Colin Spence's presentation on Business Intelligence options in SharePoint 2010. Presented at SharePoint Saturday 2010 in San Ramon, California.

1. Business Intelligence Options in SharePoint 2010 Presented by Colin Spence Convergent Computing

2. Agenda BI Overview Excel and Excel Services PerformancePoint Business Connectivity Services PowerPivot Summary Note: Most examples shown in the slides are included in full detail in the SharePoint Server 2010 Unleashed book soon to be available from Sams Publishing: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-SharePoint-2010-Unleashed-Michael/dp/0672333252/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284408032&sr=1-2

4. Practice Lead – CCO SharePoint Solutions

5. Co-author of SharePoint 2010 Unleashed, SharePoint 2007 and 2003 Unleashed and Teach Yourself SharePoint 2003 in 10-Minutes

6. Contributing author to numerous other Technology and Project Management books

7. Specialist in SharePoint strategy planning, architecture design, environment implementation, and end user training

8. Presenter at TechEd, Microsoft webcasts, SF SharePoint User Groups, Penton Media Seminars

10. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, CCO has extensive experience and expertise in numerous Microsoft technologies

11. CCO consultants have written best-selling books on many Microsoft technologies including "SharePoint Server 2007 Unleashed", and “SharePoint Server 2003 Unleashed.”

12. CCO has been recognized by Microsoft for our excellence in delivery:

13. NorCal District General Manager’s Award (2008)

14. Partner of the Year Finalist (2007)

15. Global Winning Customer (2006)

16. Security Solutions Specialization (2006)

17. Most Valuable Partner - Microsoft West Region (2006)

18. Top Regional Partner - Customer Satisfaction (2006)

20. Can be analytical, measurable data, anecdotal information, or factual details

21. Can be used by people at many different levels of an organization

22. Approaches to BI

23. Top-down approach

24. Bottom-up approach

25. “Middle-up” approach

26. Pros and cons of each….

27. What tools will be used?

29. CIOs view BI among their top priorities for improving decision making and the operational efficiencies that drive revenue and profitability

30. Shift from measurement to analysis, forecasting and optimization

31. Economic conditions driving interest in low-cost alternatives

32. BI platforms will remain one of the fastest growing software markets

33. BI SaaS adoption is low today but will grow as more options are available (Microsoft Azure)

34. Microsoft Office integration is important including support for document types, formulas, data “refresh” and pivot tables

36. Excel is placed at the center of BI offering

37. Strategy also leverages SQL Server and SharePoint Server

38. Generally lower pricing and focus on “information worker” productivity

39. Microsoft BI solutions perceived as less complex and less expensive

40. Higher use of OLAP functionality due to SQL Analysis Server integration

43. Conditional Formatting

44. Convert web part to dataview

45. Filter/Group/Sort Capabilities

47. Video of Data Viewer in Action

49. OLAP Cube connectivity

52. Quick win to move from Spreadsheets to SharePoint lists

53. Use the Import Spreadsheet template

54. Note: in this case there is noconnectivity between the SharePoint list and the source spreadsheet

55. Use Excel Services to publish to SharePoint libraries

56. Now a service application, and as such is more manageable and customizable

57. Excel Services now leverages PowerShell for management instead of the stsadm tool

58. Now provides REST API

59. Client/server software architecture/protocol that uses hyperlinks and lets the user access entities (such as ranges and charts) in workbooks using Excel Services through HTTP

60. JSOM or ECMAScript (JScript or JavaScript object model): ECMAScript enables syndication, mash-ups, automation of Excel Services, and the extension of Excel Services by third parties

61. Parameter input is possible from SharePoint Excel Web Access web part

64. Publish to SharePoint document library

65. Add Excel Web Access web part to a page

66. Users can access different tabs, search, save a copy locally for editing, refresh

68. Interactivity in Excel Services Limited if Office Web Apps not in use with the exception of parameter input. Requires the naming of a cell in Excel, publish to SharePoint then users can input values Doesn’t change Excel data, so more for “what if” scenarios

69. PerformancePoint

71. In 2009, owners of the SharePoint Enterprise CAL became licensed for PerformancePoint; however, it remained a separate installation.

