Author Archives: James Serra

About James Serra

James is an independent consultant with the title of Business Intelligence/Data Warehouse/Master Data Management Architect and Developer, specializing in the Microsoft SQL Server BI stack.

PASS Business Analytics Conference: the ultimate networking

Posted on April 18, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, PASS, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 6 Comments

Geoflow Preview for Excel 2013

Posted on April 16, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Excel, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a comment

PASS SQL Saturday in Chicago Presentation Slides

Posted on April 15, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Business Intelligence, Data warehouse, PASS, Presentation, Session, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a comment

PASS Business Analytics Conference Presentation Slides

Posted on April 15, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Appliance, Data warehouse, PASS, Presentation, Session, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 2 Comments

PASS Business Analytics Conference Live Blog

Posted on April 11, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in PASS, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a comment

PASS Business Analytics Conference

Posted on April 8, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in PASS, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a comment

Microsoft BI tools: How they use data sources

Posted on April 2, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Excel, PerformancePoint, Power View/Project Crescent, PowerPivot, Report Builder, SQLServerPedia Syndication, SSRS | 1 Comment

SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence Enhancements

Posted on March 28, 2013 by

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!

Posted in Business Intelligence, SQL Server 2012, SQLServerPedia Syndication | 4 Comments

TFS vs SSIS project versioning

Posted on March 26, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in SQLServerPedia Syndication, SSIS, Team Foundation Server | Leave a comment

Benefits of using views in a BI solution

Posted on March 19, 2013 by

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Business Intelligence, SQLServerPedia Syndication | Leave a comment