Boston Area SharePoint User Group

March 2011Chris McNulty, Sadie Van Buren

See Beyond the Numbers:Data Visualization in SharePoint 2010

Chris McNulty

SharePoint Practice Lead, KMA

• Working with SharePoint technologies since 2000/2001

• 20 years consulting and financial services technology (Santander, John Hancock, GMO, State Street)

• Write and speak often on Microsoft information worker technologies (book out this month!)

• Microsoft MCSE/MCTS/MSA/MVTS• BC MBA in Investment Management• Hiking, cooking, playing guitar, colonial history,

photography• My family: Hayley, three kids (15, 6, 3) and my

dog Stan

Sadie Van Buren

Consulting Manager, Burntsand

• Project Manager and Business Analyst focusing on SharePoint

• Working with SharePoint since beta 2003 version

• Over 40 SharePoint implementations• Microsoft Certified Technology

Specialist

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• Full-service IT consulting firm established in 1995

• 30 employees: Partner, PM, Analyst, Developer, QA

• Industry expertise and focus: Professional Services, Life Sciences & Financial Services

• Microsoft technology focus:• Microsoft Certified Partner since 1995 /

Microsoft Gold Certified Partner since 2004

• Working with SharePoint technologies since 2001

• Specialties in Collaboration: Portals, Communities and

Content Management Insight: Enterprise Search and Business

Intelligence Productivity: Forms and Office Client

Customization, Mekko Graphics (ISV)

• Leading systems integration firm founded in January 1996

• More than 350 blue chip clients• Subsidiary of Open Text with local office

in Waltham• Publicly traded on Toronto Stock

Exchange (OTEX)• Microsoft Gold Certified partner with six

competencies• Have delivered solutions built on the

SharePoint and .NET platforms since their inception in 2001

• Additional partnerships with Oracle, EMC Documentum, SAP, and BMC Software

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Agenda• Goals, Terms & Surrounding Technology• Complexity Levels of These Solutions• Technology Overview and Demos

– Simple List and Chart– Excel Services– Power Pivot– Pivot– BCS & SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)– Performance Point 2010– Mapping

• Summary• Resources• Question and Answer Period• Contact Information

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 … the bright frontier

Eastern Long Island, July 4, 2010

Goals for BI Design• Answering the known

questions about our business

• Allowing users to self-discover patterns and answers to questions we haven’t yet been asked

The carousel paradox…

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Terms

• BCS – Business Connectivity Services• SSRS – SQL Server Reporting Services• Cube – a prebuilt matrix of data aggregations, hosted in SQL

Server Analysis Services• Windows Azure DataMarket (fka Project Dallas) –

Microsoft initiative to create publicly subscribed data services hosted on Azure and accessed via WCF, PowerPivot, etc. (http://www.sqlazureservices.com)

• Pivot - Interaction model that accommodates the complexity and scale of a massive collection of information

Complexity Levels of These Solutions

Time

Cost

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SharePoint BI Evolution

Chart Web Part

Excel Services• Excel Web

Access• PowerPivo

t

Enabling technologies• Business

Connectivity Services

• SQL Reporting Services

• Pivot• Dallas

Performance Point• Dashboards• Analysis

Services

Custom Solutions• Mapping• Web Parts• Etc.

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SharePoint Charting• Native to SharePoint (Web Part)• Code-free solution – uses web part

and native lists• Data sources

– Other Lists (Site Collection)– BCS/Business Data Catalog– Excel Services

• Standard Types– Bar, Area, Line, Bubble, Financial, Pie,

Radar, Polar, Gantt, Range, Error Bar, Box Plot, Funnel, Pyramid

• Typical use - quick visualization of SharePoint data

• Quick tip – use the wizard

DEMO – Chart Web Part

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Excel Services• Use the world’s #1 BI modeling tool• Render data, charts, interface using

native Excel components (e.g. Slicers) without Excel 2010 on all clients

• Data stored in Excel; SharePoint hosts a presentation layer using Excel Services

• Native SharePoint Status Indicators (KPIs) – Can also work with lists

• Use when users are skilled in Excel modeling and charting and data lives in spreadsheets

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PowerPivot

• “Project Gemini” – host 1-10MM row datasets

• Excel and SharePoint components

• Data doesn’t live in spreadsheet

• Released with SQL Server 2008 R2 but doesn’t explicitly require the R2 Engine

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PowerPivot• Like Excel Web Access except underlying data can be sourced from:

– SQL, Analysis Services Cube, SSRS Report– Access– Power Pivot/Excel– Data Feeds (XML, Atom, Azure, WCF OData, Dallas)– Oracle, Teradata, Sybase, DB2– ODBC– Text files

• Excel optimized to handle data management and memory cache locally• SharePoint builds cache and optimizes for server web access• Use when Excel modeling skills are high but data is too large or too

heterogeneous to keep in multiple Excel spreadsheets• Quick tip: www.powerpivotgeeks.net

DEMO - PowerPivot

Pivot

• “Interact with massive amounts of data in ways that are powerful, informative, and fun”

• Interaction model that accommodates the complexity and scale of information rather than the traditional structure of the Web

• Create a “collection”- underlying schema is CXML or Collection XML.

