April SQL Server user group meeting.

Prizes

• Two, one month, Pluralsight passes
• One £20 Amazon voucher from SpectrumIT

 

Agenda

18:15 - Doors Open

18:30 - Introductions

18:45 - Eric Lawson (@ericjlawson)

Title: Transitioning from Reporting to BI solutions

Abstract: Incredible focus is now upon the BI arena. The MS BI Stack is a compelling choice, especially for businesses in transition from a small to medium or large enterprise. Technology roadmaps present significant challenges, but what about the people element?

Do you want to simply deliver the next gen reporting system or can you play a part in improving the way your organisation measures business performance and makes decisions.

The session will cover

-pros & cons of basic SSRS deployments
-what are those data analysts actually doing
-what KPI's are, where to get them & the issues that presents
-how deployment of BI solutions can challenge the IT department status quo
-discuss a model for resourcing and how this maps to information deployment

Bio: Eric has over 25 years experience in the database field, beginning with IBM DB2, specialising inTandem NonStop SQL and in the last few years branching out onto SQL Server.

Eric's core experience is with business intelligence (BI) solutions & strategy, ERD & database modelling, design & performance tuning, large scale ETL systems infrastructure and data migrations.

19:45 - Pizza, drinks & chat.

20:15 - Alex Whittles (@PurpleFrogSys)

Title: MDX 101

Abstract: Give your queries a multidimensional makeover. In this session we'll look at the structure and basics of MDX, the MultiDimensional query eXpression language for querying Analysis Services OLAP cubes. We'll start at the beginning, so you need no previous MDX experience.

Bio: Alex is the owner and lead consultant at Purple Frog, a SQL Server Business Intelligence consultancy with clients including Barclays Capital and Confused.com. He specialises in all aspects of dimensional data modelling, data warehousing and cubes using the SQL Server stack. Alex has an MSc in Business Intelligence, runs the Midlands SQL Server User Group and is chair of the SQL Relay 2013 conferences. As well as speaking at SQLBits, he is also a regular speaker at other events including SQL Saturday and SQL Server user groups around the country.

21:30 - Raffle & End