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SQL Server Events in Atlanta

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Next week will be SQL Server-intensive and your humble correspondent will be heavily involved:

  • Monday, April 28th: Power BI presentation by Brian Jackson, Microsoft for Atlanta MS BI Group with Pyramic Analytics sponsoring the event. This presentation will cover new and compelling Power BI features including: the data manipulation of Power Query, Power BI Sites, the Data Steward Experience, natural language BI using Power Q&A, and mobile BI functionality. There will also be a technical discussion of the Power BI architecture as it relates to authentication, storage, data refresh and the concept of self-service information management.
  • Friday, May 2nd: Three SQL Saturday precon sessions (Deep Dive into the Microsoft BI Semantic Model by Teo Lachev, SQL Performance Tuning & Optimization by Denny Cherry, and What the Hekaton!? A Whole New Way to Think About Data Mgmt by Kalen Delaney). Ping Stuart Ainsworth on Twitter at @codegumbo for $20 discount!
  • Saturday, May 3rd: SQL Saturday – a full day event of top-notch SQL Server sessions. Last year we had a worldwide record attendance with some 570 people attending the event. Help us to top it off this year!

Besides the BISM precon, I’ll do a session a SQL Saturday “Predictive Analytics for the Data Scientist and BI Pro” on May 3rd at 8:15.

“The time for predictive analytics to go mainstream has finally come! Business users and BI Pros can use the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Office to unleash predictive analytics and unlock hidden patterns. Join this session to learn how a data scientist can use the Excel Data Mining add-ins to perform predictive analytics with Excel data. I’ll provide also the necessary fundamentals for understanding and implementing organizational predictive models with Analysis Services.”

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Where is Your Focus?

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With all the tremendous interest around BI, new vendors and tools are emerging almost every day. In general, you can approach your BI needs in two ways.

  1. You can try a top-down approach starting with the presentation layer, hoping that a cool data visualization tool and self-service BI will somehow solve your challenges. Lots of vendors out there would love to take you on that path.
  2. You can follow a bottom-up approach that starts with a solid data foundation and semantic layer that enables a single version of the truth and it is supported by most popular visualization tools.

I had the pleasure to teach a class this week for the HR department of one of the largest and most successful companies. They have an ambitious goal to establish a modern data analytics platform in order to gain insights into all aspects of their workforce. Their manager told that they have tried unsuccessfully the top-down approach and multiple vendor tools until they realized that the focus should be on the data first. And, I agree completely. There are no shortcuts.

On this note, join me for a full-day precon session “Deep Dive into the Microsoft BI Semantic Model (BISM)” at SQL Saturday Atlanta on May 2st to find out how the Microsoft BI helps you deliver a modern BI platform, as well as discussing the toolset strengths and challenges.

Presenting at SQL Saturday Atlanta

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The next Atlanta SQL Saturday will be on May 3rd. I’m doing a “Deep Dive into the Microsoft BI Semantic Model (BISM)” pre-conference session on May 2nd. You can register using this link. The organizers set up a promotion code for $10 off registration, good for the first 10 users – the code is “AtlantaBI”.

Teo Lachev: Deep Dive into the Microsoft BI Semantic Model (BISM)

SQL Saturday #285 – Atlanta

Friday, May 2, 2014 from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM (EDT)

“The chances are that your organization has a centralized data repository, such as ODS or a data warehouse, but you might not use it to the fullest. Join this insightful full-day event to understand the importance of having a semantic layer that bridges users and data. In the Microsoft BI world, BISM consists of Power Pivot, Tabular, and Multidimensional.

We’ll start by comparing these technologies to understand their usage scenarios, strengths and shortcomings. Next, we’ll put our business user’s hats and see how Power Pivot and the rest of the Microsoft self-service BI stack helps you integrate data from multiple data sources, implement self-service BI data models with Excel to ideate and promote divergent thinking.

Next, we will follow the BI continuum and see how to share these models and reports with your teammates by deploying them to SharePoint. Business intelligence professionals will discover how to build scalable and secure organizational solutions powered by Tabular and Multidimensional that deliver supreme performance with large data volumes and promote a single version of the truth.”

I submitted also a session proposal “Real-time BI with StreamInsight” for Saturday. It’ll be a busy SQL Saturday for me.

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Presenting Visualization Options in Microsoft BI

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If you have some time amidst the holiday rush, join me on Monday, December 9th, at the Atlanta BI meeting, where I’ll present Visualization Options in Microsoft BI.

“Confused about visualization choices for your BI solution? How should you design a dashboard to impress your management? Don’t know what presentation options exist for organizational and self-service BI? Join us to find answers to these questions and share best practices about the visualization tools in the Microsoft BI platform.”

Our sponsor will be Computer Associates and you’ll learn about the latest Erwin release.

Also, don’t forget about the user group community party on December 16th.

Finalist for BI and Analytics Innovation Awards

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Out of 26 applications, our BI solution for Recall Corporation was nominated as one of the six finalists for the BI and Analytics Innovation Awards presented tonight by the Atlanta TAG B/I society! Although we didn’t win the award, we’re honored to be shortlisted. Eric Falthzik, Co-chairman at Technology Association of Georgia – Business Intelligence and Analytics Society and Director of Customer Intelligence at Cox Communications said that this is most interesting and sophisticated Microsoft-based solution that he’s seen.

I’d like to thank Recall for giving us the opportunity to implement an innovative BI solution that changes the way they analyze their business. I’d like to also thank the TAG B/I panelists for appreciating its value.

