A Good book for Business Intelligence Reporting

Question

A Good book for Business Intelligence Reporting

stephenmccurdy

Valued Member

Points: 69
More actions
January 26, 2009 at 4:25 am

#217949

My Information Department has started moving to Business Intellgence for their reporting. As DBA I have to redo all the reports. I need a book with a solid introduction to Reporting using BI preferably with interesting stuff to get my teeth into as well. I don't need esoterics or certification just something to ease me from my happy world of TSQL into reporting with a little bit if room to grow.
All advice sincerely appreciated.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

denglishbi SSCrazy Eights Points: 8831 More actions · Answer 1

So you are looking at getting into more Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities are are moving along on the BI maturity model? Is there a certain tool(s) that you are going to be looking at implementing or using (Excel, SSRS, ProClarity, PPS, SharePoint, etc.).

If you are looking at techniques for data visualizations then you definitely have to take a look at Stephen Few. There are a couple of great articles that you can download from the Microsoft site http://www.microsoft.com/business/performancepoint/productinfo/proclarity/proclarity-white-papers2.aspx.

If you are looking at a SSRS book then take a look at Teo Lachev's book 'Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services'.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan English - http://denglishbi.wordpress.com

Gift Peddie SSC Guru Points: 73570 More actions · Answer 2

It depends on your employer's needs because Advanced T-SQL skills are very useful because reporting services rejects most code with temp tables. You could start with the Microsoft samples put the samples in your reports samples folder in Microsoft SQL Server folder and double click the solution file to see how the samples are created. I also find Brian Larson's book very useful because he covered many things not covered in the docs about the many property settings of the reports designer.

http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTRSProdSamples

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Server-2005-Reporting-Services/dp/0072262397/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Kind regards,
Gift Peddie

stephenmccurdy Valued Member Points: 69 More actions · Answer 3

many thanks for your advice. I am up and running with the reports,

Rick Todd Hall of Fame Points: 3302 More actions · Answer 4

Let us know if you need more advice. And don't get too caught up in the whole BI thing, meaning don't forget that you can still right powerful, dynamic reports using TSQL! This comes from the lead Data Warehouse Architect as his company.

Rick Todd

Bruce W Cassidy SSChampion Points: 12668 More actions · Answer 5

[font="Verdana"]I'm a little confused by the question.

Business Intelligence (BI) is a label for a group of people and products working together to produce the information (i.e. data with meaning) that an organisation needs. It's generally a division within Information Technology (IT).

BI is not a product in itself. Nor is it even a strategy. It can include products and strategies.

So when you say your company is moving to BI for reporting, are you talking the Microsoft Business Intelligence suite? (i.e. SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft Office, etc) Or do you mean your company is creating a BI division? Are they building a data warehouse?

[/font]

stephenmccurdy Valued Member Points: 69 More actions · Answer 6

stephenmccurdy

Valued Member

Points: 69

February 5, 2009 at 1:59 am

#938648

I was referring to SQL Server Business Intelligence

Greg Edwards-268690 SSC-Insane Points: 20680 More actions · Answer 7

Dan English (1/26/2009)
So you are looking at getting into more Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities are are moving along on the BI maturity model? Is there a certain tool(s) that you are going to be looking at implementing or using (Excel, SSRS, ProClarity, PPS, SharePoint, etc.).
If you are looking at techniques for data visualizations then you definitely have to take a look at Stephen Few. There are a couple of great articles that you can download from the Microsoft site http://www.microsoft.com/business/performancepoint/productinfo/proclarity/proclarity-white-papers2.aspx.
If you are looking at a SSRS book then take a look at Teo Lachev's book 'Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services'.

I agree with Dan's sugestions.

I'd pay particular attention to the Stephen Few comment.

You can have the best Data Warehouse on the back end in the world, but until you can expose it in a way the users can understand and use, it's just data.

That's where the BI comes in.

Greg E

cynthia.parker Ten Centuries Points: 1376 More actions · Answer 8

As a broad overview of all the ways to use SQL Server as part of a Business Intelligence solution I really like the book "Practical Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005", by Hancock and Toren. It covers SSRS, SSAS, and SSIS and how to put them all together.

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Business-Intelligence-Microsoft-Windows/dp/0321356985/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233856565&sr=8-4

My favorite SSRS book is "Professional SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services", by Turley et al.

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Server-2005-Reporting-Services/dp/0764584979/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233856873&sr=1-3

Hope this helps. Have fun!

- Cindy

William Pearson-302789 SSC Rookie Points: 28 More actions · Answer 9

For hands - on tutorials with Analysis Services, MDX and Reporting Services (with a specific focus on using RS to report from AS data sources) see my three monthly columns surrounding these elements of the integrated Microsoft Business Intelligence solution at the following index page:

http://www.databasejournal.com/article.php/1459531

(The page might require refreshes, with all the advertising hogging the real estate).

Another option:

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/article.php/3593466/MS-SQL-Series.htm

HTH!

Bill

William E. Pearson III

CPA, CITP, CMA, CIA, MCSE, MCDBA

Island Technologies Inc. ®

931 Monroe Drive, NE

Suite 102-321

Atlanta, GA 30308