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

by Doug Harts (Author)
Key Phrases: field list, row labels, virtual earth, Microsoft Office, Oak Park, Business Intelligence (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

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 x 7.3 x 1.1 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.com Sales Rank: #186,723 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for the government contractor, February 13, 2008

By	Mike P. (Potomac Falls, VA USA) - See all my reviews

While I have considered myself reasonably good with Office, this book dramatically increased my understanding of the power hidden in Excel and the new possibilities of presentation. I would highly recommend the book to any government contractor, even if you haven't upgraded to Office 2007 as the descriptive text and easy to follow examples have direct application to earlier versions as well. I've cut my production time dramatically and, more importantly, can 'slice and dice' the data quicker and with better insight than ever before.

2 of 2 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

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 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource - Highly Recommended, December 14, 2007

By	Erin Misgen - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Great resource. The book presented the BI information in a very clear and concise format. I thought the real life scenarios were on-point and extremely helpful. Also, the writing style was very relaxed and I dare say enjoyable to read. Does Doug have anything else in print?