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	<title>PowerPivotGeek &#187; Non-technical fluff</title>
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	<description>An adventure in managed self-service computing</description>
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		<title>A photo to liven up your day</title>
		<link>http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/01/23/a-photo-to-liven-up-your-day/</link>
		<comments>http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/01/23/a-photo-to-liven-up-your-day/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:30:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>powerpivotgeek</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Non-technical fluff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://powerpivotgeek.com/2010/01/23/a-photo-to-liven-up-your-day/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>For those who I haven’t had a chance to meet at SQL PASS, the SharePoint 2010 Conference, the PNWSQL Users group, or countless other SSAS conferences over the years, I just posted a photo of myself on the About page.</p>
<p>(photo taken by my beautiful daughter Jeannie with her new Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX DLSR [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For those who I haven’t had a chance to meet at SQL PASS, the SharePoint 2010 Conference, the PNWSQL Users group, or countless other SSAS conferences over the years, I just posted a photo of myself on the <a href="http://powerpivotgeek.com/about/">About</a> page.</p>
<p>(photo taken by my beautiful daughter Jeannie with her new Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX DLSR and a Sigma 50mm F/1.4 EX DG HSM lens that her father got her this Christmas)</p>
<p>Enjoy.</p>
<p>_-_-_ Dave</p>
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		<item>
		<title>SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP (including PowerPivot for SharePoint) released to TechNet and MSDN subscribers today</title>
		<link>http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/09/sql-server-2008-r2-november-ctp-including-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-released-technet-and-msdn-today/</link>
		<comments>http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/09/sql-server-2008-r2-november-ctp-including-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-released-technet-and-msdn-today/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:57:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>powerpivotgeek</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CTP3 issue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-technical fluff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/09/sql-server-2008-r2-november-ctp-including-powerpivot-for-sharepoint-released-technet-and-msdn-today/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>SQL Server 2008 R2 released to the web today for TechNet and MSDN subscribers. According to the announcement, non-subscribers will be able to access the download Wednesday, November 11th. To install PowerPivot for SharePoint you will need SharePoint 2010 beta (being released next week or the week after).&#160; For the matching PowerPivot for Excel CTP3, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>SQL Server 2008 R2 released to the web today for TechNet and MSDN subscribers. According to the announcement, non-subscribers will be able to access the download Wednesday, November 11th. To install PowerPivot for SharePoint you will need SharePoint 2010 beta (being released next week or the week after).&#160; For the matching PowerPivot for Excel CTP3, you need Office 2010 being released at the same time as SharePoint. Sorry I am not high enough on the food chain to have the exact date – but I do know that it is proceeding on its normal release and sign-off cycle. So get your R2 bits downloaded early and hit the ground running once the SharePoint and Office 2010 betas release.</p>
<p>See <a title="SQL Server 2008 R2 download site" href="http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx">here</a> (<a title="http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx" href="http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx">http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx</a>) for the R2 announcement.</p>
<p>Enjoy!</p>
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		<item>
		<title>&#8220;BI strategy? We don&#8217;t need no stink&#8217;en BI strategy!&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/07/bi-strategy-we-dont-need-no-stinken-bi-strategy/</link>
		<comments>http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/07/bi-strategy-we-dont-need-no-stinken-bi-strategy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:54:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>powerpivotgeek</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Non-technical fluff]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[<p>I just read Rob Collie’s posting about a Forrester report. And I just have to jump in with my two cents:</p>
<p>http://blogs.forrester.com/business_process/2009/11/ten-strong-hints-your-enterprise-may-not-have-a-bi-strategy.html
by Boris Evelson</p>

Your end users keep pointing to IT as the source of most BI problems – Oh, the blame game. It can be hot and furious. The very fact that end users feel that [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I just read Rob Collie’s posting about a Forrester report. And I just have to jump in with my two cents:</p>
<p><a title="http://blogs.forrester.com/business_process/2009/11/ten-strong-hints-your-enterprise-may-not-have-a-bi-strategy.html" href="http://blogs.forrester.com/business_process/2009/11/ten-strong-hints-your-enterprise-may-not-have-a-bi-strategy.html">http://blogs.forrester.com/business_process/2009/11/ten-strong-hints-your-enterprise-may-not-have-a-bi-strategy.html</a><br />
by Boris Evelson</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Your end users keep pointing to IT as the source of most BI problems</strong> – Oh, the blame game. It can be hot and furious. The very fact that end users feel that they have to point anywhere means that the barrier between them and IT is too high and is getting in the way of solving problems.</li>
<li><strong>Your business executives view BI as another cost center</strong> – So long as companies look at BI as an organization entity, this will continue to be an issue.</li>
<li><strong>IT staff keep asking end users for report requirements</strong> – Actually what this indicates is that there is even a stronger barrier between IT and your end-users. The IT department should know enough about the business that they don’t need to know about report requirements, but rather should act as advisors and data counselors to make end users more successful. Thus IT is viewed as part of the solution – and not the problem itself (see #1)</li>
<li><strong>Your BI is supported by IT help desk</strong> – Meaning that BI is a computer system now, or an application. This is just plain wrong.</li>
<li><strong>You can’t tell the difference between BI and Performance Management</strong> – Where is Dilbert when you need him to point out the use of the latest buzz words.</li>
<li><strong>You can’t measure your BI usage</strong> – Need I say PowerPivot? The “managed” part of “managed self-service” is all about collecting usage information from end users. However each time I talk about this, I keep trying to tell the IT folks that they shouldn’t use this as a big stick over their end users, i.e. some kind of compliance ‘report’ to hit them over the head when they do something that IT thinks is ‘wrong’. Instead they should use the usage information as an opportunity to have a dialog with their end users concerning how they are using the system. If end users see this ‘usage’ as part of a kind of big brother monitoring of their behavior then you will just scare them back to using their desktop tools.</li>
<li><strong>You can’t measure your BI ROI</strong> – Hmm. I don’t know if I agree with this one. Too often ROI means engaging with a bean counter. I am enough of a geek that I think that a successful system should just “feel” successful. The true measure of success is that if you threaten to turn it off, your users stage a revolt.<br />
“ROI? We don’t need no stink’en ROI!”</li>
<li><strong>You think your BI strategy is the same as your DW strategy</strong> – BI is about how you use and apply information; not how you store it. But I agree at a certain level. BI should be something that is closer to the end users; not something that is in the glass house.</li>
<li><strong>You don’t have a plan to develop, hire, retain and grow BI staff</strong> – As a BI Pro I like this one! Anything that gets me more money, power and prestige, I like. Where does the solving of business problems come into play . . . ?? I think that Boris is a bit too obvious here.</li>
<li><strong>(My personal favorite) You actually don’t know if your enterprise has a BI strategy!</strong> – Hmm. Did Boris ever define what at BI strategy is? Again where is Dilbert when you need him?</li>
</ol>
<p>Cool stuff.</p>
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