Hands-On Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services, Second Edition Review

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Hands-On Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services, Second Edition ReviewThe database used in this book is not installing and keep on giving me an error when I try to install it. book has pretty good examples to practice. But the book became useless to me as I can not practice the examples given in the book.
Hands-On Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services, Second Edition Overview
Transform Raw Data Into Meaningful Business Intelligence with SSIS
Deploy and manage high-performance data transformation solutions across your enterprise using the step-by-step techniques in this fully revised guide. Hands-On Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services, Second Edition explains the tools and methods necessary to extract conclusive business intelligence from disparate corporate data. Learn how to build and secure packages, load and cleanse data, establish workflow, and optimize performance. Real-world examples, detailed illustrations, and hands-on exercises are included throughout this practical resource.

Build SSIS packages using the Import and Export Wizard and Business Intelligence Development Studio
Create Loop and Task Host Containers with Control Flow Designer
Administer SSIS from SQL Server Management Studio and dutil
Secure packages using encryption, roles, signatures, and permissions
Build-in memory lookups and transformations using the Data Flow Engine
Extend functionality using custom scripts and ActiveX components
Use SCD transformations to load data warehouses and data marts
Learn to build a Star Schema and Parallel Data Warehouse
Migrate Data Transformation Services 2000 and SSIS 2005 packages


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Business Intelligence Pocket Guide: A Concise Business Intelligence Strategy For Decision Support and Process Improvement Review

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Business Intelligence Pocket Guide: A Concise Business Intelligence Strategy For Decision Support and Process Improvement ReviewI learnt a lot about BI from this book. The real world scenarios are invaluable.
The book is easy to follow and kept my interest throughout.Business Intelligence Pocket Guide: A Concise Business Intelligence Strategy For Decision Support and Process Improvement Overview
The Business Intelligence Pocket Guide steps through the essential elements for creating a successful business intelligence capability in your organisation.

The book will appeal particularly to those in small and mid-cap companies who need practical advice expressed in business terms.

Inside the guide:

3 pillars of a business intelligence strategy
5 essential ingredients of every business intelligence project
6 concise chapters of practical advice

Written for the analyst, executive, manager, and technology professional alike, the Business Intelligence Pocket Guide is a jargon free and vendor neutral introduction to the opportunities and issues common to all business intelligence projects.


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Pentaho Solutions: Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing with Pentaho and MySQL Review

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Pentaho Solutions: Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing with Pentaho and MySQL ReviewJos and Roland have done a great job explaining the tools and technology of the Pentaho BI Platform in the context of building real world Business Intelligence applications. They have taken some very complicated and technical concepts and presented them in an easy to follow case study. The case study they chose is simple to understand yet filled with the same kinds of real world complexities that make BI applications difficult to deliver.
The "Getting Started with Pentaho" section has all the information and documentation you wish you could find neatly arranged on the Pentaho community site. They do an excellent job explaining the entire Pentaho application stack from collecting data to presenting information. The book could have stopped here, being the Pentaho missing manual, and still have been worth buying.
The next section, "Dimensional Modeling and Data Warehouse Design" is an very good introduction/refresher on hows and whys of building data warehouses, data marts and OLAP cubes. Again they have taken a subject that is broad and complex and presented it in a way that is easy to understand and apply. Where appropriate, they refer the reader to other resources available for more in-depth coverage of specific topics.
A data warehouse is useless until you can reliably get good, complete and accurate data into it. The section on "ETL and Data Integration" is another section that could easily stand on it's own. After an introduction to ETL and Pentaho Data Integration, they show how to populate the database used for the case study including populating time dimensions. Other real world topics touched upon include; change data capture, data validation, data cleansing and issues with generating dimension tables.
The last section covers transforming data into information via metadata, reporting, analysis services, data mining and dashboards. Each topic is covered by an introduction, explanation of the tools available and examples using data from the case study.
I like the way Roland and Jos combine general BI knowledge with tutorials on the Pentaho applications and tie it all together with an interesting case study giving you a chance to stop and play as you follow along. I also enjoyed the many side notes with tidbits of history and pointers to other resources. Overall I found this book both informative and enjoyable.
I'm a fifteen year veteran of building BI software, one of the original Pentaho developers and am currently the Pentaho community guy. I'm not affiliated with Jos, Roland or Wiley and receive no benefit from this book beyond the satisfaction of having Pentaho software be so well represented.
Doug Moran
Pentaho
Pentaho Solutions: Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing with Pentaho and MySQL OverviewYour all-in-one resource for using Pentaho with MySQL for Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing
Open-source Pentaho provides business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing solutions at a fraction of the cost of proprietary solutions. Now you can take advantage of Pentaho for your business needs with this practical guide written by two major participants in the Pentaho community.
The book covers all components of the Pentaho BI Suite. You'll learn to install, use, and maintain Pentaho-and find plenty of background discussion that will bring you thoroughly up to speed on BI and Pentaho concepts.
Of all available open source BI products, Pentaho offers the most comprehensive toolset and is the fastest growing open source product suite
Explains how to build and load a data warehouse with Pentaho Kettle for data integration/ETL, manually create JFree (pentaho reporting services) reports using direct SQL queries, and create Mondrian (Pentaho analysis services) cubes and attach them to a JPivot cube browser
Review deploying reports, cubes and metadata to the Pentaho platform in order to distribute BI solutions to end-users
Shows how to set up scheduling, subscription and automatic distribution

