I have to give Jason Morales in the PerformancePoint team in the US all the credit for this idea. He has began to pull together some great content and links from across the OBA business and distribute it to some of his key customer and partner contacts. Some of it has a distinctly North American flavour but with his permission I am going to lift this idea, anglicise it and publish it as a regular monthly update of all things MS BI.
So it's only the 17th of June but what the heck I'll publish it anyway. This is the inaugural monthly update for June 2007.
Key to making this as valuable as possible is letting me know what you would like to see in this...It's very much a free forum for posting information that's important to you.
Enjoy 
Hot Topics
Performance Point CTP3 – will be available this month!
What’s new in Monitoring and Analytics CTP3
Click here to sign up for CTP3
SQL Server 2008: “Katmai”
SQL Server 2008 Web Casts
Developers to Get Hooks into SQL Server ‘Katmai’
Bridging the Gap Between Data and Developers
Microsoft acquires Dundas’s data visualization components, & SQL 2008 CTP news
Microsoft Acquire Stratature
Microsoft Buys Data Management Vendor Stratature
Acquisition FAQ
Business Intelligence Virtual Labs
Try out a business intelligence virtual lab to test out the technology stack, including:
- Analysis Services
- Excel 2007
- Business Scorecard Manager 2005 (BSM)
- ProClarity
- Report Builder
- Integration Services
- Data Mining
Click here to access the Virtual Labs.
ProClarity Evaluation
Available through MSVL and through the following MSDN Premium subscriptions:
Visual Studio Professional w/MSDN Premium Subscription
Visual Studio Team Architect Edition w/MSDN Premium Subscription
Visual Studio Team Developer Edition w/MSDN Premium Subscription
Visual Studio Team Database Professional Edition w/MSDN Premium Subscription
Visual Studio Team Test Edition w/MSDN Premium Subscription
Visual Studio Team Suite Edition w/MSDN Premium Subscription
Academic Alliance members will also have access to these bits.
Feel free to email me for further assistance.
ERP-Link: Microsoft BI for SAP
The iNet Platform provides a SAP Certified connector to bring data from SAP R/3 & BW to SQL Server Analysis Services.
Jason Morales recently hosted a webinar with ERP-Link to present SAP BW data through ProClarity Dashboards. The session offered great insights into how iNet extends the ETL functionality of SSIS to more thoroughly integrate with SAP data sources.
Please click here to request access to the webinar recording.
Upcoming Events
PerformancePoint/ProClarity Briefing - Customer & Partner
London June 26th (AM): Click here to register
Manchester June 28th (AM): Click here to register
An introduction to Monitoring & Analytics
London June 26th (PM): Click here to register
Manchester June 28th (PM): Click here to register
TechNet Webcast: SQL Server Code Name “Katmai” Overview
When: Tue (June 26) @ 4pm-5pm (BST)
Click here to register
TechNet Webcast: Real-Time BI with SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
When: Wed (June 20) @ 5:30pm (BST)
Click here to register
MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Server 2007 and Business Intelligence
When: Fri (June 22) @ 8pm (BST)
Click here to register
Training
SQL Server Training Courses
Online & Instructor led
PerformancePoint Server Training Site
Includes BSM & ProClarity self-paced online training
Resources
Microsoft BI
Whitepapers
Archived Webcasts
BI Presentations
Performance Management 101 with PPS 2007
SQL Server
Best Practices
Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Scales to your growing business needs
Evaluation Guide
Data Mining
SQLServerDataMining.com
The data miner
Microsoft BI Blogs
Microsoft BI Blog – by Patrick Husting
Nick Barclay’s BI Blog
Chris Webb’s BI Blog
Vidas Matelis BI Blog
Microsoft OLAP by Mosha Pasumansky
Prologika (Teo Lachev’s Weblog)
Charlie Maitland’s Blog
Ian Tien’s Unofficial PerformancePoint Server and Business Scorecard Manager Blog
Bruno Aziza
Russell Christopher's Semi-Useful BI Musings
Direct Reports (Brian Welcker’s Weblog)
Ben Jones SQL Blog
Randon Thoughts on MS BI products - Patrice Truong
Microsoft BI Partners
http://www.microsoft.com/bi/partners/partners.aspx
OLAP Report - summaries
Market share analysis
SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 (Microsoft)
Dimensional Relational vs. OLAP: The Final Deployment Conundrum
BI News Links & Press Releases
Ballmer on BI: Microsoft’s CEO Looks Ahead
Microsoft BI Conference
Microsoft Touts PerformancePoint, Next-Gen SQL Server at Inaugural BI Fete
Microsoft Plans BI, Security, BizTalk Managed Services
SAP and Microsoft Extend Alliance for Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Business intelligence now a given for SMBs
Next-Gen Business Intelligence: The Future Is Now
Opinion: Enterprise Search Is This Year’s Hot Topic For Business Intelligence
