A Simpleton's Guide to Business Intelligence in SharePoint 2010

9/10/2010 1

A Simpleton’s Guide to Business Intelligence in SharePoint 2010

Chris McNultyKMA

(3)Copyright 2010 © Knowledge Management Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.

Twitterhashtag: #spsbayTwitter hashtag:

About Me• Working with SharePoint technologies

since 2000/2001• 20 years consulting and financial services

technology (Santander, John Hancock, GMO, State Street)

• SharePoint practice lead at KMA• Write and speak often on Microsoft

information worker technologies (book out this month!)

• Microsoft MCSE/MCTS/MSA/MVTS• BC MBA in Investment Management• Hiking, cooking, playing guitar, colonial

history, photography• My family: Hayley, three kids (15, 6, 3)

and my dog Stan



About KMA

o Full-service IT consulting firm established in 1995o 28 employees: Partner, PM, Analyst, Developer, QA o Industry expertise and focus: Professional Services, Life Sciences &

Financial Serviceso Microsoft technology focus:

• Microsoft Certified Partner since 1995 / Microsoft Gold Certified Partner since 2004

• Working with SharePoint technologies since 2001• Specialties in

Collaboration: Portals, Communities and Content Management Insight: Enterprise Search and Business Intelligence Productivity: Forms and Office Client Customization, Mekko Graphics (ISV)



Agenda

• Goals, Terms & Surrounding Technology• Technology Overview and Demos

– Simple List and Chart– Excel Web Access– Power Pivot– Business Connectivity Services (BCS)– SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)– Performance Point 2010

• Summary

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 … the bright frontier

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 … the bright frontier

Eastern Long Island, July 4, 2010



Goals for BI Design

• Answering the known questions about our business

• Allowing users to self-discover patterns and answers to questions we haven’t yet been asked



Terms

• SSRS – SQL Server Reporting Services• Cube – a prebuilt matrix of data aggregations, hosted

in SQL Server Analysis Services• WCF – Windows Communications Framework• Project Dallas – Microsoft initiative to create publicly

subscribed data services hosted on Azure and accessed via WCF, PowerPivot, etc. (http://www.sqlazureservices.com)

http://www.sqlazureservices.com/



Surrounding Technologies

• Analysis Services (Cubes)• SQL Server Integration Services (DTS)• AS-based Dashboard Designer and Reports• Project Dallas



SharePoint BI Evolution

Chart Web Part

Excel Services• Excel Web

Access• PowerPivot

Business Connectivity Services• External data• External lists

SQL Reporting Services

Performance Point• Dashboards• Analysis

Services



SharePoint Charting

• Native to SharePoint (Web Part)

• Code-free solution – uses web part and native lists



SharePoint Charting

• Data sources– Other Lists (Site Collection)– BCS/Business Data Catalog– Excel Services

• Standard Types– Bar, Area, Line, Bubble, Financial, Pie, Radar, Polar, Gantt,

Range, Error Bar, Box Plot, Funnel, Pyramid

• Typical use - quick visualization of SharePoint data• Quick tip – use the wizard



Excel Services

• Use the world’s #1 BI modeling tool

• Render data, charts, interface using native Excel components (e.g. Slicers)

• Data stored in Excel



Excel Services

• Host a presentation layer using Excel Services– Closely related to Excel Web Access

• Use native SharePoint Status Indicators (KPIs) – Can also work with lists

• Render Excel 2010 functions (e.g. Slicers) without Excel 2010 on all clients

• Use when users are skilled in Excel modeling and charting and data lives in spreadsheets

• Quick tip: understand SSA’s



PowerPivot

• “Project Gemini” – host 1-10MM row datasets

• Excel and SharePoint components

• Data doesn’t live in spreadsheet

• Released with SQL Server 2008 R2 but doesn’t explicitly require the R2 Engine



PowerPivot• Like Excel Web Access except underlying data can be sourced from:

– SQL, Analysis Services Cube, SSRS Report– Access– Power Pivot/Excel– Data Feeds (XML, Atom, Azure, WCF OData, Dallas)– Oracle, Teradata, Sybase, DB2– ODBC– Text files

