Minnesota Microsoft BI User Group 2013 Q2 Meeting Follow Up

Just wanted to do a quick post to let everyone know that the presentations and demos from the last MN Microsoft BI User Group meeting are available for download.  This includes the opening announcement materials for the meeting, Smead Case Study presentation, and Microsoft Excel 2013 BI.

You can access the material from the user group site in the past events and presentations location.

Smead Case Study: Introducing a New BI Toolset and Take Your Data Global with Microsoft BI Data Explorer, GeoFlow, and Power View Maps

Thanks to everyone that attended, it was a great turnout.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 10th.

Don’t forget next month “the” Brian Knight will be in town teaching his Mastering SSIS class in Minneapolis and if you are planning on attending the SQL PASS 2013 Summit Conference use the discount code information:

http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2013/

Save 10%
Your chapter: Minnesota Microsoft BI User Group
Unique Discount Code: SUM156CH

Have a great summer!

MN Microsoft BI User Group Official Chapter of PASS!

Just a quick announcement that I am happy to announce, yesterday the Minnesota Microsoft Business Intelligence (MSBIMN) user group completed the process and is now officially affiliated with the national PASS association.  The user group is part of the U.S. North Central region.  I am really excited about this and looking forward to another exciting year in 2013 when we resume our meetings.  You can check out the content from our 2011 and 2012 meetings here – past presentation content.

The Leadership Team

• Neelesh Raheja, GNet Group
• Dan English, Superior Consulting Services
• Terry McDonald, Pentair Technical Products
• Jin Cho, Microsoft

2013 Meeting Schedule

• Tuesday, March 5
• Tuesday, June 4
• Tuesday, September 10
• Tuesday, December 3

In 2013 we are also planning on organizing a couple of special session meetings, stay tuned for information about those as well and to stay in touch don’t forget we also have a group setup on LinkedIn that you can get associated with.

Thanks to everyone on the Leadership Team, the speakers, and the user group for another great year! 

Happy holidays to everyone and see you all next year!

Minnesota Microsoft BI User Group 2012 Q4 Meeting–Dec 4

The next MN Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group is coming up on Tuesday, December 4. This meeting we will have two sessions starting out with a talk on Data Mining and then a presentation about new Business Intelligence features in Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, and SQL Server 2012 SP1. Just a reminder that the location for this event is at the Microsoft Technology Center location in Edina.  Please register so that we can have your name badge pre-printed.

MN Microsoft BI User Group 2012 Q4 Meeting

Sponsored by:

Date: Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Check In: 2:30 PM Event Time: 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Location: Microsoft Technology Center – 3601 76th St W, Suite 600 Edina MN 55435 (in LOW 1, 2, and 3)

To join via Live Meeting click here.

Please Register Now (Please register so that we can have your name badge pre-printed)

Agenda:

• 2:30-3:00 : Registration
• 3:00-3:15 : Microsoft BI User Group Updates & Announcements
• 3:15-4:15 : Data Mining with the Tools You Already Have (Steve Hughes)
• 4:15-4:30 : Break
• 4:30-5:30 : What’s New in Business Intelligence in Office 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, and SQL Server 2012 SP1 (Jin Cho)
• 5:30-6:00 : Social and Networking

Presentations:

Data Mining with the Tools You Already Have – This session will cover data mining and using predictive analytics with tools you already use. We will cover using both Excel and Analysis Services to use data mining to make your data work for you. We will cover some of the commonly used algorithms built right into the tools such as Decision Trees, Clustering, and Neural Networking. We will explain use cases for the algorithms as well as demo the fun you can have exploring and forecasting with your data.

Steve Hughes (@DataOnWheels) is a Practice Lead at Magenic. His area of expertise is in data and business intelligence architecture on the Microsoft SQL Server platform. He was also the data architect for a SaaS company which delivered a transportation management solution for fleets across the United States. Steve has co-authored two books and delivered more than 30 presentations on SQL Server and data architecture over the past six years.  He also provides insights from the field on his blog at http://www.dataonwheels.com.

