For those that want to have all of the newest SQL BI toys installed in a VM or on your laptop, I have found a couple of really good resources that I use each time I need to install them.
Step by step guide on installing PowerPivot for SharePoint on a single machine
Checklist: Reporting Services, Power View, and PowerPivot for SharePoint
The first link is from PowerPivot-info.com, which is a great resource for PowerPivot. The second is an MSDN article that provides the Microsoft perspective on getting it setup. Both of these resources were posted before SQL 2012 was RTM and have been updated since RTM, so they both work very smoothly.
For those that are new to PowerPivot and Power View and wondering why these tools require detailed installation resources is because both of these tools require SharePoint Server 2010 be installed. For those that have not installed SPS2010 yet, it can be challenging, especially to make sure you get the PowerPivot Gallery installed correctly. Thankfully Power View, the newest SQL BI tool on the block, works very well with PowerPivot, so once you have PowerPivot setup Power View is not too hard to add on.
Have fun and enjoy PowerPivot and Power View!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
New Beginnings, Part 2
Has it already been June of last year since I posted to my blog last? Time flies!
As I mentioned in my previous post I started a new job after 14 years at the same company, which was a very big step for me. After 8 months on the new job I realized it just wasn't exactly what I was promised or looking for at this time in my career. On President's Day weekend I saw a posting in LinkedIn for a Microsoft BI Consultant with Pragmatic Works and jumped at the chance to work for a premier Microsoft Business Intelligence consulting firm. To be honest at the time I didn't think that I had a chance at getting this position, not sure if it was low self-esteem or just feeling that I lacked certain skills, but I decided to try anyway. I was contacted immediately on President's Day and went through both the initial and technical interviews on that day. After a couple of weeks I got an offer from Pragmatic Works!
For those that don't know Pragmatic Works is a very well known Microsoft BI/SQL Server consulting company based in Jacksonville, Florida. The company is built on a core of each employee giving something back to the community, which is how I got to know the company many years before even considering applying to work there. All of the consultants are encouraged to respond to questions in the MSDN and BIDN forums as well as blog and of course present at events throughout the world. This is one of the keys to why I wanted to work for Pragmatic Works, as I have started to contribute more of my time to the SQL Server community and wanted to make that as much a part of my career as everything else I do.
So, you may be asking, does that mean Steve is relocating to Jacksonville? Not necessary! Pragmatic Works is growing so fast and has clients across the country, having me in the Denver area is actually a great asset for them. When I am not traveling on client site, I will be able to work from home. This presented another new challenge for me since I did not have a home office at the house before now. Thankfully we still had a spare bedroom, which I have now converted into a great home office where I can look out and see the mountains.
I am very thankful for all of my past accomplishments because they would not have prepared me for the amazing opportunities that I have now and I look forward to all of the new challenges that will be coming.
This should be the start of new entries in this blog on a very regular basis going forward. so stay tuned!
As I mentioned in my previous post I started a new job after 14 years at the same company, which was a very big step for me. After 8 months on the new job I realized it just wasn't exactly what I was promised or looking for at this time in my career. On President's Day weekend I saw a posting in LinkedIn for a Microsoft BI Consultant with Pragmatic Works and jumped at the chance to work for a premier Microsoft Business Intelligence consulting firm. To be honest at the time I didn't think that I had a chance at getting this position, not sure if it was low self-esteem or just feeling that I lacked certain skills, but I decided to try anyway. I was contacted immediately on President's Day and went through both the initial and technical interviews on that day. After a couple of weeks I got an offer from Pragmatic Works!
For those that don't know Pragmatic Works is a very well known Microsoft BI/SQL Server consulting company based in Jacksonville, Florida. The company is built on a core of each employee giving something back to the community, which is how I got to know the company many years before even considering applying to work there. All of the consultants are encouraged to respond to questions in the MSDN and BIDN forums as well as blog and of course present at events throughout the world. This is one of the keys to why I wanted to work for Pragmatic Works, as I have started to contribute more of my time to the SQL Server community and wanted to make that as much a part of my career as everything else I do.