The companion Web site provides complete source code examples, sample data, and links to related resources.

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Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business Review

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Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business ReviewIn his timely book, Gulati provides CEOS and managers with a wakeup call and a practical tool kit they can use to re-organize their firms to thrive in increasingly turbulent economic conditions. The issues discussed in this book are of importance for small, large and even non-profits. Gulati has done an excellent job of writing in a very readable style that I believe will benefit many firms that are seeking ways to survive and thrive.
The core message of this book is that only those firms attain resilience that are truly able to place their customers at the center of their enterprise. However, implementing this strategy is not easy for most firms. Gulati notes that many of the firms which believe that they are customer centric by virtue of going through the motions of traditional market research may actually be deluding themselves. Even when they do solicit ideas from their customers, they do so through the lens of their products as their focus remains on how the customer experiences their products. Further, most firms get caught up in their day to day operations and processes and forget to keep the customer at the center of their enterprise. Unfortunately, customers "become after thoughts" because firms become distracted and blinded by the rigidity of their internal architecture.
Based on qualitative and quantitative research, Gulati explains that while many firms get locked in self-erected silos and thick internal walls, some firms thrive while embracing brutal competition and demanding customer. What distinguishes these firms?
To answer this critical question, Gulati distills lessons from a broad array of firms. He explains that the key differentiator of these successful firms is not just their curiosity and engagement with their customers and their problems, but the ability to actually turn some of those insights into action.
To achieve this high degree of "customer-centricity" Gulati advises firms to dismantle their rigid "inside-out" organizational architecture and adopt a customer focused "outside-in" mind set with an intense focus on understanding and serving the needs of their customers. Putting the customer in the driver's seat can be accomplished only by radical reorganization. This in turn comes about from their capacity to effectively coordinate the appropriate organizational, human, and social resources for creating products and services that satisfy the real needs of their customers. By becoming nimble and flexible, firms can foster "resilience" to achieve competitive advantage for thriving under adversity.
The book not only provides an answer to the WHY of resilience but also the HOW. Gulati peels away multiple layers to demystify the operative mental models as well as the structural and social architecture of exemplary resilient firms. He explains the features and processes that are related with the five key levers that need to be engaged in reorganization. The five levers are: coordination, cooperation, clout, capability and connection.
I particularly appreciated Gulati's efforts to simultaneously highlight the structural, human, and relationship aspect of each lever. Most important, he provides clear and practical guidance on how to appropriately engage these levers to achieve resilience and customer centricity.
This book is not recommended for leaders who wish to undertake incremental changes. Gulati is blunt in his assessment and advice. While acknowledging that creating resilient organizations is not impossible, he cautions that it is not easy because it requires long term perseverance and consistent effort. He also notes that re-organization can be fraught with heightened concerns and operational chaos. But the eventually rewards can be dramatically positive. Thus, he cautions leadership to be prepared to invest considerable energy in creating companywide commitment.
Since any organizational transformation journey must begin with honest self assessment, I suggest that CEO's and leaders read this book first. After taking a hard look and reorienting their personal mental models, they should require their entire staff to read it. They should then use this book to initiate an honest conversation within their organizations and start preparing their blue prints for achieving "customer-centricity".
Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business OverviewIn an era of raging commoditization and eroding profit margins, survival depends on resilience: staying one step ahead of your customers. Sure, most companies say they re customer-focused, but they don t deliver solutions to customers thorniest problems. Why? Because they re stymied by the rigid silos they re organized around. In Reorganize for Resilience, Ranjay Gulati reveals how resilient companies prosper both in good times and bad, driving growth and increasing profitability by immersing themselves in the lives of their customers. This book shows how resilient organizations cut through internal barriers that impede action, build bridges between warring divisions, and transform former competitors into collaborators.Based on more than a decade of research in a variety of industries, and filled with examples from companies including Cisco Systems, La Farge, Starbucks, Best Buy, and Jones Lang LaSalle, Gulati explores the five levers of resilience: Coordination: Connect, eradicate, or restructure silos to enable swift responses. Cooperation: Foster a culture that aligns all employees around the shared goals of customer solutions. Clout: Redistribute power to bridge builders and customer champions. Capability: Develop employees skills at tackling changing customer needs. Connection: Blend partners offerings with yours to provide unique customer solutions.Authoritative and practical, Reorganize for Resilience helps you walk the walk, not just talk the talk, of customer-centricity jump-starting a virtuous cycle of profits, growth, and competitive advantage.

