BI Award – SQL BI MVP Award 2012

Last Sunday, I received for the third year, the award from Microsoft for all participation on several communities and also for all contribution spreading to the world the Microsoft BI tools during 2011. These tools are in my opinion very robust, intuitive and with huge future! For that reason is a pleasure to work with.

Last year was the most hard for me… not only the book, but the full time job on BI with amazing projects on several interesting institutions. I hope to receive the award again next year and for that reason I’ll participate even more on communities and maybe write another book! I want to dedicated this award to:

- All blog visitors
- All the post-graduation students on BI from Universidade Portucalense (Porto) and ISCTE (MSIAD + MEI) (Lisboa) for all important feedback on the Microsoft tools and also the direct and indirect support they gave me during the last year

- To Dra. Maria José Trigueiros for all the magic words (You’re still alive in my life. I’ll never forget you!)
- To my family and my girlfriend for all the support they gave me!
- All those persons that believed in me, even more than myself

Thank you all! Regards.

BI Book - SQL Server MVP Deep Dives - Volume 2

Dear friends,

I’m not writing for too much time... almost 2 months! Although we are on summer (usually time for vacations) I was working almost day and night! Yes… it’s true! Too many challenges and few much time to vacations or to write here some posts) One of the challenge was being a co-author of the MVP Deep Dives book (2nd Volume). The book is almost available for sell! See here more details from the chapter I wrote: “Excel as BI FrontEnd tool”.

Book Description

Individually, each SQL Server MVP possesses an impressive wealth of knowledge and skill. Collectively, the 63 MVPs who contributed to SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, Volume II represent over 1000 years of daily experience in SQL Server administration, development, training, and design. This incredible book captures this expertise and passion in a collection of sixty concise chapters, each handpicked by lead editor Kalen Delaney and section editors Louis Davidson, Greg Low, Brad McGehee, Paul Nielsen, Paul Randal, and Kimberly Tripp, and written by an active SQL Server MVP.

This second volume picks up where the first SQL Server MVP Deep Dives leaves off, offering completely new content on topics ranging from testing and policy management to integration services, reporting, and performance optimization techniques. The chapters fall into five parts, Architecture and Design, Administration, Database Development, Performance Tuning and Optimization, and Business Intelligence

About the Authors

This book includes contributions from 63 SQL Server MVPs. All chapters were selected and edited by Kalen Delaney and section editors Louis Davidson (Architecture and Design), Paul Randaland Kimberly Tripp (Database Administration), Brad McGehee (Performance Tuning), Paul Nielsen (Database Development), and Greg Low (Business Intelligence)

Your purchase supports Operation Smile

An international children's medical charity dedicated to healing cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities through safe and effective surgical care. Every donation can help change a life! Learn more at www.operationsmile.org

BI Award – SQL BI MVP Award 2011

Yesterday, I received the email from Microsoft with MVP Award related for all my contribution in the last year. It’s an honor to be again in the restricted group of those persons that spend huge time in what they believe and has passionate.

I have some projects related with this award that I’ll write here very soon. But for now, I want to thank primarily to my princess Joana that is always by my side and to my family. Some special thanks to all direct and indirect support from:

- All blog visitors
- All the post-graduation students on BI from Universidade Portucalense (Porto)
- All the master graduation students on BI from ISCTE (MSIAD + MEI) (Lisboa)
- Dra. Maria José Trigueiros for all the magic words (She’s still alive in my life)
- All those persons that believed in me, even more than myself

Thank you all! Regards.

BI Article - Writing for Portuguese Microsoft KB

Recently I was invited by Microsoft to write to Portuguese Knowledge Base on SQL Server, more specifically in the Business Intelligence (BI) area. It was an honour and extra motivation for me, despite I’m being increasingly busier and with difficulty to contribute with my BI perspective in the various communities I am currently involved. This is also a challenge to test my capability for manage my time.

My articles on Microsoft's KB will follow a structure of "from theory to practice" in the BI area and they can be less or more detailed and addressing various issues on Data Warehousing, OLAP and Data Mining using tools such as Microsoft SQL Server R2, Excel 2010 , Power Pivot and Sharepoint 2010. This first article focuses on an approach that I typically use to design the date dimension. I hope this article is useful and also contribute for more complex approaches on date dimensions that you may need to implement on your BI System.

Take a look at my first KB article (KB2293691) here and follow this link or press on the image below to download the files refered on the article!

If you want to know my perspective about BI concept, I suggest you to read my article on BlogNotions here

BI MVP - My time has come!

My time has come!
Today I received the email from Microsoft with MVP award!
This award it’s the recognition of all my effort, passion and dedication to this amazing world of Business Intelligence. I know that I have lot a work to do and even more responsibility to follow Microsoft and community expectations.

Now, I cannot forget to thank all the persons that once again, helped me to achieve this award. I want to thank primarily to my princess Joana that is always by my side and to my family. Some special thanks to all direct and indirect support:

- To the all visitors of this blog (sorry for the late answers!)
- To the pos-graduation students on BI from Universidade Portucalense (Porto)
- To the master graduation students on BI from ISCTE (Lisboa)
- To Dra. Filomena Lopes for all the trust placed on me during last year
- To Dr. Orlando Belo for all support in my dissertation in the last years
- To Dra. Maria José Trigueiros for all the magic words (I'm wait a quickly recover!)
- To all those persons that believed in me, even more than myself!

Despite the award, I guarantee that I'll keep the same personality and I’ll remain my independence and always be watching to what all BI vendors and BI consultants are doing. I’m with Microsoft because I’ll believe in their strategy and If you want to join me in this adventure, I think you’ll not be disappointed. Unlike many other BI vendors, Microsoft remains near the community and always present. In my case, I want to thank to João Bilhim that is an amazing person that always encouraged me, to be inside this amazing world of Business Intelligence. Microsoft has few years in the BI market and for that reason is not yet the number one, but the first position is too close. If you want to join this adventure don’t lose the event with Donald Farmer next 16 April here in Portugal (just send me an email)

Regards,

Pedro