James works at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where he has been for most of the last eleven years. Before that he was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 40 years of IT experience. Check out his book Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh.
One of my pet peeves is seeing a top-notch BI architect/developer working as a salaried/perm employee of a consulting company where they are making a good salary but are being billed out to the client at a rate that is … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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. I went from Blogging, to SEO, to paid … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
A quick list of how each of these Microsoft BI tools handles the two data sources “SQL Server” (relational-based) and “Analysis Services” (cubed-based, which can be the multidimensional model or the tabular model). Note that any reporting tool that supports the … Continue reading →
My first article in SQL Server Pro magazine has been published, in the April 2013 issue. It is entitled “SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence Enhancements” and can be found here (web) or here (mag). I hope you enjoy it!
Continue reading →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 →
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 →
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, … Continue reading →