• Excel optimized to handle data management and memory cache locally• SharePoint builds cache and optimizes for server web access• Use when Excel modeling skills are high but data is too large or too

heterogeneous to keep in multiple Excel spreadsheets• Quick tip: www.powerpivotgeeks.net

http://www.powerpivotgeeks.net/



Business Connectivity Services

• Read write access to external data sources in SP2010 (aka Business Data Connectivity)

• Pull data into SharePoint user interface

• Push data into external sources




• Native Support for data from SQL, .NET, Windows Communication Frameworks (e.g. Dallas)

• Configured through SharePoint Designer 2010• Republish data to consuming applications (e.g.

Outlook 2010)• Use when key data lives outside SharePoint direct

control – e.g. accounting systems• Quick tip: Secure Store Service is needed



SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

• “Code free” but requires development tools

• Designed using Business Intelligence Developer Studio

• Host in SQL Server or SharePoint



SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

• Reports run and render in SSRS Engine• Deploy reports to “native” SQL server or SharePoint

integrated mode• Reuse in SharePoint and Dashboard interface• Export contents to Excel, Word, etc.• Use when some reports are printed, multipage, etc.



PerformancePoint 2010

• Dashboard Designer (browser downloadable)

• Integrates Excel Services, SSRS, and Performance Point Elements



PerformancePoint 2010

• Sophisticated self service modeling• Decomposition Tree• Ideal for SSAS but also work with standard data

sources (lists, SQL)• Requires true SQL development to build and

maintain SSAS cubes for KPIs and scorecards

mgilronan

"Use when" scenario (consistency with other slides)?



Next - Project Dallas

• Azure-based public data subscriptions• Addressed through OData/XML• Query/view download• Samples available now at

http://www.sqlazureservices.com • TIP: Sample data sets are limited in CTP

http://www.sqlazureservices.com/



SummaryTechnology Pros Cons Sample Use Case

SharePoint Lists and Charts

Simple code free solutions

Simple data aggregations Users understand how to chart their own data

Excel Services User familiarity Limited to Excel data sources

Users love Excel charts!

PowerPivot Large datasets Requires some Excel 2010 Data is too big for Excel


Access data beyond SharePoint boundary

Write access needs control

Integrate data from external sales order system

SQL Reporting Services Commonly used SQL query techniques

Entry level development skills

Need to print large multipage reports; export to Excel

Performance Point and Analysis Services

Rich scorecard and reporting environments, aggregates other elements like SSRS

Requires more development sophistication

On screen data exploration of prebuilt analyses



Resources: Microsoft and KMA

• From Microsoft:– Business Intelligence: http://www.microsoft.com/bi/ – SharePoint 2010 site: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com– SharePoint Team Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/default.aspx– BI Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bi/

• From KMA:– Online content, blogs, articles available through www.kma-llc.net – Monthly live seminars/webinars

– Upcoming Events:– SPTechCon (Boston) October 2010– SharePoint 2010 Webinar – September 22, 2010 (upgrades and “the cloud”)

– Standard Offerings– SharePoint Health Check - 1-2 day fixed price engagement– SharePoint 2010 Readiness 2 day fixed price engagement– SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS)– Information Architecture and Taxonomy Quick Start– [Microsoft Office] Business Value Planning Services (BVPS)

http://www.microsoft.com/bi/



http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/default.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bi/

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bi/

http://www.kma-llc.net/



Q&A

• Open Questions

• Contact Me• Ask the Experts• Prizes!



Thank you…

• Contact Details– Email [email protected]– Blog http://blogs.kma-llc.net/microknowledge– Twitter: http://twitter.com/cmcnulty2000– LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/cmcnulty

mailto:[email protected]

http://blogs.kma-llc.net/microknowledge

http://twitter.com/cmcnulty2000

http://www.linkedin.com/in/cmcnulty

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A Simpleton's Guide to Business Intelligence in SharePoint 2010