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Presenting at SQL Saturday Charlotte

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Lots of public appearances this month! I’ll be presenting “Best Practices for Implementing an Enterprise BI Solution” at SQL Saturday Charlotte BI Edition on October 19th immediately after SQL Pass. I hope to see you there!

Presenting at Visual Analytics Science and Technology Conference

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I believe that the Pareto 80/20 principle applies well to a sound BI strategy where 80% of the BI needs should be addressed by Organizational BI (data warehouse, semantic layer, dashboards, operational reports, descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, big data, etc.) and 20% should be left for self-service BI. One of the areas where self-service BI excels is to promote lateral thinking. A business users can quickly test ideas and hypotheses by importing, mashing up, and visualizing data. This is why I’m excited to present at the Visual Analytics Science and Technology Conference in Atlanta on October 16th. The session title is “Self Help BI: How Self-service BI Promotes Lateral Thinking” and it’s included in the “Using Visual Analytics to Foster Lateral Thinking about Business Problems” workshop. I’ll show how a business users can use the Excel reporting and data mining capabilities to test ideas and then share the results by deploying to the cloud.

WORKSHOP: Using Visual Analytics to Foster Lateral Thinking about Business Problems

DATE & TIME: October 16, 08:30 am – 12:10 pm ET

LOCATION: A 706+707

Lateral thinking (also called divergent thinking) is a critical part of the sense making process. Moreover, researchers in the field of Visual Analytics have recognized that iterative and sequential rounds of ‘Convergent Thinking’ and ‘Lateral Thinking’ are necessary for arriving at the most insightful observations. The same pattern is at the heart of ‘Design Thinking’ practiced by creative professionals. The approach leads them to holistic problem solutions that exceed what could be achieved through pure a ‘Convergent Thinking’ approach. However, most of the BI and analytics systems used by business organizations include tools and interactive features (like filtering, sorting, selecting or ‘data brushing’) that are primarily ‘convergent’ in nature. There is little or no support for lateral ideation. Yet lateral thinking has a fairly well developed body of knowledge and includes easy to use techniques for developing out-of-the-box, creative design ideas. Business practitioners regularly use ideation techniques like ‘6 Hats’, ‘HIT Matrix’ and ‘BrainWriting’ to bring structure to brainstorming sessions that seek out-of-the-box business ideas. Most new design or business ideas start as a ‘sketch’ or early visualization of the idea. But there are no formal tools or techniques in commercial BI systems that allow business users to develop ‘sketches’ of alternative business scenarios though forced and controlled data experiments – just the way a ‘HIT matrix’ or ‘6 Hats’ technique does in Lateral Thinking workshops. This session will introduce a number of ideation techniques designed for lateral thinking and foster discussion around how these approaches can be leveraged in the visual analytics context. The session will bring together researchers and practitioners to think about ways this can be done, and discuss challenges and potential solutions.

I hope you can make it!

Atlanta BI Group Meeting Tonight

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The Atlanta BI Group is meeting tonight.

Main Presentation: Dimensional Modeling 101
 Level: Beginner
Date:Monday, September 30th, 2013
Time6:30 – 8:30 PM ET
Place:South Terraces Building (Auditorium Room)

115 Perimeter Center Place

Atlanta, GA 30346

Overview:So many names! Data warehouse, data mart, star-schema, snowflake schema, dimensional model, Type 1, Type 2, Type 3… What does it all mean? Whether you’re a data consumer, ETL specialist, or database designer, it pays to understand the vocabulary and design concepts of dimensional models. In this session, we’ll cover the basics of dimensional modeling, including dimensions, facts, and the ways they all come together. We’ll talk about why denormalization isn’t necessarily a dirty word, some common design challenges, and a few ETL considerations. By the end of the hour, you’ll be ready to impress your friends and confound your frenemies with your mad dimensional modeling knowledge!

 

Speaker:Audrey Hammonds

Audrey Hammonds is working as a consultant for Innovative Architects in Atlanta. (With my fellow Datachix!) Fourteen years ago, she volunteered for DBA training to escape COBOL, and never looked back. A firm believer that good fundamentals and solid design can save a database professional’s sanity, she has devoted much of her career to designing (hopefully) elegant databases and straightening up others’ not-so-elegant databases. Audrey has run the gamut from Database Developer to Production DBA to Architect.

Prototypes with Pizza:Power BI Natural Query by Teo Lachev
Sponsor:Datachix
Audrey Hammonds and Julie Smith

Speaking at SQL Server Innovators Guild

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I’ll be speaking at the SQL Server Innovators Guild group in Greenville, SC on September 3rd. If you happen to be in the area, please join us to learn best practices for implementing an enterprise BI solution. Please confirm attendance at https://ssig201309.eventbrite.com/

 

Speaking at Atlanta Code Camp

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I’ll be speaking at Atlanta Code Camp on August 24th. Given the developer-oriented nature of the event, I settled on a more code-intensive topic: Real-time BI with StreamInsight.

“So, you have (or heard of) classic BI, self-service BI, Big Data BI, descriptive, predictive or even prescriptive BI, but do you have real-time BI? Real-time business intelligence (BI) has become one of the top priorities for data analytics. The ability of having near real-time access to large amounts of data across heterogeneous data sources is one of the key factors to enable effective business decisions. Join this talk to learn how to implement real-time analytics over streams of events using StreamInsight and .NET. You’ll see how these technologies come together in a Big Data Twitter demo that allows you to analyze the Twitter stream in real time.”