Jen Stirrup's Business Intelligence Blog

TechEd North America and TechEd Europe - my speaker preparation, thoughts and my screensaver!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:29:00 +0000

I'm delighted to say that I'm presenting at both TechEd North America, and TechEd Europe in June 2012! I will be giving my talks on Business Intelligence and Data Visualisation in SQL Server 2012. I'm looking forward to these events.

It is particularly special for me, since I'd always dreamed of going to TechEd one day, and now I'm attending both conferences as a speaker! This is a dream come true for me. I'm flying out to Orlando, back for one week, and then heading out to Amsterdam.

There is a real sense of occasion in preparations for both events. The level and detail of organisation has been absolutely incredible, right down to the finest detail of logistics. There has been teams of people making sure that everything is going right, and from the speaker perspective, I've been repeatedly awed by the care and attention given to making the event a success. There are too many people to name (and I haven't asked permission to name people!) but I'd like to thank everyone who's helped me in my preparation for TechEd North America and TechEd Europe.

If you're coming along to TechEd North America and/or TechEd Europe, then please do stop by and say hello. I'm speaking, and I will also be helping out at the booths so bring your questions along and get help from us!

My TechEd North America session - I will be presenting on Monday 11th June at 4:45pm, or 16:45 if you prefer your numbers in 24 hour clock! The Agenda Builder for TechEd North America is here, and I recommend that you use it. There are so many great sessions, it is hard to keep track.

My TechEd Europe session - I will be presenting on Thursday 28th June at 10:15am. To build your agenda for TechEd Europe, please visit this link.

At these events, it can be difficult to find time to go and visit the sponsors, but I always find that it is worth the effort. Remember that these people love Microsoft technologies as much as you do, and they are accustomed to getting the technology to work in customer environments. They might be able to provide you with advice to solve a business problem, or to foresee a business problem which you didn't know existed. For TechEd North America, the Partners and Sponsors (TechEd North America) link can be found here. For TechEd Europe, the Sponsors and Exhibitors (Europe) list can be found here.

Social Events - there are social events at TechEd. For example, at TechEd Europe, there are a number of social events. For example, on Tuesday 26th June, there is a Welcome Reception, and on Wednesday 27th there is a Delegate Party.

At TechEd North America, there is a Women in IT Luncheon with awesome speaker Catherine Kaputa and I'll be there to hear the 'people' perspective in Technology. I help to organise SQLPass events for 'Women in Technology' in Europe as part of the SQLPass organisation, so I'll be very interested to see the TechEd perspective too.

At TechEd North America, the closing party will involve a visit to Universal's Islands of Adventure® theme park. That will be lots of fun!

My only (unsolicited) piece of advice: make the most of TechEd, don't be shy! I love my subject, and I love the challenge of fitting technology to the business need.

The SQL Server 2012 motto of 'further, faster, forward' applies across the Microsoft technologies, and TechEd is the right place to pick everyone's brains!

And if you're wondering what my screensaver is going to be....

I love this song, this video and IE9. So it has to be done, although I will have it on 'silent'!

Ilook forward to seeing you there.

Precons: What we learn by listening

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:21:00 +0000

When words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain. (Shakespeare, Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1)

This quotation, from Shakespeare's Richard II, sums up a lot of my thinking about Business Intelligence generally. It's always about people. As a consultant, presenter, speaker or panellist, I'm there to listen as well as talk. I have posted my Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence pdf notes here. If you cannot access it, please let me know at jen.stirrup [at] copperblueconsulting dot com.

I used the slides as the basis of my Precon in Poland at the Poland SQLDay event. The precon is mainly demo, and trying to solve delegates' business problems on the day. I like to try and find suggest a few common business problems, and demonstrate different ways I've solved them.

As a Data Visualisation practitioner, I believe in visualisation - but I also believe in listening, too. I do not like to PowerPoint people to death. I like to do end-to-end - so I start from the ground up. In other words, I set out with the business problem, and then walk through to the end result. Sometimes these business problems are issues which delegates didn't know that they had, until they've thought about it whilst attending the precon! I like to try and do useful things that people can apply to their own environments when they get home. I always have my own ideas about things that I'd like to show people, but I welcome attendees to bring their own thoughts and issues about their current and future business problems. After all, Business Intelligence is about people.

Since I do a lot of the demo work pitched at the audience needs, I don't have that many slides. I can produce more if I need to do so, but I always try and get a balance between demo and slides.

In this way, although I'm talking a lot during the day to the delegates, I am also listening to the delegates as well. I believe that this is vital to the success of the day. If I can help with a specific business problem that the other delegates are interested in, then this is a good day for me since I've made a difference somewhere.

People often ask me: how can you get up on stage, and speak in front of so many people? I don't hold with the 'I talk, you applaud' school of presentation at all. Here is my answer:

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. Winston Churchill

Sometimes I get questions that I don't know the answer. In SQL Server, I now think that it covers such a wide arena of users, that it is no longer possible to know everything about it unless you actually work for Microsoft (and I don't).

Fundamentally, however, I have to agree with Hemingway: to listen, you've got to want to hear the message. I always respect my delegates. Even if they're not the ones talking, they live, breathe and sleep SQL Server and related technologies all day, every day. They deserve our respect and in order to serve them best, it is up to me to listen. So my slide deck isn't fulsome; but I hope that the attendees got something out of the day, and it was my pleasure to work with them.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen. Ernest Hemingway.

