Pro PerformancePoint Server 2007: Building Business Intelligence Solutions

✍ Scribed by Philo Janus

• Publisher: apress
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 470
• Series: Expert's Voice in Business Intelligence
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Pro PerformancePoint Server 2007 is Microsoft’s latest product in its line of business intelligence applications, a piece of software that gathers data from corporate databases and delivers it to an end user in a friendly, graphical fashion. PerformancePoint offers the next step in the digitization world. Businesses now have gigabytes upon terabytes of data in databases; there’s a need to interpret the data and glean key business insights from it and PerformancePoint.

Author Philo Janus walks you through the business process management and architecture of the PerformancePoint product before delving into developing a complete business intelligence solution, from start to finish.

What you’ll learn

• Develop an end–to–end business intelligence solution.
• Harness and massage data using SQL Server Integration Services, SQL Server Analysis Services, and SQL Server Reporting Services.
• Use ProClarity Analytics to get a better view on corporate performance data.
• Build a portal with key performance indicators and business scorecards using PerformancePoint, Excel Services, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
• Build out a complete business scorecard.
• Develop tools for business planning and forecasting.

Who is this book for?

If you’re interested in harvesting data from your corporate databases, developing solutions to represent it visually to different audiences in your business, and slicing and dicing that information in a variety of different ways, PerformancePoint—and this book—are for you.