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Data Modeling Made Simple: A Practical Guide for Business and IT Professionals, 2nd Edition Review

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Data Modeling Made Simple: A Practical Guide for Business and IT Professionals, 2nd Edition ReviewI think very highly of Data Modeling Made Simple (the first edition), so when this second edition came out I had great expectations - which were not only met but also exceeded. Although this second edition is more than twice the number of pages as the first edition, it is still an easy read.
Here are my favorite things about this book:
1.Clearly delivers on its ten objectives. Read the back cover and you will understand the key takeaways you will get after reading the book. After I read the book, I went back over each of these objectives and I was able to check each of these off as accomplished. Everything from justifying the model to building data models to assessing data models was knowledge I gleaned from the book. If you are interested in just one or a subset of these ten objectives, read the Read Me First section and it will reference the sections and chapters you need to read to meet your specific objective.
2.More examples more thoroughly presented. The first edition took a business card example from beginning to end. This edition further expands the business card example and adds several other examples including an ice cream example and many real world examples. The author uses spreadsheets to illustrate many modeling examples, and I too have found spreadsheets to be a very effective way to communicate data and business rules.
3.Data Model Scorecard. The first edition touched on the Scorecard which is the author's technique to reviewing a data model. This second edition goes into detail including providing the template which I can use on my modeling assignments to review my models.
4.Treating a dimensional model as more than just a physical data model. Many texts treat the dimensional as only a physical data model yet there is a business level that this book illustrates at both the subject area and logical levels.
5.Getting other Greats for free. Bill Inmon, Graeme Simsion, and Michael Blaha have all written chapters in this book. I have already starting using Simsion's technique of a diary on my assignments and found it very useful.
My only area for improvement would be to expand the book with more modeling conventions such as ORM and IDEF1X. There is a chapter on UML though that I did find informative. I question however if adding these extra notations would detract from the book's simplicity.
Overall, an excellent read that I would recommend to every business or techie that works with data.
Data Modeling Made Simple: A Practical Guide for Business and IT Professionals, 2nd Edition OverviewData Modeling Made Simple will provide the business or IT professional with a practical working knowledge of data modeling concepts and best practices. This book is written in a conversational style that encourages you to read it from start to finish and master these ten objectives:
Know when a data model is needed and which type of data model is most effective for each situation
Read a data model of any size and complexity with the same confidence as reading a book
Build a fully normalized relational data model, as well as an easily navigatable dimensional model
Apply techniques to turn a logical data model into an efficient physical design
Leverage several templates to make requirements gathering more efficient and accurate
Explain all ten categories of the Data Model Scorecard
Learn strategies to improve your working relationships with others
Appreciate the impact unstructured data has, and will have, on our data modeling deliverables
Learn basic UML concepts
Put data modeling in context with XML, metadata, and agile development