Women In Technology Panel, Wroclaw, Poland

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 10:41:00 +0000

Last week, I was privileged to participate as a panellist and co-organiser in the Women in Technology Panel in Poland, Eastern Europe. A list of the other panellists can be found here. In particular, I would like to thank Gosia Borzecka for her help and hard work in making the event a success. I'd also like to thank Tobias Koprowski for suggesting the idea for the Poland SQLDay event, and for his support. I'd also like to thank Maciej Pilecki and the rest of the Poland team for their organisation in making it happen.

I'd also like to say a big Thank You to SQLPass (website | Twitter) for their support in providing us with a set of their SQLPass Summit 2011 DVDs. As someone who has the DVDs for 2011 and 2010, I can say that they offer fantastic learning by video.

We had a record number of attendees: I counted 63 attendees, with only 7 women (excluding panellists) attending. I am delighted to say that 56 men attended, and only a handful of these gentlemen said that they worked beside female technologists. I would like to thank everyone who attended for their lively and interesting commentary.

The topic of discussion concentrated mainly on attracting younger women and girls into STEM disciplines at school and university, and then retaining women in these disciplines throughout their working careers.

One excellent proposal was put forward by Carmen Pentek, who explained that she'd participated in a mentoring program at university in Austria. In the program, women in the senior years at University mentored the younger years in a voluntary informal maths club, where the younger women had the freedom to ask questions related to mathematics, form friendships with other STEM women, or obtain advice on a range of other topics from the senior women. Personally, I think that this is a fantastic idea since it provides role models for the younger women in addition to providing practical study support.

One thing was very clear to me: the Polish community prize their education system, and feel passionately that their system should prepare Polish children to go out into the workplace and make a difference in their world. They realise that it enables their children to succeed and do well, and there is a very strong work ethic. It was good to see that this value of education applied also to girls as well as boys, and the audience were very enthusiastic about improving subjects such as maths, sciences and computing.

As a final note: a bit of fun :) Gosia organised a commemoration mug for our visit, and this was a very special gift for me. I have enclosed the photo here. This always makes me smile, and it is too 'special' for me to use, so I keep it on my desk!

As a final note, I'd like to say a huge thank you to the Polish community for their generous welcome and I look forward to seeing them again in the future.

Psychology, and its impact on Microsoft Books Online

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sun, 20 May 2012 20:31:00 +0000

In case you haven't seen it, Books Online is the Microsoft online Help facility for everything that they produce. Books Online has a problem - how do they ensure that they produce fit-for-purpose material that is effective, so as many people as possible?

I've been giving training courses for 15 years now, in a range of topics from Artificial Intelligence, Business Intelligence, Tableau and SQL Server, for example. Training is hard work, but it can be a lot of fun if you have an engaged, interested audience. I've held precons for SQLBits, for example, and also for SQLDay in Poland. I'm also holding a training course in London on 30th May, on Data Visualisation and SQL Server 2012, and you can register here.

In order to be an effective trainer, I try to identify people's learning styles. According to some psychological theory, such as Total Recall, by Joan Minninger, people have three different types of memory: Auditory, Visual and Kinesthetic. Basically, people learn and remember new material in different ways.

In my experience, I broadly divide people into three groups, dependent on the way that they intake new information.

- auditory - the listeners - Jimmy Carter, for example, preferred to take his information in verbally. His advisors would tell him what he needed to know

- visual - Winston Churchill preferred to take his information in by reading. He would receive memos from his advisors

- doers - people who like to take in information by doing things themselves. I learn like this. I will throw away any manual you might give me, and just ask you for the login and password. I'll give myself a task, and fish around until I've sussed it.

Remember that I'm trying to 'hit the mark' for as many of my class as possible, since I'm only with them for a few days. This is just my rough analysis, and I realise, of course, that the same person will use different learning styles dependent on the material that they are learning.

I think that the Books Online team at Microsoft have a difficult job. They need to produce materials that reach the widest types of learners possible; the auditory, visual and the doers. So, a video might suit the 'listeners' and some of the 'readers', but the 'doers' might not want to spend time looking at a video. I think that they produce material to try and reach all audiences, and I like some of the new look sites for Power View, for example.

In order to provide positive feedback, I've started to give Community Content feedback back to the Books Online folks. You can also be engaged, by adding comments to the bottom of the page. I don't expect people to agree with all my comments, but I do it in the hope that it might be useful.

I hope that this helps, and have fun reading about SQL Server!

Here's why I'm travelling 4735 miles to go to SQLRally Dallas!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:27:00 +0000

I'm hugely honoured to be speaking at SQLRally Dallas on Friday May 11th. My subject is 'Business Intelligence and Azure: SSIS and SSRS Focus' and I'll be doing a demo which shows, 'end to end', how we can take some data, load it into the cloud usng SSIS, and then review it in SSRS.

The whole Schedule is here so I hope you'll think about coming along! There is an awesome list of speakers, and you can find the full Twitter list here.

Now, I'll be travelling 4735.87 miles - or 4112.63 nautical miles - or 7621.65 kilometres to travel from London to Dallas. I've never been to Dallas before, so I must admit that I'm nervous. I'm looking forward to meeting old friends and making new ones!

However, I'm travelling all that way to see my SQLFamily. I love being part of the SQLPass community. So if it is your first time at SQLRally - please come and say 'hi'! I've never been to Dallas before, so I'm new too! Please make sure to say 'hi' at the Community Corner.

I attended SQLRally Nordic last year in Stockholm, Sweden, and it was just an immense experience. It felt like home since there were so many people there, who were passionate about all and any aspect of SQL Server, and I would love to go again. At SQLRally Nordic, I unleashed my inner Viking. In Dallas, I'll unleash my inner Texan, and I'm looking forward to joining in all the community fun!

