BI Event – Microstrategy BI Symposium

Well… I come again with a post related to BI Events… Mainly because the entire world is open the eyes and the focus to BI world is growing a lot… I would not be fair if I don’t enclose Microstrategy in the more important events about BI realized in Portugal. Microstrategy is one of the top companies in BI on the entire world. After SAP and Oracle events you cannot miss Microstrategy event next 9th November 2010… Personally, I want to thank to Carla Bastos, Rodolfo Vale and Nuno Esculcas (Microstrategy Portugal) for all the support and availability to make this BI world better!

BI Events – Oracle and SAP BI Platform’s

Business Intelligence (BI) is the present and the future. Independently on which BI tools are used, the well succeeded companies don’t live without BI. Naturally BI is not only technology, but we all agree that they are the most important driver on BI. If you are a decision maker, an employee, a student, a teacher, or a simple person that are thinking to enter on this world, could be interesting see another perspective of BI. Oracle (15 September) and SAP (23 September) will hold this month their BI events with the latest news about their BI platform.

Join these events.

BI Event – FREE Sharepoint 2010 Event

The SharePoint Portuguese User Group is holding what they describe as a mega-event on September 29 2010 – the SharePointPt Day! I don’t have any doubt about their success! Huge professionals like João Bilhim, Andre Lage and Rodrigo Pinto are speaking and organizing it. You’ll also have the opportunity to see SharePoint gurus Joel Oleson and Mark Miller speaking! You cannot miss it!

I think Sharepoint 2010 is very expensive for Portuguese market, although, I truly believe that has huge capabilities and functionalities to make a Business Intelligence system perfect (BI is my area of interest, but Sharepoint provides you a lot of other interesting subjects). This week I’ll buy a 64-bits laptop to put the "hands" on it!

FREE Registration for the Event

BI Guest Corner - Six Sigma Business Intelligence

Dear friends,
Today I have the honor to publish an article submitted by Alexis Bonari exclusively for this our blog. The subject purposed has been taking increasingly importance in the BI world… The benefits and challenges of six sigma certification in relation to BI is discussed below. Take five minutes and read it... is it worth reading:

Many educational institutions that teach Business Intelligence are taking on a new challenge: quantifying Business Intelligence quality. The most obvious way to quantify or define the quality of Business Intelligence is to create a marriage between the concepts that define Business Intelligence, and the popular Six Sigma Black Belt program.

Six Sigma strategies are defined by their adherence to a statistics-driven model. These models are designed to eliminate resource waste and streamline operational performance within a company. A marriage of Six Sigma statistical strategies with Business Intelligence principals would provide a mathematically based model for cost-effective Business Intelligence implementation. There are two main challenges inherent to applying the Six Sigma model to Business Intelligence.

1. How should the Business Intelligence product be defined?
Although much of the literature surrounding Business Intelligence relies upon terms and definitions that seem to defy strict quantification, data still represents the foundation upon which the definitions are based. Six Sigma techniques can be applied to this foundational data, thereby defining the Business Intelligence product.

2. How should we define the success of Business Intelligence?
The needs and desires of the client define the success of Business Intelligence. Therefore, quality can only be determined if the factors that clients care about are adequately identified. These factors generally include pre-defined industry standards such as performance, accuracy, clarity, availability of data, etc. Metrics can then be used to measure these factors.

A high quality Business Intelligence model will deliver these collated metrics to team members who are in the best possible position to act on them effectively. Six Sigma techniques are well positioned to judge how effectively the information is passed along. As more managers are trained in Six Sigma Business Intelligence, businesses will be better able to efficiently transfer data to the appropriate hands. By streamlining the processes employed in Business Intelligence strategies, companies will effectively reap many benefits that can be passed along to their customer base.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She often can be found blogging about general education issues as well as information on college scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

BI Conference - SQL Bits VII

Today I want to inform you about an amazing conference that will take place from September 30th to Saturday October 2nd in York (UK). It will be the 7th edition and for sure is an event that you could not miss. I don’t know yet if I’ll attend, but I’ll try! I attended two times in the past… check here and here to read my experiences at SQL Bits II Birmingham and SQL Bits III London