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The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability Review

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The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability ReviewAs this book's subtitle correctly indicates, Iansiti and Levien explain "what the new dynamics of business ecosystems mean for strategy, innovation, and sustainability." They are quite correct when pointing out that, in recent years, in industries as different as personal computers and personal care products, "companies [have] leveraged multiple organizations in distributed supply chains, integrated technological components from a variety of business alliances, collaborated with a number of channel partners to distribute their products, and leveraged complementary services from banks, insurance providers, or retailers." As a result, many industries have been forced to create or become involved in a fully networked structure, one "in which even the simplest product or service is now the result of collaboration among many different organizations." (In fact, decades ago, American Airlines devised his "hub and spoke" strategy. However, this really is not what Iansiti and Levien have in mind.) For example, Microsoft and Wal-Mart have a decisive competitive advantage in large measure because they are "keystone" companies in their respective ecosystems. More specifically,
Both "of these firms understand that their fate is shared with that of the other members of their business network. Rather than focussing primarily on their internal capabilities (as many of their competitors did), they emphasize the collective properties of the business networks in which they participate, and treat these more like organic [in italics] ecosystems [end italics] than traditional supply chain partners. They understand their individual impact on the health of these ecosystems and the respective impact of ecosystem health on their own performance...[For that reason] "a new, holistic approach to strategy is critical to an increasingly broad range of firms in our economy as they face the new set of challenges and responsibilities created by competing in business ecosystems."
How? Given the evolution of business ecosystems which are analogous to biological counterparts, organizations today, regardless of their size or nature
(1) must decide if they are a keystone or niche "player" (Please see Part I)
(2) then formulate strategies appropriate to that role (Please see Part II)
(3) and finally, establish and build on one of three "foundations of sustainable performance in a business ecosystem" (Please see Part III)
"Keystone" companies such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Dell, and eBay create value within their respective ecosystems which is shared with other participants in that system. More specifically, they create high-value, sharable assets; leverage direct customer connections; create and manage physical and information hubs; support uniform information standards; create, package, and share state-of-the-art tools and building blocks for innovation; establish and maintain performance standards; build or acquire financial assets for operating leverage; reduce uncertainty by centralizing and coordinating communication, and reduce complexity by providing powerful platforms.
Obviously, few organizations can be (or should even attempt to be) a "keystone" or "dominator" company. According to the authors, keystone wannabes tend to pursue two quite different: "hub landlords" (e.g. Enron) extract as much value as possible from an ecosystem or ecosystem domain without integrating forward to control it whereas "hub dominators" (e.g. Apple) integrate vertically or horizontally to manage and control an ecosystem or ecosystem domain. Most organizations will correctly a strategy as a "niche" player by specializing in capabilities which differentiate them within an ecosystem domain. "Niche players are naturally dependent on other businesses. The essential step in defining a good niche strategy is therefore to analyze the firm's ecosystem and map out the characteristics of its key stone and dominator players." (Please see Chapters Six and Seven for a complete explanation of all this.)
All organizations involved in a given ecosystem must, of course, rigorously monitor but also take an active role in nourishing that system's health so as to promote and facilitate the leveraging of an enduring and evolving core. However, it remains for keystones to provide both the vision and the leadership needed, especially in response to market design, operation, and competition. They must also facilitate and support integration, innovation, and adaptation within their ecosystem. "This is the price that keystones must pay for their privileged position at the hub of a business network and as owners of enduring assets: Keystones [in italics] must [end italics] manage the health of their ecosystems as a key business strategy. The challenge for each niche player is to decide in which ecosystem to become actively involved with which keystones to be associated in a strategic alliance.
I wholly agree with Iansiti and Levien that "We are bound together by the nature of the relationships among products, technologies, markets, and innovation. Leveraging these relationships is critical to enhance firm productivity, to protect organizations from disruption, and to enhance their ability to innovate, evolve, and adapt. This means that no firm, product, or technology can be an island: No firm can afford to act alone, and no products can be designed in isolation." Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Christensen, Anthony, and Roth's Seeing What's Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change as well as Kaplan and Norton's The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment.The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability OverviewToday, many companies operate within a complex network of firms that all depend on each other for success. In this book, authors Marco Iansiti and Roy Levien use the powerful example of biological ecosystems to show how companies can leverage these emerging business networks for long-term success. The book's title, "The Keystone Advantage", is taken directly from biology - it refers to "keystone species", which proactively maintain the healthy functioning of their entire ecosystem for a simple reason: their own survival depends on it. In the same way, say the authors, companies can protect and ensure their own success by deliberately fostering the combined health of the network they operate in.