There's a serious side to SQLRally too. There's a range of real experts, willing to share their knowledge and experience with you. I will share my knowledge on Azure, which I hope will help to make people's jobs a bit easier by ramping them from zero to hero in Azure, pretty quickly! I will also be learning as well; there is an awesome list of speakers and I'm really looking forward to it.

Without further ado, I've popped a lot of SQLRally information here for you, and I do hope you'll register. If you see a little Scottish woman looking a bit lost, please come and say hi because it will be me!

Register by April 29 to receive the special rate of $399!

SQLPASS have reserved May 10-11 for the most value-packed 2 days of SQL Server and BI training and networking you’ll find anywhere. Join over 500 SQL Server professionals and some of the best known SQL Server speakers from across North America for:

60 real-world technical sessions across 5 tracks - the schedule is now live!
Answers to your most pressing questions in the SQL Server Clinic
Nonstop networking with industry experts, Microsoft employees, and peers

SQLPASS are also offering these 7 deep-dive pre-conference seminars taking place prior to the conference on May 8-9 - get a sneak peek at the pre-cons in this Q&A series with our speakers.
Precon costs $219.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

How to be a DBA - A Utility Belt of tools
Database Administration (DBA)
Tjay Belt (Imagine Learning)
Chris Shaw (AMS)

Storage For the DBA
Database Administration (DBA)
Denny Cherry (mrdenny.com)

Leadership and Team Management Skills for the Database Professional
Professional Development (PD)
Kevin Kline (Quest Software)

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

99 Tips for Tuning and Enhancing Analysis Services
Business Intelligence (BI)
Greg Galloway (Artis Consulting)

Demystifying Database Administration Best Practices
Database Administration (DBA)
Argenis Fernandez (Microsoft)
Robert Davis (Idera)

How to Perform a SQL Server Health Check
Database Administration (DBA)
Brad McGehee (Red Gate Software)

Relational Database Design Workshop
Development (DEV)
Louis Davidson (drsql.org)

Still need approval to attend? Check out our tips on how to justify your attendance.
Register for SQLRally Dallas today!

SSRS 2012 CTP Shared Datasets in SQL Azure

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:59:00 +0000

In preparation for my SQLRally Presentation in Dallas in May 2012, I've been investigating SQL Azure, using the SQL Server Data Tools to create SQL Server Reporting Services 2012 reports. One issue you might encounter is that your report runs perfectly well in SSDT, but does not run when it's been deployed to SQL Azure. You might get the following error message:

The report server cannot process the report or shared dataset. The shared data source '' for the report server or SharePoint site is not valid. Browse to the server or site and select a shared data source. (rsInvalidDataSourceReference)

The resolution for this issue is that Shared Dataset don't seem to work properly, at the time of writing. The workaround is straightforward - don't use a Shared Dataset. Here are some pointers:

- Make sure your data source is pointing to your SQL Azure Reporting Services Report Server URL. Test your connection works, and that it is using the correct login.

- When you create your report, don't use a Shared DataSet. Instead, once you've set up your Data Source, go straight to creating your Report by right-clicking on the Reports folder and selecting the option 'Add new report'.

You can then deploy the report to Azure, and it should work fine.

As an aside, you could try your report out on a mobile device. If you need any instructions, just take a look here.

I hope that helps! Any questions, please leave a comment.
Jen

Power View outside of Sharepoint Enterprise

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:57:00 +0000

I often hear requests for Power View to be made available outside of Sharepoint. Currently, Power View does require Sharepoint Enterprise 2010 and SQL Server 2012. I see that people are starting to love Power View. I love Powr View since I think it is facilitating businesses to ask the different questions of their data.

If you want Power View outside of Sharepoint Enterprise, then go and vote for my Connect case here. You can have input to the roadmap by going to the Connect case and leaving your thoughts there. I do know that the Microsoft team do listen carefully to Connect cases, but I don't see Connect being adopted widely by folks in the community to feedback their suggestions.

The system requirements for Power View can be found here.

Personally, I love Sharepoint and I've implemented Microsoft Sharepoint Business Intelligence solutions that really deliver value to enterprises. Yes, I am a Sharepoint fan! However, I do sympathise with small customers who do not have Sharepoint Enteprise, but would love to have some of the features.

Power View is still 'early days' and I accept that other packages such as Tableau are much more mature. The debate of Sharepoint in Business Intelligence rages on elsewhere, and it isn't the point of this blog here; instead, I'm focusing on this particular request for Power View outside of Sharepoint, which I hear often at User Groups and via my Twitter conversations.

Technically, Power View is a Reporting Services Add-on. If you want more information on Power View, you can look at the Microsoft material here. I am not copying and pasting the information - I hate it when people do that to me! - so you can head over and take a look at the official Power View documentation.

I'd like to add that the Power View training materials are superb, so well done to the team who've carefully produced this documentation. You can look at some of my Power View posts on my blog for my presentations, articles and so on.

MSDN Analysis Services 2012 Tutorial and AdventureWorks Codeplex files Re-Pointer

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:39:00 +0000

I believe that the MSDN Analysis Services tutorial and AdventureWorks files on Codeplex aren't quite matching up.

