Thought Leadership

Articles

How Smart BI Today Can Illuminate Tomorrow

Insights from Superior Consulting Services’ Panel Discussion on BI 

Midwestern business leaders came together on January 20, 2011 for a morning of nonstop, energetic discussion with SCS’ VP of Technology and BI Practice Manager, Brian Larson. Brian, along with panelists John Bredesen of Minnetronix, Brian Carlson of Federated Insurance and Brian Lunde of LifeSource gave thoughtful insights into how businesses can improve the way they manage and leverage business intelligence (BI). Read the key ideas they shared during SCS’ “Explore the Impact and Influence of Business Intelligence” event.

Surveys

A Realistic Look at Business Intelligence
To learn more about The Impact and Influence of Business Intelligence on organizations across the Midwest, Superior Consulting Services (SCS) recently conducted a brief survey among IT and business leaders. In the just released report, The BI Snapshot, you’ll read the survey results including:

• The prevalence of BI
  
• How companies are using it
  
• The hurdles to implementing BI strategies
  
• Where BI is making the biggest impact

Download a copy of The BI Snapshot, A Pulse Survey Report from SCS and see how the BI efforts within your organization compare to your peers.

Presentations

Creating a Digital Dashboard with SQL Server 2008

Brian Larson, Chief of Technology & Business Intelligence Practice Manager for Superior Consulting Services presented, Creating a Digital Dashboard with SQL Server 2008 at the 2009 PASS Summit, the largest SQL server event in the world. SQL Server 2008 provides the tools necessary to create and deliver polished, real-time digital dashboards —a popular way to provide key performance indicators (KPIs) to decision makers—without a large investment in additional software. Brian’s presentation explored the creation of KPIs in both a relation and an Analysis Services environment, and methods to display those KPIs graphically using Reporting Services. The presentation also covered multiple ways to deliver those digital dashboards to end users, including integration into other applications.
To access a copy of the presentation, please e-mail your request to SCS@teamscs.com.   You may also download a sample of the Creating A Digital Dashboard with SSRS code.

Books

Superior Consulting Services’ Chief of Technology, Brian Larson, MCSD, is an industry renowned presenter who served as a member of the SQL Server Reporting Services development team and contributed to the code base. Larson has authored several books on Microsoft SQL Server. Below we provide a synopsis of Larson’s latest books.

Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 by Brian Larson A practical guide to maximizing the Business Intelligence tools in the new SQL Server release. With help from this fully updated bestselling book, database professionals will be able to transform disparate enterprise data into actionable Business Intelligence. Covering all the new and improved BI features available in SQL Server 2008, the book shows you how to put timely, mission-critical information in the hands of employees across the organization.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services by Brian Larson The definitive guide to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 reporting services. This book details how to create and deliver data-rich reports across the enterprise using SQL server 2008. It covers the entire report-building and distribution process, including data extraction, integration with desktop and Web applications, and end-user access. The book also explains how to maximize all of the powerful features, including the new Tablix data format, as well as enhanced performance, scalability and visualization capabilities.