Thursday, September 27, 2007

BI Events - SAS Portugal

Next november, it will be a big event about Business Intelligence and It will be organized by SAS Portugal. The BI comunity think that will be the bigger BI event in Portugal.

...And of course, I will be there!

See further details in the link below:
http://www.sas.com/offices/europe/portugal/eventos/sfp2007/index.html



Regards!

TPC02-SIAD - BI and decision-make definitions

As my teacher told us in the last class, business intelligence is putting intelligence in the business of an organization.

For me, the main purpose of BI is to provide information that support decisions and provide all the indicators that allows me to know If I took the best decision or not. BI filter out irrelevant information and focus only in the information that user needs.

I don’t need to be a decision-maker to know that for take a decision I must have value data and intelligence to decide. This intelligence to decide could be for example when you have value information and understand some information like market changes, risk assessment, poor employees performance… and can take preventive decisions in order to reach the organization strategy.

Giving some time to “gurus” of business intelligence I found an article that refers some relevant comments from Herbert Simon relating to decision-making.

“It is work of choosing issues that require attention, setting goals, finding or designing suitable courses of action, and evaluating and choosing among alternative actions. The first three of these activities (fixing agendas, setting goals and designing actions) are usually called problem solving; the last, evaluating and choosing, is usually called decision-making.” in TDWI website




“All four steps of the decision process elaborated by Herbert Simon and many others can be satisfied with analytics software that allows people at any skill level to perform the required operations. Super users will always have a role, and most people in an organization will never develop skills or interest in pursuits such as stochastic processes or simulation, but framing a problem and building a model can be a very simple process. Today, most BI efforts are driven by data, not by models, and the user interfaces, best practices and training are aligned with this approach. Toppling the pyramid means breaking through the data-only model and finding ways to distribute models and applications that can be used and shared by everyone.” in TDWI website

Tomorrow I will try to add additional comments.
regards

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

OFF-TOPIC - LinkedIn

Dear Friends,
Do you already know LinkedIn?! If not, go to http://www.linkedin.com/...
Is a website where you can store your profile and found old collegues and receive job notifications!


Add your profile today and and me as your connection!
Regards!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

TPC01-SIAD - Master HomeWork

Dear Friends,
This subject is dedicated to my master homeworks and it will be written in portuguese.
Let's do it...

Todos os dias me deparo com novos problemas e como consequencia novos objectivos. Faz parte da vida o aparecimento de novos problemas, nós própris por vezes parece que andamos á procura de problemas, mas sem problemas a vida fica sem objectivo e não faz sentido. Por isso mesmo a minha missão nesta vida é cumpri-los na integra e continuar a ser feliz como tenho sido até agora.
De seguida apresento o meu quadro de problemas e objectivos que foi solicitado como TPC.

Cumprimentos a todos e bom trabalho!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

BI Master - 1. Weekend

As I told you before, I started my master in “Integrated Systems to Decisions Support” . This master will be on Fridays and Saturdays.

The master in this first trimester will be focus in 3 main subjects:
- Integrated Systems to Decisions Support (Maria José Trigueiros - ISCTE)
- Management of DataWarehouse Projects (Patricia Narciso - GTBC)
- Data Analysis (Teresa Calapez - ISCTE)

I. Integrated Systems to Decisions Support
These first lessons was something seemed like a group therapy!
The main purpose was to make all the people “speak the same language”. There is some basic concepts that you think you know, but in the reality we have some difficult to give a definition to them.

It was some questions that made us to think…
What's a computer?
What's a problem?
Have all the problems one decision?
If there isn’t alternatives, there is a decision?
What's intelligence?

Feel de Gap!


II. Management of DataWarehouse Projects
In these first lessons, Patricia explained the most important differences between Bill Inmon and Ralph Kimball aproaches, and gave us a generic architecture that I think is a miscellaneous of both.

“Numerous data warehouse practitioners have questioned the different approaches to data warehousing as taught by Bill Inmon and Ralph Kimball. Religious wars have erupted between devout followers of each. As the industry has matured, the two philosophies have become much more aligned with each other. However, the language used to describe their methodology leads to questions of compatibility.”
Read full Susana Gallas article following this link
http://www.dmreview.com/editorial/newsletter_article.cfm?nl=dmdirect&articleId=1400

There is a discussion about these two approaches in the link:
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/bi/confessions/archives/kimball-vs-inmonor-how-to-build-a-data-warehouse-10987

III. Data Analysis
The general feeling is that these lessons will be very hard.
It will be focus in data analysis with a lot of statistical techniques.
I only had a lesson in this subject and for that reason, I will resume this subject better in the next week.


Regards!

Saturday, September 8, 2007

BI Certifications

Dear friends,
Nothing is more important that some entity recognize us an experienced and certified person. For that reason, is very important to learn more and get the best certifications of the world. If someone already has it, please give us some feedback about it. I will try to do the Microsoft exams during this month, and I will post here my comments.
See the links below and read all the benefits and requirements you have.

1. MCTS: SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence


“The Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certifications enable professionals to target specific technologies and distinguish themselves by demonstrating in-depth knowledge and expertise in their specialized technologies.
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialists in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence (MCTS: SQL Server 2005 BI) implement and maintain business intelligence solutions. They have thorough knowledge of the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Development tool suite. They have knowledge of database schemas and of debugging, monitoring, and troubleshooting Business Intelligence solutions, and they know how to work with Microsoft .NET Framework. They can write database queries, use SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) data mining algorithms, and create and deploy SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports. Additionally, they author and deploy SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages. Typically, Technology Specialists pursue careers as database administrators, database developers, or business intelligence developers. They may also be developers and systems administrators who do not work with SQL Server daily but who want to show their breadth of technology experience.”
In
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcts/bi/default.mspx


2. Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP)
“TDWI, the leading association for business intelligence and data warehousing professionals, offers the industry's most comprehensive certification program available: the Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP). CBIP, a true test-based certification program, is offered in five key specialties for Business Intelligence success: Leadership & Management, Business Analytics, Data Analysis & Design, Data Integration, and Administration & Technology”
In
http://www.tdwi.org/Certification/CBIP/index.aspx

Regards.

BI Events

Dear Friends,
There will be some very good BI conferences on September and October. I would love to attend it, but unfortunately I spent all my money in the BI master that I will begin next Friday.

PASS BI (Colorado, USA)
https://www.sqlpass.org/summit/Pages/default.aspx


TDWI (Orlando, USA)
http://www.tdwi.org/education/conferences/orlando2007/index.aspx

Check the above links with conference dates, contents, prices…
I’m sure that these events will be a fantastic BI Events and next year I will try to fly from Portugal to United States to see both!!!
Regards!

BI Master

Dear Friends,
After a long period, here am I again. :-)
This post is dedicated to my BI master that I will start on the next Friday for a duration of 2 years.

Check the content of the master:
http://dcti.iscte.pt/mestrados/msiad/base/frames.htm

I’m very motivated to get this master, it will give me a very good background in the BI technology. I will try to post here some relevant themes in order to get some comments from you in the MSDN Forums or right here in the blog.
Kind regards

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