What’s New in Business Intelligence in Office 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, and SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 – Come and find out how the Office 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013 integrated analytics platform that allows your organization to discover and share business insights in dynamic environments.  We will provide demos of the new Business Intelligence capabilities from the Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 and SQL Server 2012 SP1. 

Jin Cho, Microsoft Business Intelligence Technology Specialist, evangelizes on Business Intelligence capabilities for suite of Microsoft products for the last 4 years.  Jin has proven ability to deliver Business intelligence solutions utilizing leading market BI technologies.  Prior to becoming a Microsoft employee, Jin spent 11 years at Allina Health System.  He led the Business Intelligence/Data Warehouse team on an effort to provide clinical, financial, and operational BI solutions.  He was also responsible for implementing reporting and analytic environment for the Epic electronic medical record system.  Jin has bachelor degree in Statistics from the University of Minnesota.

Please Register Now (Please register so that we can have your name badge pre-printed)

Hope to see you there!

Minnesota Microsoft BI User Group 2012 Q3 Meeting–Sept 5

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The next MN Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group is coming up next week on Wednesday, September 5. This meeting we will have two sessions starting out with a talk on Tabular Analysis Services and then a presentation about Big Data. Just a reminder that the location for this event is at the Microsoft Technology Center location in Edina.

MN Microsoft BI User Group 2012 Q3 Meeting

Sponsored by:

Date: Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Check In: 2:30 PM Event Time: 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Location: Microsoft Technology Center – 3601 76th St W, Suite 600 Edina MN 55435 (in LOW 1, 2, and 3)

To join via Lync Click Here

Please Register Now

Agenda:

• 2:30-3:00 : Registration
• 3:00-3:15 : Microsoft BI User Group Updates & Announcements
• 3:15-4:15 : Tabular BI Semantic Model – What? When? Where? Why? How? (William Weber)
• 4:15-4:30 : Break
• 4:30-5:30 : Big Data Buzzwords (Lara Rubbelke)
• 5:30-6:00 : Social and Networking

Presentations:

Tabular BI Semantic Model – What? When? Where? Why? How? – When we’re building a new business intelligence solution we have a lot of options in SQL 2012. PowerPivot in Excel or SharePoint. SSAS multidimensional or tabular. When do we choose a tabular model over a multidimensional model, and why? What, if anything, do we sacrifice in doing so? How do we get started – through a promoted PowerPivot model or a new SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) project? Let’s take one scenario – a new tabular model started from brand new SSDT project – and walk through the decision making and development process. Not every tabular BI solution has to start in PowerPivot. Tabular models are a first-class citizen in SQL 2012, with all sorts of bells and whistles that we’ve typically reserved for multidimensional solutions. We’ll start with a new project, talk about storage and query access models, security, end-user reporting and walk-through building it all. And if there’s time left, we’ll take a quick look at a couple of additional tools that can really help along the way.

William Weber (@WilliamWeber) is a business intelligence consultant at RBA Inc. He started his career as a professional juggler. Almost got a degree in Theatre. Actually got a degree in Chinese. And now builds business intelligence solutions for clients all around the Twin Cities.

Big Data Buzzwords – Do terms like Oozie make you woozie? Does Pig make you grunt? Are your customers buzzing about Hive? Hadoop has many data professionals trying to understand the new world of technologies to help deploy, develop, manage and integrate these new data sources. In this session we will make sense of these and other Big Data terms and tools, helping you understand the new world of Hadoop.

Lara Rubbelke (@SQLGal) brings her passion for architecting, implementing and improving data solutions to the community as a Principal Program Manager for Microsoft. Her expertise involves Big Data, data management, security and compliance, ETL, and the Business Intelligence lifecycle. She regularly delivers technical presentations at local, regional and national conferences, user groups and webcasts.

Please Register Now

Hope to see you there!

Minnesota Microsoft BI User Group 2012 Q2 Meeting–June 5

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The next MN Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group has been scheduled and the agenda is set. This meeting we will have two sessions starting out with an adventure into MDX with the Star Trek experience and then a presentation about agile business intelligence with SQL Server 2012. Just a reminder that the location for this event has now moved to the Microsoft Technology Center location in Edina.
 