For the tutorial 'Using a Modified Version of the Analysis Services Tutorial Project' (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms166582.aspx), the reader is instructed to download the file 'SSAS Multidimensional Model Projects SQL Server 2012.zip'

The reader is directed to 'Browse to the Lesson 4 Start folder' but this isn't contained in 'SSAS Multidimensional Model Projects SQL Server 2012.zip'

Instead, you find the folder 'Lesson 4 Start' in 'Analysis Services Tutorial SQL Server 2012.zip'

I hope that helps someone to get five minutes of their life back :)

-Jen

Cross-Browser support for Power View

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 08:02:00 +0000

Currently, Power View is supported by a number of browsers: IE, Safari, and Firefox. What about Chrome? I've opened a Microsoft Connect case about this, and you can go and vote it up or down here.

For the full list, please take a quick look at the Microsoft documentation. I've taken an excerpt from the original Microsoft 'Planning for Reporting Services Browser Support' article, and here is the table below:

Browser	Windows 7	Windows Vista	Windows Server 2008 R2	Windows Server 2008	Macintosh OS 10.6 – 10.7 (Intel-based)
Internet Explorer 9	32-bit, 64-bit	32-bit, 64-bit	32-bit, 64-bit	32-bit, 64-bit	Not supported
Internet Explorer 8	32-bit, 64-bit	32-bit, 64-bit	32-bit, 64-bit	32-bit, 64-bit	Not supported
Internet Explorer 7	Not supported	32-bit, 64-bit	Not supported	32-bit, 64-bit	Not supported
Firefox 7	32-bit	32-bit	Not supported	32-bit	Not supported
Safari 5	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported	32-bit, 64-bit

Chrome isn't listed as one of the supported browsers. So, if you try and use Chrome for Power View, then it wouldn't be supported and you may run into issues. This does not mean that it doesn't work, and you might try it out and find that it works perfectly.

However, I have run into issues at a client site in using Sharepoint, where the default browser was Chrome rather than IE. The issues were easily resolved by switching to a supported browser.

I guess that the technical authors don't list out unsupported browsers since it might be 'chartjunk' to do so. In other words, in order to keep the document as straightforward as possible, they've just listed out the browsers that they do support, rather than the plethora of browsers available that they haven't tested for Power View. Other browsers include SimplePie, Lightning, Rockmelt, to name a few. Then you might also want to include 'preview' browsers as well, such as Bing Preview, whereby you 'preview' a page before you link on it. It would be nice to do this in Power View as well.

In order to assess the requirement for Chrome, I've opened a Connect case here. If you've got a need for Chrome and Power View together, then you can vote and comment at the case. As always, you're welcome to comment here, too, or over on Twitter.

Some tips on doing the Analysis Services 2012 Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:03:00 +0000

I've had some questions from people using the AdventureWorks tutorials on Analysis Services 2012, so I thought I would answer them here.

When deploying the Analysis Services project for the first time, you might get the following error message:

'A connection cannot be made. Ensure that the server is running. To verify or update the name of the target server, right-click on the project in Solution Explorer, select Project Properties, click on the Deployment tab, and then enter the name of the server.'

The first thing to check is that the login has access to the data source. Also, check that you've put in the full server\instance name if required: if you're not sure how to check, open up SSMS and see if you can connect that way, and the full path will be in the login box.

If you've checked this, then it is worthwhile just checking that your Analysis Services service is actually started. This is simple: Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services and look for your Analysis Services service. If you don't know which service to look for, try 'SQL Server Analysis Services (MSSQLSERVER)' and see if it is started.

Once you try to deploy the cube, you might get an error message about an Impersonation issue. If this is the case, then you will need to look at the Impersonation information that you've used in the data source. To do this, double-click on the data source, and choose the 'Impersonation Information'. As per the tutorial, the setting says to use the option 'Use the service account'

I hope that this answers some questions I've received - good luck, and please feel free to get in touch if anything isn't clear.

-Jen

Is Power View supposed to be a replacement for Oracle BI Answers in OBIEE 11g

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:51:00 +0000

In response to my last blog, I received the question: ‘Is Power View supposed to be a replacement for Oracle OBIEE 11g?’ This blog is aimed at answering that question. Before we start, however, I would like to say that these opinions expressed here are mine, and no-one else’s opinions. Therefore, if I’ve got some of the Oracle details incorrect, please do feel free to correct me and I will be grateful that you’ve pointed me in the right direction.

Power View, as I’ve said previously, is about helping business users to ‘surf’ their way through their data. It is designed to help them to think fast about the results of the data, and ask questions of it. It is therefore contrasted with other reporting packages which require a more ‘developer’ oriented focus, such as Business Objects WebI, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.

My experience with users would make me put Oracle BI Answers in more of a ‘developer’ pot rather than a ‘think as fast as you click’ pot. If you take a look at the Microsoft Books Online Power View documentation, it shows you how easy it is to create small data visualisations in Power View. There is no discussion of variables, or syntax, or anything that requires typing.

On the other hand, when we look at Oracle BI Answers manual, we find that the discussion changes to include variables, custom date/time strings, formatting results and so on. Although this may be in the reach of many business users, it isn’t for everybody. This is in contrast to Power View, which requires minimal typing, drag-and-drop functionality with no requirement to create new formulae, making it simpler to use and assumes that the underlying data model is clean, correct and in place.

I’m not criticising the Oracle BI Answers solution; instead, I’m saying that it seems aimed at report writers who expect to do additional work to meet a particular reporting requirement. On the other hand, Power View is aimed at those users who expect the data model to be cleansed and sorted for them already, without requiring further work to deliver the data visualisation other than point, click and publish.
To answer the initial question: Is Power View supposed to be a replacement for Oracle OBIEE 11g? I don’t think that is the case. I look forward to your comments on this question.

Is Power View meant to replace ReportBuilder?