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Business Dashboards: A Visual Catalog for Design and Deployment Review

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Business Dashboards: A Visual Catalog for Design and Deployment ReviewThis book succinctly explains correct BI and dashboard design, then provides a comprehensive blueprint to design and produce a BI enabled information management system. I am currently using it to integrate BI into my current projects and to educate my principles. It is like having access to an experienced BI consultant.Business Dashboards: A Visual Catalog for Design and Deployment OverviewFocusing on designing the right dashboards for use in an organization, this timely, full color book reveals how to successfully deploy dashboards by building the optimal software architecture and dashboard design. In addition, it describes the value of this popular technology to a business and how it can have a significant impact on performance improvement. A unique collection of more than 120 dashboard images are organized by category. One of the chapters provides a step-by-step description of the key performance indicator (KPIs) design process. One of the appendices contains more than 1,000 examples of KPIs to help design the content of dashboards. The book also describes all the steps in a dashboard implementation and offers related advice.
Nils Rasmussen (West Hollywood, CA) is cofounder and Principal of Solver, Inc. Claire Y. Chen (Long Beach, CA) is a Senior Business Intelligence Architect at Solver, Inc. Manish Bansal (Irvine, CA) is Vice President of Sales at Solver, Inc.

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Pentaho Kettle Solutions: Building Open Source ETL Solutions with Pentaho Data Integration Review