MN Microsoft BI User Group 2012 Q2 Meeting

Sponsored by:

Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Check In: 2:30 PM Event Time: 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Location: Microsoft Technology Center – 3601 76th St W, Suite 600 Edina MN 55435 (in LOW 1, 2, and 3)
 
To join via Live Meeting: Click Here

Please Register Now

Agenda:

• 2:30-3:00 : Registration
• 3:00-3:15 : Microsoft BI User Group Updates & Announcements
• 3:15-4:30 : MDX Trek: First Contact
• 4:30-4:45 : Break
• 4:45-5:30 : Agile BI with SQL Server 2012
• 5:30-6:00 : Social and Networking

Presentations:

MDX Trek: First Contact (by Mark Vaillancourt, Digineer) – Cube space; the final frontier. In this Star Trek themed introduction to MDX, we will discuss the fundamentals of cube structure and vocabulary, including tuples, members, sets, hierarchies, and more. We will introduce and demonstrate the basic syntax of MDX with queries that include navigating hierarchies and even some time-based expressions. This session will give you the tools you need to write simple, yet meaningful, MDX queries in your own environment.

Agile BI with SQL Server 2012 (by Neelesh Raheja, GNet Group and Terry McDonald, Pentair) – There is always pressure from business users to deliver flexible, fast, self-service and cost effective BI/Data Warehouse solutions. Going into a BI project, we expect that business requirements will evolve and change; one business question will lead to another, creating challenges in managing scope, iterations, timelines and costs. With a traditional waterfall BI project execution approach it can take several months to incorporate new functionality in a data warehouse and update reports, creating a backlog and falling short of users’ expectations.

In this session we will show how agile BI project execution can be implemented using Microsoft SQL Server 2012. We will explore how PowerPivot and Analysis Services 2012 enable additional flexibility; accelerating the time it takes to deliver value with BI projects. Agile techniques along with self-service tools offer an opportunity to transform traditional BI project development methods to fit dynamic user requirements and accelerate development, testing and deployment. We will also present a strategy, process and key considerations for using Agile techniques to promote ad-hoc self service reports to a corporate BI solution.

 
Please Register Now

Hope to see you there!

Minnesota Microsoft BI User Group 2012 Q1 Meeting–Mar 6

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The next MN Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group has been scheduled and the agenda is set. This meeting we will have two sessions starting out with a Hennepin County Medical Center case study and then going over the new features in SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot. Just a reminder that the location for this event has now moved to the Microsoft Technology Center location in Edina.

MN Microsoft BI User Group 2012 Q1 Meeting

Sponsored by:

Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Check In: 2:30 PM Event Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Location: Microsoft Technology Center – 3601 76th St W, Suite 600 Edina MN 55435 (in LOW 1, 2, and 3)

To join via Live Meeting: Click Here

Please Register Now

Agenda:

• 2:30-3:00 : Registration
• 3:00-3:15 : Microsoft BI User Group Updates & Announcements
• 3:15-4:15 : HCMC Case Study – Healthcare BI
• 4:15-4:30 : Break
• 4:30-5:30 : Get the most out of DAX & PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012
• 5:30-7:00 : Social and Networking

Presentations:

Case Study: Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) – Healthcare BI (by Paul Volkmuth, HCMC; Mark Chisholm, HCMC; Mark Knutson, HCMC; Fazel Haris, Stratezon) – Healthcare presents some unique challenges in creating a BI infrastructure. Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) has created an innovative EDW to allow Knowledge Users to interactively query clinical information to gain insight into patient care, cost and payment. This session is a Case Study of our journey of developing a BI solution from the ground up using the Microsoft BI tool stack.

Get the most out of DAX & PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012 (by Paul Doyle & Greg Beaumont, GNet Group) – In this presentation we will cover how new functionality in PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012 supports personal, team and organizational BI. We will demonstrate standard DAX formulas for handling time intelligence, many-to-many relationships and security. We will also cover hierarchies, KPIs and PowerPivot visualizations so you are equipped to get started answering business analytics questions

Please Register Now

Hope to see you there!