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:23:00 +0000

At first glance, it could be easy to confuse Power View and Report Builder. This blog is aimed at helping you to understand the 'why' of these packages, so that you and your business can get the best out of these complementary reporting packages.

I do hear complaints now and again, that the Microsoft Business Intelligence reporting packages can offer similar functionality, so it isn't clear to users whether they are using the best option available to them. The reporting packages, such as Excel, Reporting Services and so on, are aimed at specific users with specific needs. The answer to 'which package is right for you?' will depend on the user and the requirements for building and delivering the report, and it is good that there is more than one option.

One way of looking at the 'Do I use Power View or Report Builder?' debate is to look at the distinction between a puzzle and a mystery, as specified by Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell. A puzzle can be viewed as a defined question with a defined answer; when all the pieces of the puzzle are in place, then the puzzle is solved. A mystery, however, is more uncertain; we do not have all of the information in place, and the answer can involve surfing lots of ill-defined information in order to get an answer.

Report Builder is aimed at business users who have puzzles i.e. they have the information in place, and the data will give them the answer in the form of a designed chart. A puzzle could be a straightforward question, such as 'What was our sales for the last quarter, for a specific product?'

Power View is aimed at business users who have a 'mystery' to solve. The question could be ill-defined i.e. 'how do I find out the characteristics of the data?' or 'are there any anomalies in the data?' The question could start off as a puzzle, answered quickly in Power View- but then it could spawn mysteries. So, we go from 'what' to 'why?' by looking at the data from different angles.

My perspective in this is that options are always a good thing, particularly if it means an opportunity to learn something new. I'm aware that Power View is a new package for people, given that it's available in SQL Server 2012. I've written this blog in order to help people to understand the 'positioning' of Power View in relation to its older cousin, Report Builder.

Power View

Power View is easy to use, and quick. It involves very little typing, and assumes that the underlying data model is correct. It does not require programming language.

Instead, it simply requires you to drag and drop, and it means that you are only ever a few clicks away from the data representation that is available to you. It is easy for data analysts to produce reports that help you to produce 'ad hoc' reports. In other words, it does not require you to know a 'set' question to answer, before you start. It helps you to work with an unknown query definition, or workload. The point is that it helps you to 'surf' the data without a need for structured reporting requirements.

Report Builder

Report Builder is also easy to use, and is aimed at producing reports quickly and easily. Again, it is not aimed at report writers with programming knowledge. Instead, it is aimed at information users and analysts who require reports quickly. Report Builder helps you to work with known query definitions, or workloads, to produce a defined report. Report Builder can help you to surf the data to a degree, too, but it is mainly for structured reporting.

Although Report Builder has been available since SQL Server 2005, there are some interesting new features added in SQL Server 2012 RC0 for Report Builder. It's no surprise, for example, the Word and Excel renderers are compatible with the latest version of Excel and Word 2010. This will only work, however, if the Microsoft Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint pack is installed.

Report Builder is part of SQL Server 2012 RC0, and earlier versions can be found in SQL Server 2005 and 2008. In 2012, it comes in two versions: stand-alone, and ClickOnce, which is available in both SSRS native and Sharepoint integrated mode. In the stand-alone method, it needs to be installed on the computer, and it can be downloaded from here. The ClickOnce version is installed as part of the SQL Server 2012 RC0 installation sequence, and can be started from within Sharepoint or via Report Manager. In Sharepoint, it is nice to see that Report Builder reports are just seen as 'Documents' and you'll be able to create one by selecting 'New Document' from the Sharepoint library.

On the other hand, Power View is solely part of Sharepoint Enterprise and SQL Server 2012.

To summarise, both applications:

Easy to Use

Aimed at Information Workers

Report Builder:

Can be obtained from outside Sharepoint

Emphasis is on a straight reporting tool rather than an analysis tool

Power View:

Is only available in Sharepoint Enterprise

Is only available in SQL Server 2012

To answer the question, the packages support and complement one another; Report Builder isn't meant to be replaced by Power View, but offers a slightly different perspective on easy-to-access structured reporting.

I hope that helps. As always, any questions, please do leave a comment.

Tabular models and Tableau

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 08:32:00 +0000

I was recently asked how to connect Tableau to a Microsoft Tabular model. The concept itself is straightforward in Tableau. In my opinion, tabular models will become more prevalent, so I will start to look at them more detail.

It turns out that the individual who questioned me was struggling, unfortunately. The resolution was that he wasn't including the instance name as part of the connection.

In order to help business users to connect Tableau to the tabular model, I have included a brief video on how to achieve connectivity between Tableau and the Tabular model.

The video does include my Scottish accent, so please feel free to turn down the volume!

The link to the video is here:

I'm blogging this on my iPad so please excuse that I haven't inserted the video itself! I will do this when I am back online properly. I am on holiday just now, but thought it worthwhile just to get the information out to help the individual ASAP

Update 8th April: video inserted :) enjoy

-Jen

MSMDPump.dll connection to SSAS

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:30:00 +0000

I was asked recently if it is possible to create HTTP msmdpump.dll (Per user identity) connection to an SSAS cube.

Microsoft have produced a White Paper by Edward Melomed, which covers the topic in SQL Server version 2005. However, the architecture is the same in SQL Server 2008, and you should be able to extrapolate from one version to the other.

I won't repeat Edward's excellent paper; instead, I'd like to refer you to his White Paper, which you can find here.

Data Visualisation Sample Slide Deck

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:25:00 +0000

If you attended the fantastic SQL Saturday 105 in Dublin, you might be interested in these slides.

We've presented on Data Visualisation in the UK, Europe and in the US. Here is a sample slide deck. As always, these are subject to change as we develop our presentations in response to community requests for a different perspective, or in response to an update in technology, for example.

