Microsoft ® Office 2007 Business Intelligence: Reporting, Analysis, and Measurement from the Desktop [Paperback]

Doug Harts (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071494243 | ISBN-13: 978-0071494243 | Publication Date: November 16, 2007 | Edition: 1

Extract and analyze mission-critical enterprise data using Microsoft Office 2007

This authoritative volume is a practical guide to the powerful new collaborative Business Intelligence tools available in Office 2007. Using real-world examples and clear explanations, Microsoft Office 2007 Business Intelligence: Reporting, Analysis, and Measurement from the Desktop shows you how to use Excel, Excel Services, SharePoint, and PerformancePoint with a wide range of stand-alone and external data in today's networked office. You will learn how to analyze data and generate reports, scorecards, and dashboards with the Office tools you're already using to help you in your everyday work.

• Create Excel PivotTables and PivotCharts and apply Conditional Formatting
• Convert Excel spreadsheets into Excel Tables with Conditional Formatting and Charting
• Connect external data to Excel using Office Data Connections and SharePoint
• Create SharePoint dashboards that display data from multiple sources
• Add Key Performance Indicators and Excel Services reports to your dashboards
• Harness advanced SQL Server 2005 data analysis tools with the Excel Data Mining Add-In and Visio Cluster Diagrams
• Generate integrated PerformancePoint Scorecards
• Create Visio PivotDiagrams and Windows Mobile spreadsheets

All of the examples in the book can be downloaded for free by doing the following: go to www.mhprofessional.com. Click on the Computing tab. Click on the Downloads page. Click on the book's title to download the examples.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Doug Harts is a member of the Microsoft Business Intelligence Advisory Council and the Excel Advisory Council. He is the Chief Technology Officer of Cizer Software and is a frequent speaker at SQL Server and Microsoft conferences. Doug maintains an Office Business Intelligence & Data Mining community website at OfficeBIcentral.com. With 20 years of experience in the field, Doug brings a lively style to the explanation of practical BI techniques.

Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (November 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071494243
• ISBN-13: 978-0071494243
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > SQL Server

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Microsoft Office 2007 Business Intelligence, December 12, 2008

By 

R. Dauterman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft ® Office 2007 Business Intelligence: Reporting, Analysis, and Measurement from the Desktop (Paperback)

The book does not include the code necessary to work through the examples. It's not included as a CD with the book or as a publisher download. The author's company will sell you the CD with the code and some "extras" for an additional $24.95. This makes the book excessively overpriced for what it's worth.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Business Intelligence Developer likes this book, August 17, 2008

By 

BI Developer "BI Developer" (Danbury, CT) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft ® Office 2007 Business Intelligence: Reporting, Analysis, and Measurement from the Desktop (Paperback)

This is a good book.

Business Intelligence is a broad and many times an incorrectly used term. My opinion is that in essence, Business Intelligence is all about getting information into the hands of business users so they can make decisions.

This book is written for the business user. Microsoft is the fastest growing player in the Business Intelligence world. Their strategy is to leverage Microsoft Office to get the information into the hands of the business users. For example, think of how many people use Excel in the business place. That is a huge number of people to tap into who will already know how to use their Business Intelligence tools.

The book uses a diagram to show the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform. Each chapter then focuses in on a section of the diagram. It gives you a "you are here" pointer in the diagram. It gives you and explanation and then an example of how to do the important and common tasks. Each chapter is also independent of the other chapter, so you focus in on what you need to know with no worries that you missed something important in a previous chapter.

I am a Senior Business Intelligence Developer. I build the Data Warehouse and Data Cubes and develop the ETL. I have enough on my plate to keep me busy, but I still need to know all aspects of the platform. If you are a developer, I recommend this book because it gives you enough information to get you up to speed with Office 2007 as it relates to BI quickly. It shows you how to get your KPI's into SharePoint, for example. I recommend the book for developers as well.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, No Code, February 11, 2009

By 

WebDev511 "BI Pro" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft ® Office 2007 Business Intelligence: Reporting, Analysis, and Measurement from the Desktop (Paperback)

The textual content of the book is very good, but as others have noted, the book does not contain a CD or url from which to download the examples. Nether the book's page on McGraw-Hill Professional nor the author's still under construction website contain a link to download the code.

It's good for the theory, but if you're inclined to follow examples from the book you're going to be disappointed.

--Update
Even after having McGraw-Hill request the files, the author's company only sent part of what I expected. My review stands. It's as good as any tech book that shows you the possibilities but doesn't let you follow along.