Management and new approaches to massive Data Warehousing. We will look at the way in which SQL Server functions as part of the overall BI Platform. Naturally, the fundamental BI functions of SQL Server, such as Data Integration and OLAP will also be discussed in order to enable all attendees to start planning their BI infrastructure after attending this seminar.

Session4: The Analyst’s Perspective: Ad-hoc Analysis with Microsoft PowerPivot and Office 2010 Excel Returning to the key theme of this seminar, the self-service nature of BI, we will dive deeper into the most exciting of the recent additions to the Microsoft BI platform, the Microsoft PowerPivot. We will look at the ways in which an analyst can use their existing knowledge of Excel to perform advanced analysis of large data sets, including their acquisition and later publication. Briefly, we will introduce a new language for analysis known as DAX which can help more advanced users create powerful analytical applications all inside Excel and PowerPivot. Finally, we will review the existing Data Mining technologies of SQL Server 2008 R2 thus completing the day’s thorough journey through the Microsoft BI Platform.

Tomorrow I will post information about the Second Preconference – Exchange 2010 in Depth.