Here is an example of one of my Data Visualisation presentations:

Sql pass business intelligence chapter bi and data viz in sql server 2012

View more PowerPoint from Jennifer Stirrup

Data Visualisation Course with SQL Server 2012 Tabular Models, Power View and Excel

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:26:00 +0000

I'm excited to announce that I'll be teaching a course on Data Visualisation on 30th May 2012 in London, in partnership with Technitrain, the UK's foremost Microsoft training organisation.

If you are looking to understand more about Microsoft's latest Business Intelligence data visualisation offering, then this one-day course is for you! We'll learn about SQL Server 2012 Power View and Excel, using SQL Server 2012 Tabular Models as a data source.

Although this course focuses in technology, we will also be covering aspects of perception, cognitive psychology and data visualisation debate over what makes a good data visualisation. Understanding the 'why' of data visualisation can help you to see 'how' to produce better visualisations. We'll be using Microsoft Power View and Excel in order to apply this knowledge to practical applications, thereby helping you to get the 'message' of the data across to your business users. Here are some of the topics we will cover:

Data Visualisation - Theory and Practice
Finding Patterns in Data
Getting to Know your Data using Power View and Excel
Power View in Depth
Dashboards - putting it all together

Please join myself and other 'data vizzers' for this one day course, and you can find more details, including Registration, by clicking here.

I look forward to seeing you there, and please do give me a shout if you're coming along!

SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event and Download Info

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:06:00 +0000

The SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event is starting on 7th March! As part of a global team on March 7th, I'm answering questions on the SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event, which is being held online. Register here: http://www.sqlserverlaunch.com/ If you're not sure what the fuss is about, take a look at the video here:

In the meantime, if you can't wait that long, you can download an evaluation of SQL Server 2012 - not RC0! - then please visit this link. If you're interested in a preview about SQL Server 2012 and private cloud, please visit Ross Mistry's article here.

The Virtual Event is a global, online SQL Server Virtual Launch Event event will allow you to get the latest information on Microsoft SQL Server 2012. You can interact directly with:

Microsoft Product Teams
Select customers who are part of the SQL Server 2012 story
Microsoft Partners
Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals

There are over thirty separate sessions which focus on new mission-critical capabilities, data visualisations and performance benefits. For example, here are some of the sample sessions where you can learn:

Why Oracle DBAs should learn about SQL Server
Performance Increases with the Column Store Index
Unstructured Data search
Unlock the value of Big Data with SQL Server
Self-Service Analysis with Power View

Best of all, since this is a community virtual launch, you'll get to meet, online, the people behind SQL Server 2012. In my opinion, you should take advantage of this unique opportunity to interact with Microsoft Product team, and other experts who want to share their enthusiasm with you.

The SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch event is global, and lasts for 24 hours. I'll be online to help answer your questions and chat between 2200 and 2400 UK Time, which is 2PM PST (UTC -8 hours) or 5PM EST (UTC -5 hours) but I'll be participating throughout the day too. I cannot wait!

I look forward to meeting you in the Virtual Lounges or online on Twitter. Come and join in the fun, you never know whom you might meet! See you there!

Color-blindness - why does it happen, and how can data visualisations help?

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:11:00 +0000

How people perceive colour is an interesting issue. The Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic theory of vision proposed that we have red/green/blue receptors, which are then combined to show different colours. It is thought that the red-green receptors are close together, and perhaps this is the root of the issue. Needless to say, the issue is complex but interesting.

According to popular wisdom, it is thought that the red-green chromatic channel developed in order to provide an evolutionary advantage for determining ripe fruits against a background of foilage. Tell that to your children, next time they refuse to eat fruit! However, this 'ripe fruit' theory has been difficult to observe in field studies. One group of researchers conducted field studies in black-handed spider monkeys, and found that luminance contrast was just as important in distinguishing fruits. If you're interested to read more, here is an interesting study that illustrates the complexities of perception, which involves the field study of primates. On the other hand, a separate study showed that trichromatic primates found it easier to determine and select ripe fruits, and you can find more information here.

How does this impact data visualisation? It is possible to produce visualisations that make the most of luminosity in order to encode values, along with the size of the data point, in order to convey the message of the data visualisation. Another issue is that determining colour and luminosity can be a subjective issue, and point size may help to provide additional cues. I envisage it as if it is the detection of fruit in viticulture. Therefore, one winemaker might ascertain that a grape's optimal point of ripeness is at one point, and another viticulturist might determine that the ripeness point is at another point in time. Similarly, it isn't always easy to ask experimental subjects to ascertain the amount of 'greenness', 'redness', or 'blueness' of a point. There has been some work in computer vision, aimed at distinguishing the RGB in fruit, which is interesting to read.

It is suggested that about 12% of males are colour-blind, which means that they are restricted from using the red-green channel. If you are interested in reading more about the experience of a colour-blind person, please do read this entertaining blog by Geoffrey Hope-Terry.

To summarise, data visualisations can therefore augment understanding by assisting the perceptual processes involved in luminance and the blue-yellow colours. It is also possible to use the size of the data point to convey the message of the data. In other words, data visualisations should aim not to exclude members of the audience by including lots of red and green together.

SQLPass Business Intelligence Virtual Chapter References and Slides

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone who attended my SQLPass Business Intelligence Virtual Chapter webinar! I have lots of questions to follow up, from both during and after the event. Please watch this space for more responses to questions over the next few days, and I will try to ensure that I answer every question. The slides are at the bottom of this blog post.