MN Microsoft BI User Group Q4 2011 Follow Up

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A couple of weeks ago we had our final BI User Group meeting for the year in Minnesota.  We had our meeting at the new location at the new Microsoft Technology Center in Edina which is a fabulous facility.  This month we had two presentations, one was an I.C. System case study by Rowland Gosling and the other was covering Integration Services (SSIS) 2012 new features by Steve Hughes. Both presentations were recorded, but for some reason the audio was not captured for our first one.

The content for the meeting is available on the user group site – 12/6/2011 I. C. System Case Study and SSIS SQL Server 2012.

You can download the presentation material, the BI User Group opening presentation material, and you can access the video from Steve’s presentation as well which is available on Vimeo.

In addition to that I mentioned a couple of resources at the meeting that I would follow up with to provide the group.  I did post these after the meeting in the discussion area on our LinkedIn Group – Microsoft BI User Group of Minnesota.

• 5 Tips for a Smooth SSIS Upgrade to SQL Server 2012
• SSIS SQL Server 2012 Report Pack on CodePlex

If you are not signed up for the LinkedIn group I would highly recommend it.  This is a great way for you to connect and network with others, interact with discussions, receive user group updates and news, and post or access job opportunities.  I know that we have more than 73 people in the user group, so let’s see if we can get the membership number up before the next meeting in March.

Since I brought up the next meeting let’s talk about the dates for next year.  Here are the scheduled dates for next year’s meetings:

• Tue, Mar 6 2012
• Tue, Jun 5 2012
• Wed, Sep 5 2012
• Tue, Dec 4 2012

The meetings will continue to be at the new location – Microsoft Technology Center – 3601 76th St W, Suite 600 Edina MN 55435 (in LOW 1, 2, and 3).

Next month we are planning on sending out a user group survey to get some feedback of how things are going and to plan accordingly for the upcoming year to determine if any changes or particular content is needed.  Please take the time to provide us some feedback.  We are already lining up presentations for next year and we use your evaluations and feedback to help us determine the content that is presented, so this is valuable information.  So if you don’t provide feedback then it is hard for us to know what you are interested in or would like to see changed or improved upon.

We are looking to a great 2012 with a new product launch.  If you have heard there is a new version of SQL Server coming out and you can download and take a look at the latest release that is available – SQL Server 2012 RC0 is here.

Until then I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season!

Minnesota Microsoft BI User Group 2011 Q4 Meeting – Dec 6

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The next MN Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group has been scheduled and the agenda is set. This meeting we will have two sessions starting out with a I.C. System case study and then going over the new features in SQL Server 2012 Integration Services. The location for this event has now changed and has moved to the Microsoft Technology Center location in Edina.

MN Microsoft BI User Group 2011 Q4 Meeting

Sponsored by:

Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Check In: 2:30 PM Event Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Location: Microsoft Technology Center – 3601 76th St W, Suite 600 Edina MN 55435 (in LOW 1, 2, and 3)

To join via Live Meeting: Click Here

Please Register Now

Agenda:

• 2:30-3:00 : Registration
• 3:00-3:15 : Microsoft BI User Group Updates & Announcements
• 3:15-4:15 : I.C. System Case Study – Delivering Collections Information through Microsoft BI (Rowland Gosling)
• 4:15-4:30 : Break
• 4:30-5:30 : Beyond Rounded Corners – SSIS Changes in SQL 2012 (Steve Hughes)
• 5:30-7:00 : Social and Networking

Presentations:

Case Study: Delivering Collections Information through Microsoft BI (by Rowland Gosling, I.C. System) – Got debt? Well I.C. System knows all about this and they’ve been helping clients for over 70 years collect on it. I.C. System is one of the largest receivables management companies in the United States with 800 employees spread across four locations. I.C. System has been able to remain successful over the tough economic times because of their technological advancements in this very competitive, tightly regulated market. With the power of Microsoft business intelligence tools they are able to access, interact, and visualize their data in a fast and intuitive way. We will go over the background of how I.C. System has evolved over the years, talk about the terabytes of data they consume, go over their BI delivery capabilities, and discuss what lies ahead for them.