• View in SharePoint via Silverlight viewer• Complexity: Excel tool available • Tip: http://getpivot.com

DEMO - Pivot

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Business Connectivity Services• Read write access to external data

sources in SP2010 (aka Business Data Connectivity)

• Pull data into SharePoint user interface• Push data into external sources• Native Support for data from SQL, .NET,

Windows Communication Frameworks (e.g. Dallas)

• Configured in SharePoint Designer 2010• Republish data to consuming applications

(e.g. Outlook 2010)• Use when key data lives outside

SharePoint direct control – e.g. accounting systems

• Quick tip: Secure Store Service is needed

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SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

• “Code free” but requires development tools (Business Intelligence Developer Studio)

• Reports run and render in SSRS Engine

• Deploy reports to “native” SQL server or SharePoint integrated mode

• Reuse in SharePoint and Dashboard interface

• Export contents to Excel, Word, etc.• Use when some reports are printed,

multipage, etc.

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PerformancePoint 2010

• Dashboard Designer (browser downloadable)

• Integrates Excel Services, SSRS, and Performance Point Elements

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PerformancePoint 2010

• Sophisticated self service modeling• Decomposition Tree• Ideal for SSAS but also work with standard data sources

(lists, SQL)• Requires true SQL development to build and maintain SSAS

cubes for KPIs and scorecards• Use when data structures are stable and modeling skills are

at least moderate (dimensions, facts)• Quick tip: don’t fear SSAS! If you have Project Server you

already have cubes

DEMO – PerformancePoint

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Mapping

• IDC reports that nearly 80% of business data has a location component

• Make business tools as engaging as what’s on the web

• Use cases: – Customer base / trade areas– Routing and shipping– Targeted marketing– Supply chain & disruption resolution

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Mapping

DEMO - Mapping

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SummaryTechnology Pros Cons Sample Use Case

SharePoint Lists and Charts

Simple code free solutions

Simple data aggregations Users understand how to chart their own data

Excel Services User familiarity Limited to Excel data sources

Users love Excel charts!

PowerPivot Large datasets Requires some Excel 2010 Data is too big for Excel

SQL Reporting Services Commonly used SQL query techniques

Not an end user tool; entry level development skills

Need to print large multipage reports; export to Excel

Performance Point and Analysis Services

Rich scorecard and reporting environments, aggregates other elements like SSRS

Requires more development sophistication

On screen data exploration of prebuilt analyses

Pivot Large datasets, can be built by Excel plugin for the power user or by developer

Image collection time-consuming to build/standardize

Each data item has visual component

Mapping Varying solution levels, user familiarity

Potential licensing complexity

Each data item has location component

Custom solutions More complex solution More effort Mapping!

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2010 BI Solutions in SharePoint

Printing or exporting

Visual NavigationLarge Datasets

Small Datasets

Mapping

Pivot

SQL Reporting Services

PerformancePoint

Excel Services

Chart Web Part

PowerPivot

SharePoint list

KPI / Status Indicator

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Resources - General

• From Microsoft:– Business Intelligence: http://www.microsoft.com/bi/ – SharePoint 2010 site: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com– SharePoint Team Blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/default.aspx– BI Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bi/

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Resources: Mapping• Bing Developer Center & Bing Maps Customer Gallery:– http://www.microsoft.com/maps/developers/

• Bing Maps Blog:– http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/

• GIM International – online magazine of geomatics:– http://www.gim-international.com/index.php

Resources: Pivot• Microsoft Live Labs Pivot site– http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/pivotviewer/

• Viewer control for Silverlight:– http://www.silverlight.net/learn/pivotviewer/

• Pivot Collection Gallery: http://www.getpivot.com/collections/

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• Questions?• Contact Us• Prizes!

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Thank you…Contact Chris:

Email cmcnulty@kma-llc.netBlog http://blogs.kma-llc.net/microknowledgeTwitter http://twitter.com/cmcnulty2000LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/cmcnulty

Contact Sadie:Email svanburen@burntsand.comBlog http://amatterofdegree.typepad.com/a_matter_of_degree/Twitter http://twitter.com/sadalitLinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/sadalit