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Pentaho Kettle Solutions: Building Open Source ETL Solutions with Pentaho Data Integration ReviewI wanted to do this review much sooner but I've been too busy using the book.
Jos and Roland have taken the proven formula they used in Pentaho Solutions and focused it on ETL and Kettle, AKA Pentaho Data Integration. Their magic formula is to seamlessly mix a product users guide with equal parts of real world examples and best practices training. With the addition of Matt Casters, Mr Kettle himself, the depth of knowledge in the book is now equal to it's breadth. The result is a book that you can read cover to cover and learn about all aspects of building and deploying ETL solutions, and is equally useful as a day to day reference.
The book is divided into five parts starting with an obligatory Getting Started. Getting Started, however, goes beyond the traditional "here's how to install it guide" and presents a nice tutorial on the sometimes confusing terminology and practices used in the data world. It explains how Kettle fits into this world and talks about the key concepts in Kettle. The first part ends with an excellent example ETL solution to populate a non trivial yet easily understood star schema. The example covers fact and dimension tables, change data capture, generating date dimensions and the ETL jobs and transforms required to populate the data.
The organization of the second part of the book is based on the 34 subsystems of ETL as defined by Ralph Kimball in "The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit", considered by many (including me) as the bible of data warehousing. For each subsystem, Kettle Solutions refers to the original chapters that describe the topic and provides examples on how to solve those issues using Kettle. It is a must have for anyone struggling with the concepts presented in the Kimble book. For the rare cases that Kettle does not have a straight forward solution, the book points you to other open source software that can get the job done. The authors stay true to the task of helping the ETL developer solve real problems regardless of whether Kettle is the complete solution or not.
The first two parts take up about half the book and if the authors stopped there, it would be worthy of at least 4 stars. But like most software development, the base code (in this case, the jobs and transforms) are the easy part and usually the most fun. The real hard stuff comes when you have deploy your solution into the real world, keep it running, add new capability, explain it to others and be confident that it is actually working. Part three walks you through the ETL lifecycle with best practices and pitfalls by 3 people who do (or have done) this for a living. Everything is covered from development and testing through documentation, monitoring, migrating and auditing. Part four finishes what part 3 started by covering performance tuning and scaling with topics like clustering, partitioning, cloud and real time ETL.
The last part is my favorite since it covers the advanced stuff like writing Kettle plugins, complex data formats, integrating data from web services, dynamic ETL, embedding Kettle, etc. There are many ways to extend Kettle via defined APIs and Kettle Solutions covers them all.
As you can probably tell I like the book and I use it often. I have the luxury of being able to ask Matt questions when I run into trouble. After writing the book, he now answers "it's in the book" and needless to say, it is. I can honestly say, having this book sitting on your desk is better than having Matt sitting on your desk. Kettle Solutions is also available for Kindle which, much to my surprise, has proven very useful. I use it from my iPhone and Mac via Kindle app and despite some of the Kindle app limitations like cut and paste and a good search, it is always available as a reference. The links are live which is a bonus.
I'm a fifteen year veteran of building BI software, one of the original Pentaho developers and am currently the Pentaho community guy. I work with Matt Casters, I'm not professionally affiliated with Jos, Roland or Wiley and receive no benefit from this book beyond the satisfaction of having Pentaho software be so well represented. I do consider all three of them good personal friends and I provide this review with the risk that it may greatly inflate their heads.
Doug Moran
PentahoPentaho Kettle Solutions: Building Open Source ETL Solutions with Pentaho Data Integration OverviewA complete guide to Pentaho Kettle, the Pentaho Data lntegration toolset for ETL
This practical book is a complete guide to installing, configuring, and managing Pentaho Kettle. If you're a database administrator or developer, you'll first get up to speed on Kettle basics and how to apply Kettle to create ETL solutions—before progressing to specialized concepts such as clustering, extensibility, and data vault models. Learn how to design and build every phase of an ETL solution.
Shows developers and database administrators how to use the open-source Pentaho Kettle for enterprise-level ETL processes (Extracting, Transforming, and Loading data)
Assumes no prior knowledge of Kettle or ETL, and brings beginners thoroughly up to speed at their own pace
Explains how to get Kettle solutions up and running, then follows the 34 ETL subsystems model, as created by the Kimball Group, to explore the entire ETL lifecycle, including all aspects of data warehousing with Kettle
Goes beyond routine tasks to explore how to extend Kettle and scale Kettle solutions using a distributed "cloud"

Get the most out of Pentaho Kettle and your data warehousing with this detailed guide—from simple single table data migration to complex multisystem clustered data integration tasks.

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Applied SAP BI 7.0 Web Reports: Using BEx Web Analyzer and Web Application Designer Review

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Applied SAP BI 7.0 Web Reports: Using BEx Web Analyzer and Web Application Designer ReviewI confess I'm disappointed. I already own Peter Jones' other book "SAP Business Information Warehouse Reporting: Building Better BI with SAP BI 7.0". That book is mostly about the query designer and is twice as thick. I gave it 5 stars and it deserved them all.
His newest book hs only half as many pages. After listing all the web items and the descriptions for all their parameters there isn't much space left. You can read all this in SAP's online documentation (SAP Library). Perhaps it is presented a bit more nicely in the book but I'm not impressed.
Of course it is not just a rewrite of the original documentation. Mr Jones sprinkles (very sparsely) some comments and insights of his own.