"Just as a reminder, SQLBits 7 will take place over three days from Thursday September 30th to Saturday October 2nd in York. Day one will be a training day, featuring in-depth full day seminars by leading SQL Server professionals such as Chris Testa-O’Neill and Chris Webb; day two will be a deep-dive conference day with advanced sessions delivered by the best speakers from the SQL Server community; and day three will be the traditional SQLBits community conference day, with a wide range of sessions covered all aspects of SQL Server at all levels of ability. There will be a charge to attend days one and two, but day three, Saturday October 2nd, will as usual be completely free to attend allowing everyone to attend and experience a great day of training even if they have no training budget"

If you think to register let me know.

Pedro

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 Education - Post-Graduation in BI

The current Business Intelligence (BI) post-graduation degree at Universidade Portucalense (UPT) is near the end, and the next edition, as is typical in a well-organized institution like UPT, is already being prepared. According to the students, the current and first edition is being a success, which gives more motivation and enthusiasm for the entire teaching staff to continue the work and achieve the high expectations of the people who normally enroll in such courses.

I was again invited to take the course of BI, which made me very honored and proud and with a sense of accomplishment. There is always something to improve and innovate, and the next edition will be no exception. In terms of innovation will be my priority update all my modules and the used tools, and especially keep students of the 1st edition "tied" to the university for sharing knowledge among all, inviting them to attend some classes, workshops and mainly to present the final project done in the current edition. The following image show the general structure of my modules aligned with all the post graduation degree:

With the aim of bringing academia to the "real world", were created partnerships with large national and international companies with recognition in the area of BI. Among them are Microsoft, Primavera and Devscope as GOLD partners, and Microstrategy, Novabase, Critical Software, Informatica, PHC and Oracle as SILVER partners. My thanks to various partners for this partnership, even in the current crisis, providing the next edition students, with high quality workshops, BI books and awards for the best students.

A special thanks to students from the current edition for all their interest, dedication, kindness and friendship. I’m sure that for all their qualities their future is very promising. Personally, I see this graduation as only a training opportunity for sharing knowledge with students about this fantastic world of Business Intelligence and for which I am truly passionate.

Check all details here

Registrations are now open!

BI Thoughts – Writing on BlogNotions about BI

After Karen's (BlogNotions) invitation, today I’m starting a new adventure… writing about BI more often at the Business Intelligence BlogNotions website.

"BlogNotions Business Intelligence Blog delivers a diverse series of perspectives provided by BI thought leaders. Presented by NetLine, this forum delivers compelling updates on the latest technologies in the marketplace, discussions of competitive decision making, new ideas for analyzing data, and much more. Here you can find helpful information, ask questions, and collaborate freely"

This first post is dedicated to the Business Intelligence concept and for that reason, I should refer my main reference in this world: Drª Maria José Trigueiros.

I hope you read it and also enjoy it. Check it here
Give feedback and let me improve with your experience and knowledge.
Regards,
Pedro

BI Article - Writing about BI in a Magazine

Today I accomplish one more important step in my professional evolution. Together with Drª Filomena Lopes (IT Director of Universidade Portucalense) I wrote an article for a Portuguese magazine about Business Intelligence. Naturally, this article is more interesting for Portuguese people than those that don’t have Portuguese as a mother or second language. But for those that don’t understand Portuguese don’t worry, because I was invited to write some stuff about BI in a english website... I’ll tell you more about it during this week.

Article published last week on "Semana Informatica" magazine.

I hope you enjoy this article.
Regards,
Pedro

BI Green - I Love You Earth

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.

The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.

For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.

HOME has been made for you: share it! And act for the planet. You can find this amazing documentary on YouTube in several languages, even up in Portuguese. Take some time on this and see how our home is right now

Start today the change of your lifestyle… follow this Mind-Map:

HOME official website
http://www.home-2009.com