So, you may be asking, does that mean Steve is relocating to Jacksonville? Not necessary! Pragmatic Works is growing so fast and has clients across the country, having me in the Denver area is actually a great asset for them. When I am not traveling on client site, I will be able to work from home. This presented another new challenge for me since I did not have a home office at the house before now. Thankfully we still had a spare bedroom, which I have now converted into a great home office where I can look out and see the mountains.
I am very thankful for all of my past accomplishments because they would not have prepared me for the amazing opportunities that I have now and I look forward to all of the new challenges that will be coming.
This should be the start of new entries in this blog on a very regular basis going forward. so stay tuned!
Friday, June 24, 2011
New Beginnings
After 14 years at my previous employer (major financial services company) I decided that it was time to move on and pursue my ideal Microsoft BI position. Unfortunately I had to leave my previous company when I came to the realization that I was never going to get that position there. I must have timed this at the perfect time as the job market started to rebound in the Denver area since I had a few interviews for great positions within days of starting to look. I didn't really broadcast it loudly to the world that I was looking for a new job, since I had some very specific ideas on what this position would be and the type of companies I would consider.
The first priority for me is that it had to be a Microsoft BI focused position, not a do everything, Microsoft BI and .NET developer and SQL developer position (there are a lot of those positions out there, but I really question the judgement of the companies wanting someone that tries to do so much). I also didn't want something that was focused on just one of the Microsoft BI tools. I wanted to work in a place where I could contribute with all of the skills that I have learned over the years and make a real difference using these technologies (and the future technologies coming). Another big priority for me was to work for a much smaller company, when I started at the company that I worked for the previous 14 years it was a very small company which I have found that I miss greatly over the years and it became bigger and bigger with all of the issues that go along with a large corporate environment.
I only ended up doing interviews for 3 different companies and had 2 that I was really hoping to get. The first one didn't pan out, which ended up being a good thing because it forced me to look a little bit more for other options. Before this I was going off of positions that were being sent to me directly by friends or posted on LinkedIn (great resource for job search), now I tried to look at monster.com and dice.com to see what else might be out there. Applied for a few positions on dice.com and within hours of applying for one of the jobs on dice.com I got a call that one of them wanted to interview me. That company ended up being the one that I accepted, I immediately hit it off with the people that I interviewed with and the job description fit all of the criteria I listed above and more!
While it can be quite scary to leave a place that you are comfortable in after many years, some times you have branch out. I have not regretted the decision in anyway and it gives me the chance to do what I have been wanting to do with my career for at least the last 3 years, if not longer. I still don't want to give out company names, but my new title is Manager, Reporting and Business Intelligence (or BI Manager for short) at a Microsoft Gold Partner that delivers custom Microsoft Dynamics solutions in the Retail and Food/Beverage industries.
Thanks to all of those that help me along in this journey!
P.S. I will be at the SQL PASS Summit 2011 in Seattle this October as well, so I'll see all of you there that will be attending this year as well!
The first priority for me is that it had to be a Microsoft BI focused position, not a do everything, Microsoft BI and .NET developer and SQL developer position (there are a lot of those positions out there, but I really question the judgement of the companies wanting someone that tries to do so much). I also didn't want something that was focused on just one of the Microsoft BI tools. I wanted to work in a place where I could contribute with all of the skills that I have learned over the years and make a real difference using these technologies (and the future technologies coming). Another big priority for me was to work for a much smaller company, when I started at the company that I worked for the previous 14 years it was a very small company which I have found that I miss greatly over the years and it became bigger and bigger with all of the issues that go along with a large corporate environment.
