Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 and Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform

Book excerpt: Knowledge is power! As its name suggests, the promise of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 is to promote better data analytics by giving information workers the right tool to analyze consistent, timely, and reliable data. Empowered with Analysis Services and Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform, you are well positioned to solve the perennial problem with data--that there is too much of it and finding the right information is often difficult, if not impossible. Applied Micrisoft Analysis Services 2005 shows database administrators and developers how to build complete OLAP solutions with Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 and Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform. Database administrators will learn how to design and manage sophisticated OLAP cubes that provide rich data analytics and data mining services. The book gives developers the necessary background to extend UDM with custom programming logic, in the form of MDX expressions, scripts and .NET code. It teaches them how to implement a wide range of reporting applications that integrate with Analysis Services, Reporting Services, and Microsoft Office. This book doesn't assume any prior experience with OLAP and Microsoft Analysis Services. It is designed as an easy-to-follow guide where each chapter builds upon the previous to implement the components of the innovative Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) in a chronological order. New concepts are introduced with step-by-step instructions and hands-on demos. What's Inside: o Design sophisticated UDM models o Build ETL processes with SSIS o Implement data mining tasks o Enrich UDM programmatically with MDX o Extend UDM with SSAS stored procedures o Create rich end-user model o Optimize Analysis Services storage and processing o Implement dynamic security o Build custom OLAP clients o Author standard and ad-hoc reports with SSRS o Build Office-based BI applications and dashboards o and much more