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

✦ Table of Contents

Pro PerformancePoint Server 2007: Building Business Intelligence Solutions......Page 1
Contents at a Glance......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Foreword......Page 17
About the Author......Page 19
About the Technical Reviewers......Page 21
Acknowledgments......Page 23
How This Book Is Structured......Page 25
Contacting the Author......Page 26
What Is Business Intelligence?......Page 27
Scorecards vs. Dashboards......Page 28
Key Performance Indicators......Page 31
KPIs and Business Process......Page 32
The Law of Unintended Consequences......Page 33
Strategy Maps......Page 34
Data Silos......Page 36
Data Marts......Page 37
The Microsoft Business Intelligence Stack......Page 39
Microsoft Office 2007......Page 40
A Successful Business Intelligence Engagement......Page 41
Conclusion......Page 42
SQL Server......Page 43
SQL Server Analysis Services......Page 44
SQL Server Reporting Services......Page 47
SharePoint Integration......Page 48
Excel Services......Page 50
SharePoint KPI Lists......Page 51
ProClarity 6.3......Page 52
PerformancePoint Server 2007......Page 54
Monitoring and Analytics......Page 55
Modeling and Planning......Page 57
Conclusion......Page 58
SQL Server Editions......Page 59
Express Edition with Advanced Services......Page 61
Standard Edition......Page 62
Enterprise Edition......Page 63
Management Studio......Page 64
Business Intelligence Development Studio......Page 66
Profiler......Page 68
Programmability......Page 69
Service Broker......Page 70
Security......Page 71
XQuery and Data Manipulation Language......Page 72
Database Snapshots......Page 73
Reports......Page 74
Data Mining Improvements......Page 75
Auditing......Page 77
Conclusion......Page 78
Why Integration Services?......Page 79
Data Sources......Page 85
About Data Transformation Services......Page 86
Architecture......Page 88
Getting Integration Services......Page 89
Business Intelligence Development Studio......Page 90
Flows......Page 93
Containers......Page 96
Executing Other Code......Page 97
Data Flow Sources......Page 98
Data Flow Transformations......Page 99
Scripting Tasks......Page 100
Custom Tasks......Page 103
Error Reporting......Page 104
Scalability......Page 105
Deploying and Executing Integration Services Packages......Page 106
Conclusion......Page 108
SQL Server Analysis Services......Page 109
What Is a Cube?......Page 110
Facts and Dimensions......Page 115
Star Schema or Snowflake Schema?......Page 116
Building a Cube......Page 117
Creating the Project......Page 120
Creating a Data Source......Page 122
Creating a Data Source View......Page 125
Dimensions......Page 130
The Time Dimension......Page 134
Dimension Hierarchies......Page 139
Creating the Cube......Page 140
Key Performance Indicators......Page 148
Conclusion......Page 149
SQL Server Reporting Services......Page 151
Report Server......Page 154
Report Manager......Page 155
Report Designer......Page 156
Report Builder......Page 157
Reporting Services Configuration Manager......Page 158
Extensions......Page 160
URL-Based Commands......Page 161
Creating Reports......Page 162
Table and Matrix Reports......Page 163
Reporting Services 2008: Tablix......Page 164
Multidimensional Reports......Page 173
Charts and Graphs......Page 186
SharePoint Integration......Page 189
Conclusion......Page 190
Data Mining......Page 191
SQL Server Implementation......Page 192
Decision Trees......Page 194
Naive Bayes......Page 198
Sequence Clustering......Page 201
Neural Networks......Page 202
Choosing an Algorithm......Page 203
Data Mining in Integration Services......Page 204
SQL Server 2005 SP2 Excel Add-Ins......Page 206
Table Analysis......Page 207
Data Preparation (Data Mining Tab)......Page 209
Data Mining Tools......Page 211
Publishing to Reporting Services......Page 212
Conclusion......Page 213
Business Intelligence in Excel and SharePoint......Page 215
Business Intelligence in Office......Page 216
Excel 2007......Page 217
Data Connections......Page 218
Publishing Spreadsheets......Page 223
Providing Excel Functions via Code......Page 225
Configuring Excel Services......Page 226
Publishing to Excel Services......Page 229
KPI Lists......Page 232
Dashboards......Page 233
Conclusion......Page 236
ProClarity Analytics Server Overview......Page 237
Business Charts......Page 240
Decomposition Tree......Page 244
Perspective View......Page 246
Web Standard......Page 248
Web Professional......Page 250
Architecture......Page 251
Using ProClarity Web Professional......Page 254
Publishing and Briefing Books......Page 260
Advanced Visualizations......Page 262
ProClarity and SharePoint......Page 270
Installing ProClarity Analytics Server......Page 272
Conclusion......Page 280
Scorecards......Page 281
Strategy Maps......Page 285
Installation......Page 288
Running Dashboard Designer......Page 295
Tour of Dashboard Designer......Page 297
The Fluent User Interface......Page 298
Connecting to a Monitoring Server......Page 300
The Workspace Browser......Page 301
Editor and Properties......Page 302
Indicators......Page 304
Actual Values......Page 307
Targets......Page 310
Scorecards......Page 320
Tabular Scorecards......Page 321
Conclusion......Page 328
ODBC (Access Database File)......Page 329
Excel 2007 Spreadsheets......Page 333
Excel 2007 Scorecards......Page 341
Analysis Services......Page 347
Creating an OLAP Scorecard......Page 353
Conclusion......Page 358
Overview of the Dashboard Editor......Page 359
Reports......Page 362
Analytic Grids......Page 364
Analytic Charts......Page 371
Excel Services......Page 374
PivotChart, PivotTable, and Spreadsheet Reports......Page 375
ProClarity Analytics......Page 376
SQL Server Reports......Page 378
Creating Dashboards......Page 382
Filters......Page 384
Linking Dashboard Items......Page 388
Publishing Dashboards......Page 389
Conclusion......Page 392
Planning......Page 393
Unknown......Page 0
Why Plan?......Page 394
Consolidating......Page 395
What-If Scenarios......Page 396
Installation......Page 397
PerformancePoint, Windows 2008, and 64 Bits......Page 398
Working with Planning......Page 401
Creating a Model......Page 407
Importing Data......Page 422
Designing Forms......Page 425
Workflow......Page 434
Entering Data......Page 438
Business Rules......Page 443
Conclusion......Page 445
Creating Management Reports......Page 447
Connecting to PerformancePoint Server......Page 457
Conclusion......Page 460
Index......Page 461