I've provided references below to some of the Data Visualisation people and material that I mentioned today. I hope that these are useful to you.

Ben Schneiderman - Ben's Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design is an interesting read. In the presentation, I refer to one of Schneiderman's essays, "The Eyes have it." The guideline is summarise -> zoom and filter -> details-on-demand, and is known as the 'Visual Information-Seeking Mantra'.

Stephen Few - Stephen has written a number of books, which you can find at his site - there is a wealth of information there! If you're a fan of data visualisation, then you should consider his blog, Perceptual Edge, a must-read. In particular, I'd like to shout out the following books:

Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis
Information Dashboard Design

Malcolm Gladwell - Malcolm has a great deal of interesting things to say on a whole range of topics, and I'm never going to be able to introduce him properly.

Hans Rosling - What I love about Rosling's work, is that he highlights health and social factors, poverty and health. This is data visualisation in action, to help people in poor circumstances - the sort of people who cannot always read what is written about them. He promotes a 'fact-based' world view on these issues. The YouTube video of Rosling's data visualisation is below, which was made by BBC4.

I should add that I'm not in any way associated with this video - but I get asked about it a lot, so I've embedded it here from YouTube.

Here are the slides from today. I look forward to your comments, and I will answer the remaining questions in due course.

-J

Sql pass business intelligence chapter bi and data viz in sql server 2012

View more presentations from Jennifer Stirrup.

Tiny correction to MSDN Blog - adding report server content types to a Sharepoint Library

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:36:00 +0000

I spotted a small error in MSDN article entitled Add Report Server Content Types to a Library (Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode) It's just a tiny error, but small enough that someone looking for it, might run into problems. The second half of the document should read:

To add report server content types

1.Open the library for which you want to add Reporting Services content types.

2.On the Library Tools ribbon tabs, click the Library tab.

3.On the Settings ribbon group, click Library Settings.

4.Under Content Types, click Add from existing site content types.

5.In the Select Content Types section, in Select site content types from, click the arrow to select Reporting Services. << This should actually say 'SQL Server Reporting Services Content Types. Please see the image below:

6.In the Available Site Content Types list, click Report Builder, and then click Add to move the selected content type to the Content types to add list.

7.To add Report Model and Report Data Source content types, repeat steps 5 and 6.

8.When you finish selecting all of the content types that you want to add, click OK.

I hope that helps someone out.
-Jen

Find the missing sessions in the 2011 SQLPass Summit DVD set

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:51:00 +0000

Is everyone enjoying their newly-minted 2011 PASS Summit DVD set? I am, you betcha! Some of the sessions are missing, though.

The following sessions are missing from the 2011 PASS Summit DVD:

Application and Database Development
Working With XML in SQL Server
Kendal Van Dyke, Insource Technology

SQL Azure
This Ain't Your Father's Cloud
Buck Woody, Microsoft and Kevin Kline, Quest Software

BI Architecture, Development and Administration Topics
Common Analysis Services Design Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Devin Knight, Pragmatic Works

BI Client Reporting and Delivery Topics
End-user Alerting with SQL Server Code Name "Denali" Reporting Services
Lukasz Pawlowski, Microsoft

To stream the sessions, please go here.

You will need your PASS Summit username and password to access the sessions. If you don't have a login, then you should sign up! SQLPass offer tons of great, free SQL Server training. With SQL Server 2012 on the horizon, you don't want to miss out!

Poland SQL Day 2012 Women in Technology Panel Event

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:05:00 +0000

In May, 25th and 26th May, we would like to invite all of you for a ‘Women in Technology’ Panel at SQL Day2012 in Wrocław (Poland). We are looking forward to meeting you at SQLDay Poland in May 2012. I will be participating in the Panel, and I'm very excited about it!

The SQL Day 2012 conference is a great opportunity to make friends and learn with fellow SQL Family members in Poland. Therefore, we would like to add to the SQLDay fun! We are holding a 'Women in Technology' (WIT) panel meeting SQL Day 2012 in Wrocław (Poland) on 25th and 26th of May. We will have a team of women, who will swap ideas and discussions. We look forward to hearing your ideas too! The Panel will be held in Polish and English.

We will talk about the following topics. We are also keen to hear your ideas, too!

1. Keeping women in IT by mentoring, networking and career advice
2. How to attract younger women in IT
3. Career - what are the best ways to progress?

Men in Technology are also invited to the 'Women in Technology' panel meeting. Men are very welcome to the Panel too. It would be good for men to share their ideas, too.

Although the panel members are women, these are 'people' topics in which everyone can learn something about career advancement.

The 'Women in IT' panel is arranged for the first day of the conference. If you would like more information, please email us on WiTPanel@plssug.org.pl You can also find us here:

http://ewity.pl/sqlday-2012-wit-panel
http://sqlday.pl/women-in-technology-panel
Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Women-in-Technology-Panel/222338211190377
Our Twitter name: https://twitter.com/#!/SQLDayPLWIT

We look forward to meeting you!

Power View connection error - Resolved

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:21:00 +0000

When you're starting off to create a visualisation in Power View, you might notice the following error:

rsCannotRetrieveModel

400

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/reportingservices">An error occurred while loading the model for the item or data source 'http://sapphire/PowerPivot Gallery/HelloWorldPicnicPowerViewTutorialRC0.xlsx'. Verify that the connection information is correct and that you have permissions to access the data source.

When you read down to the foot of the error message, the error message becomes more specific. Here is an example:

A connection cannot be made to redirector. Ensure that 'SQL Browser' service is running.