I had been hoping for an in-depth tour of the more difficult and complex bits:
Which commands should you use to exchange information between which web items? (This does not always work the way you think it should.)
How does one use JAVA Script?
How does one use ABAP in the Custom Extension Web Item?
How does one integrate BSPs including ABAP with Web Reports?
And of course, all of this should include numerous examples.
There is almost nothing on these topics.
The only chapter I found interesting is one titled "Developing High-Impact Dashboards". This is interesting because the examples include explanations on what looks good and what doesn't, what helps the user to understand the report and what is confusing.
The final chapter on the new BusinessObjects tools is just a very brief overview explaining in which cases you could use them. Nobody would be able to use one of the BO tools if all he or she had were this book.
Could this book be useful to anybody? Perhaps to beginners who don't like the SAP's own user manuals?Applied SAP BI 7.0 Web Reports: Using BEx Web Analyzer and Web Application Designer Overview
Deliver SAP BI 7.0 Web Reports
Distribute integrated, accurate, and timely data across your enterprise using the Web-based reporting components in SAP BI. Written by an SAP insider, Applied SAP BI 7.0 Web Reports: Using BEx Web Analyzer and Web Application Designer shows you how to construct effective queries, create HTML-based reports, and combine key analytics into a dashboard-style interface. Learn how to import data from multiple providers, configure custom templates, track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and incorporate JavaScript and XHTML. Security, troubleshooting, and third-party tools are also discussed in this comprehensive guide.
Essential BI skills for business professionals:
Define queries and export them as links with BEx Web Analyzer
Create BI-specific HTML pages using Web Application Designer and Report Designer
Construct reusable templates, shortcuts, and Web items
Design high-impact BI dashboards, cockpits, and billboards
Integrate toolbars,drilldown capabilities, and drag-and-drop features
Publish reporting objects with the Broadcaster and Broadcast Wizard
Migrate existing systems and reports to the SAP BI 7.0 platform
Add BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, and JavaScript components

Peter Jones, MBA, is a principal/platinum business applications consultant with SAP Professional Services Consulting. He has more than 11 years of consulting and educational experience in a variety of strategic and leadership roles. Jones is the author of SAP Business Information Warehouse Reporting.

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Pro SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Solutions Review

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Pro SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Solutions ReviewOne of the best SharePoint 2010 books that I have seen. Here are the 2 main reasons I decided to buy the book:
1) Specific domain expertise around BI using SharePoint, and not a general SharePoint book that tries to boil the ocean by covering many large topics within one chapter each (but leaves you without enough in-depth coverage and expertise developed in any area).
2) I have heard Srini Sistla speak at a couple of SharePoint events on the east coast, and he knows a lot about SharePoint development. I usually buy books by authors who I am familiar with and that I know are active in the SharePoint community.
I'm glad I got it! Here is what I think and what I liked most:
* I felt like I learned something tangible after each chapter. Plenty of practical examples, and step-by-step instructions, to balance out theory.
* Good if you are looking for a practical and technical book to start using some of SharePoint's BI technology hands-on. It's not a book that will teach you BI, so don't look for it to teach you data warehousing and BI like a Ralph Kimball book would . This is more about applying SharePoint related technologies for common BI needs. Chapter 1 does go through the basics of BI, and an introduction to some of the related pieces in the Microsoft stack related to BI (SQL Server 2010, SSIS, etc).
* There aren't many books out there that have a thorough chapter on new SharePoint 2010 capabilities from a BI perspective, let alone a book focusing on them holistically (with real working code, case studies, etc). Coverage of Visio Services was a favorite, as there is so much new power with SharePoint 2010 that isn't covered much elsewhere (even by Microsoft). This book also covers in detail PerformancePoint Services, Excel Services (and Power Pivot), Reporting Services and Business Connectivity Services (BCS).
* The book also does a good job showing the inter-connectivity with other Microsoft technologies, without going off-track. The other technologies always relate to the topic at hand, and show you practical examples that you can leverage (such as with WCF, Office Applications, PowerShell, etc)
* Learning about BCS is a must for any enterprise that wants to properly leverage what SharePoint 2010 can offer. This book will leave you with new skills and clear examples of how they can be leveraged by 2010's BI suite, as well envisioning how the technologies and principles from Chapter 4 can be leveraged elsewhere. The BCS chapter also teaches you how to utilize Enterprise Content Types (ECT) with SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010.
* You can run the examples yourself since it's using the Adventure Works database (book's code is online as well).
* Structure of the book: Each of the SharePoint BI Services (Visio, Excel, PerformancePoint, SSRS, BCS, etc) have one dedicated chapter a piece. Each of them start with an introduction and a clear overview of "what you will learn" by the end of the chapter. What I really appreciated is also going over any setup and configuration to get you started to use that Service (so it's all in one book, and no need to surf the web for setup details or find an Admin book). Next you have what the authors call a Problem Case, that outlines the goal and solution (step-by-step). There are usually more than one Problem Case in a chapter, and they all build on one another (so the set of Problem Cases are like a larger Case Study). This approach, and the practical and fun cases, make it very easy to follow along and actually "do it" and to help learn and retain the knowledge. Lastly, the chapters end with a 3-block roadmap that summarizes how all the pieces fit together (sort of like a summary slide in a presentation).
* Audience: This book is useful for anyone who works on SharePoint projects and plans to use it's BI components. It also addresses aspects that DBAs, Administrators and Architects would want to know as well. So many roles can use this book, and not just developers.
All in all a great book that I have enjoyed and learned a lot from, and that will serve as a handy resource for frequent reference as well.Pro SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Solutions Overview
What differentiates good organizations from bad? The good ones are those that take advantage of the data they already have and use the feedback that business intelligence gives them to improve their processes. SharePoint is now the delivery platform of choice for Microsoft's business intelligence products, and in this book we reveal how to get the most from developingbusiness intelligencesolutions on SharePoint 2010. To understand the variousbusiness intelligenceofferings in SharePoint 2010, you need to understand the core SQL Serverbusiness intelligenceconcepts, andthe first part of the book presentsa comprehensive tutorial on those fundamentals. Pro SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Solutions then focuseson specific SharePoint business intelligence investments including:
Visio Services
Excel Services
SQL Server Reporting Services
Business Connectivity Services
PerformancePoint Services
All of this is done using a practical, hands-on format, with enough examples to empower you to use these products in your real-life projects. As compelling as SharePoint and SQL Serverbusiness intelligenceare together, the challenge always has been finding people who understand both SharePoint and SQL Server well enough to deliver suchbusiness intelligencesolutions. With this book in hand, you become part of that select group.

