SQL Server Reporting Services is a powerful reporting tool in its own right with strong programmability, extensibility and scalability features that have led to its widespread adoption. As a report authoring tool, however, SSRS has lacked the powerful dashboard creation features of its competitors. With the release of SQL Server 2016, it now has the […]
Most legacy ERP systems still utilize Crystal Reports for creating detailed, flexible and dynamic business reports. However, multiple acquisitions of the software over the years has resulted in it falling behind software trends in Data Analytics systems. Even its latest owner, SAP, is moving to Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Service as its go-to solution. The […]
Optimus is excited to bring you Transform 2016 on Oct. 20th 2016! Transform 2016 will bring three executives from leading Vancouver organizations to talk about how they are using data analytics to grow and transform their business. Learn how they used analytics to uncover the story their data is telling, the problems that it uncovered and how […]
Installing, configuring and running SQL Server Reporting Services is a non-trivial set of tasks. To successfully perform these, a company needs people with skills related to databases, system administration, report creation and data analysis. Most initial deployments and their usage can take advantage of several best practices in order to improve performance, maintenance and the […]
SSIS represents a complete rewrite of its early predecessor Data Transformation Services. Usability, parallelism and performance have all been vastly improved over the years resulting in an SQL Server component aimed at high-volume, high-performance ETL applications. Here are several additional tuning steps that can further increase SSIS performance for your particular jobs. Managing Parallel Execution […]
In the world of business intelligence, putting the right tools in the hands of the right people is critical to success. Two of the most popular tools in the industry today are Microsoft Power BI and QlikView. Both provide modeling capabilities and allow you to generate visualizations and dashboards, but there are key differences between […]
If you’re like many folks in today’s business world, there’s a good chance you’re already using Microsoft’s Office 365 software suite. You may even already feel like you have a fairly data-centric approach to using Office, especially if your company is a heavy Excel user. Putting all that information to use, however, requires powerful data […]
Half the battle for many projects is getting started. BI projects are no different in that respect. A critical phase in realizing your BI project vision is developing thorough project requirements in clear, crisp, implementable and measurable terms. The temptation is to rush this phase, which often produces excessive churn or even failure as unguided […]
MicrosoftSQL Server Integration Services – SSIS – is a common solution for many organizations’ data management requirements with regard to their Business Intelligence systems. Specifically, SSIS and SQL Server together streamline Extract, Transform and Load – ETL – operations on data warehouses. The process is essential to providing efficient, accessible data flows to BI system […]
The following is part two of a two part blog post. Click here to read part one. 6. Apps and Dashboards Beat Reports BI owes much of its existence to the desire decision makers have to see reports. Reports, however, suffer from being boring and static. Whenever possible, try to move your BI output into […]