In the July 2015 update for Power BI Desktop there were a load of improvements to the tool including new data sources, new transformations, direct querying of SSAS Tabular Models, new Data and Relationship view, publishing directly to your Power BI site and some new visualization types.
The new visualization types added to Power BI Desktop are the Waterfall chart, Area chart, Donut chart Continue reading New Visualization Types in Power BI Desktop
I recently had a client give us a call asking for helping creating a calculation in her cube to show the month to date value for the previous year. Here’s the basics of the calculation I created.
This calculation involve two parts. First we must create a calculation that figures the month to date value of the measure in question. To do this I used the MTD function along with Continue reading #MDXMonday: Previous Year Month to Date Calculation
Last night I finished editing and posting my video walkthrough of Microsoft’s new Power BI Desktop tool. This tool is awesome! If you’re looking for an end to end analytics tool that will allow you to consume all types of data sources, mash it up, and then report on it in one single place, this tool can do that.
So give my video walkthrough a watch to get ramped up on Power BI Desktop and leave a comment down below if you enjoyed and learned something from the video!
If PowerPivot, Power Query, and Power View had a baby (don’t ask how) that baby would be called Power BI Desktop Designer. Yesterday the Power BI Desktop Designer was released for general availability, which I promptly downloaded last night at 11:30 PM EST and started playing with. Even as my wife turned out the light and begged me to go to sleep, I persisted! I was too excited. So here’s my first run through (I call it run through because it was late and I didn’t spend a ton of time looking at every little thing).
Here are 3 Power BI best practices to follow
Ok first things first. Download the Power BI Desktop Designer so you can start playing!
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45331
Installing it is pretty straight forward so I’ll spare you the details.
The first thing I did after installing the Power BI Desktop Designer was Continue reading Power BI Desktop: My First Run Through
As a Business Intelligence Consultant, I do a decent amount of speaking, interacting with the community, and have written and contributed on a few SQL Server books. A question I’m often asked is if I can recommend any good books which brings me to this blog post. I wanted to make you aware of four books for learning data warehousing and other MS BI technologies that I’ve found incredibly helpful over the years I’ve spent designing and implementing enterprise data warehouse and business intelligence solutions. Continue reading My Top Four Books for the MS Business Intelligence Professional
Creating an SSAS MDX calculations for daily average sales is a pretty common requirement I’ve come across as a consultant for Pragmatic Works and as the instructor for Pragmatic Works Introduction to MDX class. Because of this and the fact that many people often come to me with their MDX challenges, I’ve decided to start a series of blog posts covering these challenges and experiences both as a reference for myself and other and also as a way to give back to the community. These examples will be done using the Adventure Works cube unless otherwise stated. Some of these will be simple and some will be more complicated but I hope you will enjoy learning a little bit about MDX as much I do so lets begin!
There are two basic parts to creating this calculation. The first step is Continue reading #MDXMonday: Calculate Daily Average Sales
After spending the last five years or so designing and performance tuning SSAS cubes and dimensions for the clients of Pragmatic Works, I’ve noticed there seems to be a recurring pattern with poorly designed dimensions. Because of this I wanted to take a few minutes to point out three easy things you can do to improve the performance and usability of your solution’s dimensions Continue reading 3 SSAS Dimension Design Best Practices to Live By
I’m very excited to announce that I’ve been selected to present a session entitled Designing a Data Warehouse from the Ground Up on October 10, 2015 in Orlando, Florida at Seminole State College of Florida! I’ll be presenting this session for the first time along side Mitchell Pearson (b|t). This is going to be an amazing event with tons of amazing, FREE training for everyone including SQL server newbies on up to those who have been in the profession for years. Continue reading Learn Designing a Data Warehouse from the Ground Up at SQL Saturday 442 Orlando, FL
If you’ve ever spoken at an event like a SQL Saturday or Code Camp, answered a question on a forum, written a blog post, or helped lead a discussion at your place of work then on some level you are already a Thought Leader. If you’re asking what a Thought Leader really is, you’re probably a lot like I was when I first started reading Denise Brousseau’s Ready to Be a Thought Leader. A Thought Leader is somebody that drives thinking and learning in a particular industry, group, or profession. These people are widely recognized as an expert and authority on their subject matter and a go-to-person for learning and insight into their field. Thought Leaders are men and women that take the time to increase their knowledge, share what they’ve learned, and make a difference in the lives of others in their niche. Ready to Be a Thought Leader demonstrates a seven step pattern laid out by Denise Brosseau instructing the reader on how to become an innovative, forwarding-thinking, cutting edge Thought Leader. Continue reading Make a Difference as a Thought Leader: A Book Review
There’s a load of new features that are included in the release of SQL Server Analysis Services 2016 CTP2. I’m pretty excited about these changes and while these changes have been public for a while now, I’d like to share my thoughts. I’ll say that these features are included in the SSAS 2016 CTP2 release. This release does not include all the enhancements to SSAS 2016 and these enhancements are subject to change. You can read about the enhancements here. Continue reading What’s New in SQL Server Analysis Services 2016?