I only ended up doing interviews for 3 different companies and had 2 that I was really hoping to get. The first one didn't pan out, which ended up being a good thing because it forced me to look a little bit more for other options. Before this I was going off of positions that were being sent to me directly by friends or posted on LinkedIn (great resource for job search), now I tried to look at monster.com and dice.com to see what else might be out there. Applied for a few positions on dice.com and within hours of applying for one of the jobs on dice.com I got a call that one of them wanted to interview me. That company ended up being the one that I accepted, I immediately hit it off with the people that I interviewed with and the job description fit all of the criteria I listed above and more!
While it can be quite scary to leave a place that you are comfortable in after many years, some times you have branch out. I have not regretted the decision in anyway and it gives me the chance to do what I have been wanting to do with my career for at least the last 3 years, if not longer. I still don't want to give out company names, but my new title is Manager, Reporting and Business Intelligence (or BI Manager for short) at a Microsoft Gold Partner that delivers custom Microsoft Dynamics solutions in the Retail and Food/Beverage industries.
Thanks to all of those that help me along in this journey!
P.S. I will be at the SQL PASS Summit 2011 in Seattle this October as well, so I'll see all of you there that will be attending this year as well!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group
I will be presenting on SSRS 2008 R2 Report Parts at the Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group this Wednesday evening, October 20th. This will be very similar to the presentation that I did for SQL Saturday #52, but with some changes based on things I have learned since.
For more details on how to get to the meeting location, please click here.
To see my slides for this presentation, please see below and I hope to see you all there on Wednesday night!
For more details on how to get to the meeting location, please click here.
To see my slides for this presentation, please see below and I hope to see you all there on Wednesday night!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
SQL Saturday #52 - Denver, CO
Sorry for the long absence on this blog, as with many things work has been getting in the way.
Anyway, I was able to present at SQL Saturday #52 here in Denver, CO on 9/25/10. My session was all about SSRS 2008R2 Report Parts. A very specific new feature in SQL Server 2008 R2 that has some great potential, but also so big issues in this first iteration. Hopefully Microsoft will add some new capabilities to Report Parts in future versions of SQL Server.
Below is a link to download my presentation slides if you are interested in learning more about this feature. Sorry I don't have any sample code that I can provide for the demo section of the session since all of it was done in Report Builder 3.0.
I will try my best to post more in the future, I have quite a few things coming up that will make for good blog posts.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Rest of Microsoft RTMs!
Microsoft has been really busy finishing up all their 2010 products! After the Visual Studio 2010 RTM a couple of weeks ago they now have announced that all of the Office 2010 Suite (including SharePoint Server 2010) and SQL Server 2008 R2 have RTM'ed.
I have not been able to find out when the Office 2010 Suite will be available for download on MSDN, but SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available on 5/3. For details on the SSRS changes see Robert Bruckner's blog post.
Time to rebuild all of my VMs! :)
Monday, April 12, 2010
Visual Studio 2010 RTM!
Today is the day for Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET 4.0 Framework releases! For those with MSDN subscriptions head to the side and download whatever version you can. I'm looking forward to all of the upgraded look-n-feel and the integrated SharePoint development. I will try to pass on as much stuff about the SharePoint development in VS2010 as I can, since that is something that I am going to start learning now as well.
Stay tuned!
24 Hours of SQL PASS 2010
Sorry for the lack of updates, but things have been pretty quiet as SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 are getting ready for RTM.
Go to this link for some free training from SQL PASS! Most of it is focused on SQL Server 2008 R2, which will be very timely in May with RTM coming around or just before that timeframe.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP Available
The next public CTP release of SQL Server 2008 R2 is available to all MSDN and TechNet subscribers. There are many new Reporting Services features, you can get the download links and details on the new features by going to Robert Bruckner's blog.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Gemini is now PowerPivot
At the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas this week Microsoft announced that the new Excel 2010 Self-Service BI technology that was code-named Gemini is now called PowerPivot.
Not sure what I think of this new name, but then Gemini was as strange code-name as well. Guess I will get used to over time, just sounds like some kind of messed up super hero name to me right now.
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