What you'll learn
Understand the fundamentals and framework of business intelligence.
Learn how tointegrateVisio Services, and discoverthe developer story.
Practice working with the Secure Store Service.
Experience authoring and publishing reports using Report Builder and how to re-purpose published reports in Reporting Services.
Glean practicaladvice about deploying and developing forPerformancePoint Services in SharePoint 2010.
Learn about the advances in Excel Services and PowerPivot, and their application within SharePoint to practical situations.
Gaina deep understandingof the Business Data Services featureset in SharePoint 2010.

Who this book is for
This book offersSharePoint developersanessential BI foundation experience andan introduction toSQL Server 2008 tools for business intelligence. This book will also benefit SQL Server developersand administrators who require knowledge of setting up the basic infrastructure on the SharePoint platform for business intelligence.

Table of Contents
Business Intelligence Basics
Visio Services
Reporting Services
Business Connectivity Services
Excel Services
PerformancePoint Services


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The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Extracting, Cleanin Review

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The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Extracting, Cleanin ReviewIn this book Ralph lays down a framework for constructing the DW ETL. This is useful not just in constructing quality ETL processes, but also because Ralph's works tend to 'set' standards in data warehousing. The format of this book is similar to the Lifecycle Toolkit. Ralph takes a very staged, logical approach to the material. Some sections are just great e.g. the chapters on Extraction and Development. A small amount of the material is repeated from the Lifecycle Toolkit and Dimensional Modeling books, but no more than is needed to make this book stand on its own.
Also like the other books, this one takes a vendor agnostic approach. While this may increase the shelf-life of the book, I would have appreciated some comparisons between the major vendors out there today.
Overall: I recommend this one as a buy, even if you have Ralph's other books.
The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Extracting, Cleanin Overview
Cowritten by Ralph Kimball, the world's leading data warehousing authority, whose previous books have sold more than 150,000 copies
Delivers real-world solutions for the most time- and labor-intensive portion of data warehousing-data staging, or the extract, transform, load (ETL) process
Delineates best practices for extracting data from scattered sources, removing redundant and inaccurate data, transforming the remaining data into correctly formatted data structures, and then loading the end product into the data warehouse
Offers proven time-saving ETL techniques, comprehensive guidance on building dimensional structures, and crucial advice on ensuring data quality


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