When you start up the 'SQL Browser' service, then the Power View visualisation works. The SQL Server Browser operates as a Windows Service. It has two main roles: it listens for incoming requests for Microsoft SQL Server resources, and it provides information about SQL Server instances installed on the computer. If it isn't running, then the connection fails since the data source can't be found.

Upcoming National and International Speaking Events

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:54:00 +0000

The blog has been a bit quiet since I'm busy preparing for some up and coming events. Here is a list of some things which are keeping me busy!

Attunity hosted webinar - Faster Business Insights By Enabling Real-time Data For BI & Analytics, Webinar, 26th January

Reserve your space today! If users rely on reports that include stale or outdated information, the impact on 'same day' decision cycles is far greater than you think. Join us for this special webinar to hear industry business intelligence (BI) expert, Jen Stirrup share her insights about new advances in technologies to better enable real-time data for BI and analytics. Attend this webinar to learn about:

Best practices to achieve low-latency data movement
How to overcome costly obstacles to provide low-latency data movement
New cost-efficient techniques to enable real-time data for BI and analytics
New approaches for implementing change data capture (CDC) technology with data replication
Live demonstration
And a lot more!

In addition, Richard Thomas, Attunity's Director of Technical Services will discuss how Attunity Replicate software plays a critical role to deliver real-time information across your organization. Plus, Jeff Cole, an Attunity Solutions Architect, will provide a live product demonstration. Don't miss this opportunity.

Sweden SQL Server User Group at the World Trade Center, Stockholm, 30th January

We are pleased to announce that Jen Stirrup, joint owner of Copper Blue Consulting, will be participating in the Swedish User Group meeting on 30th January at the World Trade Center in Stockholm. Jen will be speaking, in English, on Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence. If you'd like to register, please click here.

SQL Saturday Ireland Technical Launch for SQL Server 2012 at the Hilton Hotel, Dublin, 24th March

We are pleased to announce that Allan Mitchell and Jen Stirrup, joint owners of Copper Blue Consulting, will be giving individual presentations at the SQL Saturday event in Dublin on 24th March. Allan will be discussing Data Quality, and Jen will be discussing Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence. The event is supported by the Professional Assocation of SQL Server and we will be attending the after-event party. We hope to see you there! To Register, please click here.

SQLBits UK Technical Launch for SQL Server 2012, London, 31st March

Allan and I are both presenting individual presentations at SQLBits. Allan will be talking about CDC in SQL Server 2012. I'll be talking about Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence in SQL Server 2012. The Saturday event is free, so please do come along and join us. The event will be held at the Novotel London West and for more information, please register here. Incidentally the SQLBits site is Powered by SQL Server 2012, so it's worth a look for that reason, too!

Importing Google Spreadsheets into Windows Azure Data Explorer

noreply@blogger.com (Jen Stirrup) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:02:00 +0000

Hi! This blog will take you through the steps of importing a Google spreadsheet into Microsoft Azure Data Explorer. You could then play with this data by using data from the Windows Data Market. I think I love the Data Explorer so much because it allows a nice, easy format for mixing up data from different sources. This activity takes the form of two steps: ensuring that the Google spreadsheet is published, and then importing it into Data Explorer.

The Google spreadsheet came from the fantastic Guardian Datablog, and it focuses on the New Years Honours list for 2012. In case you're not British or from the Commonwealth, and wondering what I'm blathering on about, the New Years Honours List is a quaint British tradition which recognises outstanding achievement to people who serve their communities. The original Guardian commentary can be found here.

The Google spreadsheet obviously belongs to them, so I needed to take a copy of it, and publish it to my own Google account. To do this, you click on 'File' and then 'Publish to the web' It is very straightforward to do this, but if you need an image, click here.

You then need to make sure that you publish the spreadsheet as a CSV format. This is quicker and easier for importing. You can see an example of this below, or if you need the original image, you can find it here:

The other item to note is that you should just select one sheet, and not 'All Sheets'. In doing so, you're making the data easier to import. Here, the sheet is called 'Full List'.

Once you've selected the sheet, you should copy the link that appears in the box. You'll need this in order to import the data. I didn't import this file as 'web content' - instead, I did 'Import File' and then copied the link into the 'Open' Dialog box. This imported the file as text. You then get the following options:

Upon importing the data as a table, you might find that you get the following error message:

The CSV input has rows with varying numbers of columns, and the first row does not have enough columns to specify the input width for all rows. Specify a value for the ColumnCount option to prescribe the number of columns to include in the output. Here is an example of the image here:

If this is the case, then it is perhaps easier to import the data as text in order to examine more clearly to see if there are issues. To do this, just open the 'Text' box at the top left hand side, or right-click and select 'Open as Text'. Here is an example:

Once you've converted it to text, the Data Explorer screen will appear as follows. You can click on the image or click here for a larger image:

Now, it is a bit clearer to see the status of the data since we can see the text. The next step is to try and re-import it as a table. You can do this by clicking 'Table' at the top left hand side. You'll now get the following screen:

And another thing...

If you're sharp eyed, you'll have noticed an anomaly on line 10. Why does Herbert Douglas have the title 'Charity'? Shouldn't this be in 'For Services to' column? If you look back at the first picture of this blog, you'll see that the same thing happens in the Google spreadsheet; since it matches the source, then this isn't an issue with the data import, but the raw data. You can see a snapshot of the raw data below and if you need a larger image, click here.

Don't be fooled by the nice clean appearance of the Data Explorer - there are lots of customisation and nice things that can be done with the Data Explorer, so let's look forward to more fun in future blogs!

Don't you just love data? I do! I hope that this helps.