Microsoft is announcing an update to its Microsoft Business Intelligence roadmap. Microsoft’s strategy is to deliver BI to everyone in the organization through the broadly adopted tools of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office Excel, and built on the scalable Microsoft SQL Server BI platform. Based on customer feedback, we are moving the scorecard, dashboard, and analytic functionality from Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server into Office SharePoint Server Enterprise, making these capabilities available throughout the organization at a lower TCO. In mid 2009, we will release PerformancePoint Server 2007 “service pack 3” which will include updates to the current product’s planning module. Thereafter, customers should not expect further investment in standalone versions of PerformancePoint Server. However, ongoing support of our planning customers is a high priority. These changes enable customers to deploy a complete BI solution with existing investments in SharePoint Server, SQL Server, and Excel, the most widely used analysis and planning tool in market today.

At the paper microsoft has published, you can find this Q&A:

1. What will happen to PerformancePoint Server?

PerformancePoint Server 2007 will no longer be a standalone item on the Microsoft price list as of April 1, 2009. For organizations interested in PerformancePoint Server, it can be obtained by purchasing SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise CAL with Software Assurance. In the future, the monitoring and analytics capabilities will be included in the next release of SharePoint Server and will be available to SharePoint Enterprise CAL customers. Customers with rights to PerformancePoint Server SP3 will be able to download it mid 2009 (please contact your account manager for details). Performance management is a critical component of business intelligence and Microsoft will continue marketing and R&D investment in this area in future product releases.

2. What about from now until SharePoint ‘v-next’? How will I obtain the current PerformancePoint monitoring and analytics functionality for broad BI deployment?

From the date of this announcement, PerformancePoint Server will be a license entitlement for SharePoint Server 2007 E-CAL customers with Software Assurance only. The technical requirement to use PerformancePoint planning will continue to be SQL Server Enterprise Edition. Customers will be able to use BI throughout their entire organizations simply by deploying SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Excel.

3. What about support for existing PerformancePoint Server planning customers?

Customer care is our primary focus during this transition. We will keep our commitments to deliver improved planning capabilities in PerformancePoint Server 2007 SP3 in mid 2009 that addresses many of the features and functionality required by our customers to leverage in their planning projects. We will continue to support all PerformancePoint customers per our existing support policy. For further details on this policy visit: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=12922.
Microsoft Corporation is an equal opportunity employer.

4. What about legacy products such as ProClarity and Business Scorecard Manager?

ProClarity Analytics Server and ProClarity Desktop Pro are PerformancePoint Server 2007 Software Assurance benefits, and Business Scorecard Manager (BSM) is a downgrade right of PerformancePoint Server 2007. By the Office ‘v-next’ timeframe, we expect much of the ProClarity Analytics Server functionality to be moved into SharePoint Server and Excel. As for Business Scorecard Manager and ProClarity Desktop Pro, we don’t anticipate any further customer demand for these products as a result of this news.

5. Will customers still be able to purchase PerformancePoint Server if they require more licenses for an existing deployment?

No, not as a standalone product. If customers require additional PerformancePoint Server 2007 CALs, they should purchase SharePoint Server 2007 E-CALs with Software Assurance to be entitled to PerformancePoint Server 2007 CALs.

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Hi,

I have posted before on how to alternate row color.

Here is another method ( simple one) in two steps:

1.click on the Row Group property

2. paste this code into the backgroundColor  expression

IIf(RowNumber(Nothing) Mod 2,"WhiteSmoke","White")

Have fun!!!

Ronen

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1. You can add a textbox that shows the date the report was run by setting the value of the textbox to the following:

=String.Format("Date: {0:MM/dd/yyyy}", DateTime.Today)

2.Another potential use of this undocumented feature is to display the values selected by the user for each report parameter.

This is a helpful workaround for the fact that the auto-generated filter description does not insert the run-time values for each parameter. Here's an example of an RDL expression that would provide this info:

=String.Format("Sales Year: {0}", Parameters!OrderYear.Value)

One problem with it is that you will have to guess the name of the report parameter generated by Report Builder. Typically it will be the name of the field used in the prompted filter condition, with any spaces removed.

You cannot enter an RDL expression directly into a detail or subtotal cell in a table or matrix.

3. Finally,you can use expressions in the column and row headers:

=Switch(Fields!score.Value>=Fields!evaluation.Value,"PaleGreen", Fields!score.Value>0,"Yellow")

OR

=Switch(MONTH=1, "JANUARY", MONTH=2 ,"FEB",MONTH=3, "MAR")

Enjoy,

Ronen

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HI,

One common best practice for enterprise reporting system is one template for all the reports.

In order to use one template  follow this steps:

1. Develop one report with all the template item you wish to include at your template.

2. save it on this folder :  C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\ProjectItems\ReportProject

3. There is a file called report.rdl; that is the default one from MS.  One caveat, you will have to do this on every machine as the template is on your local PC.

Enjoy,

Ronen

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Hi,

If you need direct link to the report builder, use this one on a shortcut on your desktop:

Do not forget to change the server name {SERVER}...

The shortcut:http://{SERVER}/ReportServer/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder.application

Have Fun.

Ronen

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Hi,

As you know there are always customers who want fast delivery NO MATTER WHAT.

You can always query directly from the XLS source and by that bypass the ETL step.

Please find the attached code for OPEN ROW SET.

SELECT *

FROM OPENROWSET ('Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0','Excel 12.0;Database={FileLocation}', [Sheet1$])

Enjoyee

Ronen

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During Q1/2009 we are facing a huge project of performance improvements project at a very large

scale DHW.

At this time I will share with you some of the technics...

To improve server performance, you can preload the cache. To preload the cache with a collection of parameterized report instances, create a data-driven subscription that uses the Null Delivery Provider. When you specify the Null Delivery Provider as the method of delivery in the subscription, the report server targets the report server database as the delivery destination and uses a specialized rendering extension called the null rendering extension.

This feature is especially useful if you want to cache multiple instances of a parameterized report where different parameter values are used to produce different report instances. Note that you can only specify query-based parameters on the report. In contrast with other delivery extensions, the Null Delivery Provider does not have delivery settings that you can configure through a subscription definition.

When you create the data-driven subscription, you must schedule how often the reports are delivered to the cache. In order for new copies to be delivered to the cache, the old copies must have expired. Therefore, the Execution properties of the report must be configured to include cache expiration settings. The expiration setting must be consistent with the subscription schedule that you define. For example, if you create a subscription that runs every night, the cache should also expire every night prior to the subscription's run time. If the Execution properties do not include expiration times, newer deliveries are disregarded.

Stay tuned ,

Ronen

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Hi,

Click the following link for 3 minutes of Sql Server 2008 Data Mining, Integration services, Analysis services and many more at McLaren.

Click to see : McLaren Sql 2008 

Enjoy,

Ronen

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