Beyond Rounded Corners – SSIS Changes in SQL 2012 (by Steve Hughes, Magenic) – Unlike SSIS 2008, there are a number of developer improvements in SSIS SQL 2012, beyond the rounded corners and new icons. This session will explore the changes and how they improve the developer experience.

Please Register Now

Hope to see you there!

MN Microsoft BI User Group 2011 Q3 Follow up

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UPDATE (9/23/2011): A link to the Project “Crescent” Demo video has now been added and featured on the “Crescent” wiki page in the Videos section – Project Crescent Overview.

Last week I presented on What’s New with BI in SQL Server Denali (SQL11) at the Minnesota BI User Group Q3 meeting with Jin Cho from Microsoft.  Granted that in only an hour and a half we couldn’t do the topic complete justice because there is just so much to cover and it helps to provide some demos to showcase the new features and enhancements that have been made.  The topics that we covered where going over Analysis Services and PowerPivot, talked about the BI Semantic Model, Columnstore Indexes, Integration Services, Data Quality Services, Reporting Services SharePoint Integration, and “Crescent”.

I wish I would have had more time to be able to demo some of the new SSIS items, but I allocated my demo slot to show the new self-service reporting authoring tool Crescent.  Each of the topics that we did talk about can easily be their own topic for presentation, so stay tuned for the upcoming MN SQL Saturday event and the next MN Microsoft BI User Group Q4 meeting in December.  There will also be a lot of content in regards to this topic at the upcoming PASS 2011 Summit next month that I would highly recommend.

You can download the presentation from my SkyDrive account or you can check out the slides available via SlideShare as well:

I have also setup a video that goes over the “Crescent” demo that I went over during the presentation.  I believe that when I switched laptops during the presentation that I did not share the desktop with Live Meeting, so I apologize for that and since this will not be part of the recording I put together a quick video.

Project “Crescent” Demo from Dan English on Vimeo.

A link to the Project “Crescent” Demo video has now been added and featured on the “Crescent” wiki page in the Videos section – Project Crescent Overview

For more BI highlights in the upcoming SQL Server release check out this list – Top 10 BI Reasons to Upgrade to SQL Server ‘Denali’ (SQL11).

Minnesota Microsoft BI User Group 2011 Q3 Meeting – Sept 14

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UPDATE (9/9/2011): Added Live Meeting information.

The next MN Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group has been scheduled and the agenda is set. This meeting we will have two sessions starting out with a Pentair BI case study and then we will go over some of the new and enhanced BI features in the upcoming SQL Server ‘Denali’ release.

MN Microsoft BI User Group 2011 Q3 Meeting

Sponsored by:

Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Check In: 2:30 PM Event Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Location: Microsoft Event Center 8300 Norman Center Drive Suite 950 Bloomington, MN 55437

To join via Live Meeting:  Click Here

Please Register Now

Agenda:

• 2:30-3:00 : Registration
• 3:00-3:15 : Microsoft BI User Group Updates & Announcements
• 3:15-4:15 : Pentair Case Study: BI Insights and Lessons Learned (Terry McDonald)
• 4:15-4:30 : Break
• 4:30-6:00 : What’s new with BI in SQL Server 2011 ‘Denali’ (Jin Cho and Dan English)
• 6:00-7:00 : Social and Networking

Presentations:

Pentair Case Study: BI Insights and Lessons Learned (by Terry McDonald, Pentair) – Managing a BI Environment consists of challenges and opportunities and while the journey for every business is unique we can all benefit from lessons we all learn along the way. In this presentation Terry McDonald, BI Program Manager, Pentair Technical Products will share Insights and Lessons Learned on our journey to establishing a mission or value proposition, engaging the business to create opportunities, and managing the day to day challenges of a BI environment.

What’s new with BI in SQL Server 2011 ‘Denali’ (by Jin Cho, Microsoft and Dan English, Superior Consulting Services) – During this session we are going to go over some of the new BI features that have been enhanced and added in SQL Server 2011 (code named ‘Denali’). We will look at new features that have been added into Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services. Along with this we will talk about and go over the new report authoring tool ‘Crescent’ showing how this tool will provide you the ability to access, explore, and visualize your data in a whole new way and have fun at the same time.

Please Register Now

Hope to see you there!