72. In SharePoint 2010, PerformancePoint Services is now rolled into the SharePoint installation as a service application

73. Place rich report creation capabilities into the hands of power users

75. Create a web application

76. NTLM can be used

77. Generally rec’d to create new app pool

78. Dedicated db is created

80. Map to the web app

81. Set site collection admins

83. Dashboard Designer is the client interface for building PerformancePoint reports and scorecards.

84. It provides a drag-and-drop interface for creating the dashboards, scorecards, reports, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

87. Sales volumes, with specific KPIs for each region

88. Capacity utilization, with factories making up the individual KPIs

89. Number of safety incidents, with per-plant line items

90. Customer service complaints, based on product line

91. Types of Scorecards in DD:

92. Microsoft: Based on Analysis Services, which requires that you have a corresponding data source based on SQL Server Analysis Services.

93. Standard: Enables you to create either a blank or fixed value scorecard. These two options enable you to add KPIs created and manually added to your workspace.

95. Analytic Chart: Interactive charts, based on OLAP cube data, such as SQL Server Analysis Services, can be in bar, line and pie chart format.

96. Analytic Grid: Also based on data from OLAP cubes, Analytic grids display rows and columns of processed data.

97. Excel Services: Allows for views of any components from Excel Services.

98. KPI Details: View detailed information about any KPI line item.

99. ProClarity Analytics Server Page: Create a reference to an existing ProClarity Analytics server page.

100. Reporting Services: Reference an existing report from SQL Server Reporting Services.

101. Strategy Map: Create a strategy map report that is connected to a scorecard by using Microsoft Office Visio 2007 or 2010.

104. In the Details pane, expand Scorecards, and expand PerformancePoint Content. Drag the Product Sales scorecard into one of the dashboard zones.

105. In the Details pane, expand Reports, and expand PerformancePoint Content. Drag AdventureWorks Sales Chart onto the other zone.

106. In the Workspace Browser, right-click on Product Sales Dashboard, and select Deploy to SharePoint.

107. Select one of the master page options, and click OK.

109. Business Connectivity Services

111. In SharePoint 2007 BDC definitions of entities required third-party tools

112. BDC Metaman from Lightning Tools and MOSS BDC Design Studio from Simego

114. Is a SharePoint content type and has a set of attributes or columns.

115. Using BCS, external content types can be defined and made available for consumption within SharePoint.

116. Operations available with External Content Types:

117. Create Operation: Add a new record to a table

118. Update Operation: Modify an existing record

119. Delete Operation: Remove a record from a table

121. PowerPivot

123. Leverages Excel Services in SharePoint 2010

124. Requires SQL Server 2008 R2 release

125. VertiPaq engine compresses and manages millions of rows of data in memory with fast performance

126. Online virtual lab for PowerPivot for Excel 2010 available:

127. https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=ad3bd3e9-8d2b-498d-94fa-e41e1b09730d

128. Beware of errors in the steps!

130. Video of PowerPivot in Action

131. PowerPivot for SharePoint 2010

133. You can use a PowerPivot model in PerformancePoint

134. Requires PPS Dashboard Designer

135. Some issues should be expected in using the two products in conjunction with one another. See:

137. SharePoint Site Usage: “Who’s doing What”

138. Summary

140. Dashboards can be simple or more complex depending upon tools used and data connected to

141. Move or connect to Excel data from lists

142. Look at third party KPI, Graph, Data Viewer web parts (Bamboo)

143. Consider PerformancePont with Dashboard Designer

144. Consider BCS leveraging External Content Types

145. Test PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010

147. Complete range of SharePoint based solutions for:

148. Small, Medium and Large clients

149. For Profit, Non-profit, Educational, Government solutions

150. Existing SharePoint assessment

151. Server Configuration best practices review, health check

152. Performance testing

153. Full project cycle services

154. Discovery, Design, Proof of Concept, Implementation, Migration, Support

155. Branding for internal, external and mixed usage

156. Training on best practices, troubleshooting, design

157. SharePoint application design

158. Including workflows, forms, security, dashboards, custom web parts, etc.

159. Integration with other Microsoft Products, IBM, Oracle products

160. Etc…