28 Apr 2015
By Allen
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Want to Be a SQL BI Consultant?

Want to Be a SQL BI Consultant?

Business, Downloads, Featured, , ,
  At the February meeting of the OKC SQL User Group, I presented a session on what it takes to become a consultant. After having done consulting for 8 years, I've learned a few things the hard way and still made a good go of it. Here is that presentation for download. [download id="870"]   This download does not constitute any legal or accounting advice.  By downloading you assume all risk for yourself getting into business, after all, that is part of being an entrepreneur. Best wishes in all your endeavors. Allen
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20 Oct 2014
By Allen
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My Intro to SQLFamily

Uncategorized, ,
By trade, I'm a Cognos BI developer that jumped the fence to MS SQL BI a few years ago. My first encounter with SQLfamily was at SQL Saturday #63, April 2, 2011 in Dallas, Texas. First SQL Saturdays and SQL Rally I came to a SQL Saturay #63 pre-con to learn more about the BI stack.  There, I met Sri and learned about the North Texas User Group.  I didn't know anyone in town or in SQL, so after the pre-con Sri Sridharan and the NTSUG people welcomed me into their group, invited me to dinner, invited me to volunteer…
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23 Aug 2014
By Allen
2 Comments
SQL Saturday 309 Downloads

SQL Saturday 309 Downloads

BI/DW Projects, Business, Microsoft SQL Server,
Downloads for SQL Saturday #309 in Oklahoma City are below. Thank you to all who attended. Thanks also to all the sponsors who help make these great events possible for the tech community.     Business Intelligence Basics: Finding Return on Data This session will you chart the waters through the sea of Business Intelligence (BI) options. IT departments need tools to turn data into useful information for users. Instead of ROI, this session talks about 'Return on Data' for IT Managers. In this session we look at the roles of data warehousing, big data and business intelligence systems. The…
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23 Jul 2014
By Allen
1 Comment
SQL 2014 ColumnStore Indexes

SQL 2014 ColumnStore Indexes

Microsoft SQL Server, ,
Recently I was invited to speak at Oklahoma City SQL User Group and Tulsa SQL User Groups about the advancements available in SQL 2014 with Columnstore Indexes. ColumnStore indexes were first introduced as xVelocity with SQL 2012 as a way to improve query performance against large data sets by grouping and storing columns of data instead of rows.  With SQL 2014, those ColumnStore indexes become update-able.   In this session, we review the difference in ColumnStore indexes, implementing ColumnStore indexes Clustered and Non-Clustered and monitor performance. Allen is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist with certification in Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. His IT specialties include…
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11 Mar 2014
By Allen
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How to set OLE DB Source data in SSIS

How to set OLE DB Source data in SSIS

SSIS, , ,
Sometimes I have to learn things repeatedly before it sticks.  I re-learned this tip from Tim Costello at last night's Oklahoma City SQL User Group presentation.  We will get his presentation up soon. First, a big thank you to Tim Costello for coming to Oklahoma City to speak at our user group.  Check out his site for more tips.  This tip was just one tidbit from his presentation "Pro Tips: Tuning the data flow in SSIS".   Watch for him at a SQL Saturday near you.   Why you need to set IsSorted property on the OLE DB Source When preparing…
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31 Aug 2013
By Allen
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Sharing SQL 2012 data in SharePoint 2013

Sharing SQL 2012 data in SharePoint 2013

SharePoint, , , , ,
I enjoyed presenting at SQL Saturday #223 in Oklahoma City last week.  If you attended, you will find the presentation and Data Solution files below.  The session recording is available at UserGroupTV, thanks to Sean. Session Description: Microsoft SharePoint is a collaboration software that provides a web based portal for business intelligence, content management and document sharing. In this session get an overview of the basics of sharing a SQL table as a 'List' using Sharepoint and SSIS. Next we move on to fun stuff of integrating SQL Server Reporting Services integration. Finally we look at how to give users…
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10 May 2013
By Allen
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Business Intelligence Forecasting in SQL and Cognos

Business Intelligence Forecasting in SQL and Cognos

Cognos, SSAS, , , , ,
Note: This article is an update of a presentation given when I was at the University of Oklahoma's Health Sciences Center. At that time, I was using Cognos version 7.3. This article is updated for Cognos 10 and SQL Server Analysis Server 2012.  Revisiting this subject ten years later, my opinion is that Microsoft has finally surpassed IBM Cognos. Most businesses, including medical clinics, want some method for forecasting business trends. The Cognos BI powerplay presentation tools contain the tools needed for basic forecasting.  The trick in getting accurate forecasting is select the correct algorithm. I recommend trying the model…
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12 Jun 2012
By Allen
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‘SQL with Style’ class by Joe Celko

SQL Server, , ,
The legendary Joe Celko is coming to Oklahoma City for SQL Saturday #125! While here, he is teaching a one day seminar about 'SQL with Style'. This class takes you beyond the basics.  When I talked with Joe about the class he suggested the subtitle 'Getting out  of kindergarten'. Joe Celko is always entertaining and very informative. While this class will use SQL Server 2008 for the lessons, the material applies to any relational database such as Oracle, DB2 or even Access. This material is targeted for DBA's, query writers and application developers. Joe Celko is an American relational database…
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05 Jun 2012
By Allen
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SQL Rally 2012 BI Track Highlights

SQL Rally 2012 BI Track Highlights

SQL Server, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS, , , , , , , ,
When I got back from SQL Rally 2012 a few weeks ago in Dallas, I shoved the notes into my laptop bag and took off for vacation.   I still want to share a few of the highlights of my trip.  These were some excellent speakers and I hope to see them again at future events. Sessions: Tuning Analysis Services Performance by John Welch Presentation John did an excellent job of explaining the basics of the processing options in SSAS. What was interesting was his experience splitting up jobs to increase performance.  Process Full will process all the dimensions and facts…
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