This is something I just heard about recently, but then experienced it for myself.

This story was told to me: A client is looking for a contractor and contacts a staffing firm to find candidates.  The staffing firms sends a resume that looks real good.  A technical interview is done… Read more

To expand on what I talked about in Should a placement firm tell you what they are billing the client?: If you are a consultant working through a placement firm, should the markup percentage (client bill rate divided by consultant rate minus one) be the same no matter what… Read more

Data cleansing can be done via SSIS as well as Data Quality Services (DQS) and Master Data Services (MDS).  The lines are a bit blurred when talking about data cleansing using SSIS, DQS and MDS.  In what product should data be cleaned?  To give examples: having to convert a… Read more

Here is another response to my blog “Should a placement firm tell you what they are billing the client?” (the first response was Billing rates – other side of the fence).  My purpose of these blogs is to give more understanding as to what determines the margin… Read more

I greatly enjoy doing presentations on a variety of topics, such as Business Intelligence, SQL Server, and personal development.  If you would like me to do a presentation, just ask!  For descriptions of presentations I have done before, along with other possible topics, check out Presentations.

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When I started my blog two years ago, I never would have thought how much it would help my career.  I can’t stress enough the importance of blogging to enhance your career.  And it’s a lot easier to do than you think.  I hope this blog post will encourage you… Read more

As an independent consultant who has a higher bill rate than average, I would hope it is obvious to clients that the extra money spent would be well worth it.  But that is not always the case, and sometimes who have to help them to understand, like most things in… Read more

I don’t know if I would consider myself an industry expert, but hey, it says it on the Internet, so it just be true (because you can’t put anything on the Internet that’s not true).  An interview I did to help those interested in a business Intelligence career,… Read more

I went to the PASS Business Analytics Conference last week, and had an absolute blast.  I presented two sessions, and attended many more, and was also part of the live blogging panel at both keynotes.  I learned a lot, but the best part about attending the conference was all… Read more

Last week at the PASS Business Analytics Conference in Chicago, Microsoft disclosed a public preview of GeoFlow for Excel (download).  GeoFlow” is a 3D visualization tool for mapping, exploring and interacting with both geographic and chronological data, providing users with a new way to discover and share insights… Read more

Thanks to everyone who attended my sessions “What exactly is Business Intelligence?” and “Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture” at the PASS SQL Saturday in Chicago.

Here are the PowerPoint presentation: What exactly is Business Intelligence? and Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture.

What exactly is Business Intelligence? Read more

Thanks to everyone who attended my sessions “Overview of Microsoft Appliances” and “Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture” at the PASS Business Analytics Conference.

Here are the PowerPoint presentations:  Overview of Microsoft Appliances and Building an Effective Data Warehouse Architecture.

Overview of Microsoft Appliances

Learn how SQL Server… Read more

Apologies if you went to my site this morning to see my blog from the bloggers table at PASS Business Analytics Conference.  Turns out a firewall issue blocked me from getting to my site (and many others).  So I wound up tweeting updates at http://twitter.com/jamesserra.  You can review… Read more

The PASS Business Analytics Conference is almost here!  Check out the sessions to be presented at the conference and you will see there are a ton of great sessions and great speakers.  I feel fortunate to be able to speak alongside many of the experts in the industry and to… Read more

A quick list of how each of these Microsoft BI tools handles the two data sources “SQL Server” (relational-based) and “Analysis Services” (multidimensional-based):

• Report Builder – Using “SQL Server”, auto-detects joins if source system has foreign-key relationships (by selected “Auto Detect” relationships on the “Design a query” screen).  Otherwise will…

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My first article in SQL Server Pro magazine has been published.  It is entitled “SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence Enhancements” and can be found here.  I hope you enjoy it!

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I had someone ask me the other day if they are using SSIS 2012 Project Versions, is there any benefit to using TFS?  The answer is Yes!  While Project Versions is a new feature that keeps prior versions of SSIS projects as they are deployed to the server… Read more

Using SQL Server views throughout a Business Intelligence (BI) solution can provide a tremendous amount of benefits.  Here is a list of such benefits, taken in large part from the excellent video SQLBI Methodology by Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari:

Benefit of views

• Can be modified by anyone, even outside…

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First lets define what Business Intelligence (BI) is.  My favorite definitions:

Forrester Research: “Business Intelligence is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making.”

Gartner: “A broad category of… Read more

Thanks to everyone who attended my session “Top BI Enhancements for SQL Server 2012” at the Houston Area SQL Server User Group Monthly Meeting.

Here is the PowerPoint presentation: Top BI Enhancements for SQL Server 2012

Top BI Enhancements for SQL Server 2012

What are the new features and… Read more