Microsoft - Altius Consulting

Microsoft BI

Centred on the SQL Server platform, Microsoft’s BI offering covers underlying data through to information presentation and analysis tools for the information worker.

Case Studies

Take a moment to review our reference materials and case studies to see how we’ve delivered successful Microsoft solutions for our clients.

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Data Warehousing

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2005 Integration Services enable the construction and management of Data Warehouses that scale to meet the needs of even the largest and most complex of organisations.

Reporting and Analysis

Microsoft’s Reporting and Analysis components deliver information when and where it is most valuable. By providing a seamless link between structured reports and deep-dive analysis Microsoft’s tools unify structured and unstructured data to deliver insight – for example, you can easily move from monitoring a scorecard, straight into a supporting report and on to analysis of the same information.

Performance Management

Decisions made within a business are most effective when they are aligned with the company’s strategy and are seen in the context of the ‘bigger picture’ - this is the key objective of PerformancePoint Server 2007. Through a strategy-aligned cycle of monitoring, analysing and planning, PerformancePoint drives the effective execution of your strategy.

SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008 is the latest version of the ever popular Microsoft database that builds on the powerful features of SQL Server 2005. Some of the key new features include enhanced performance, encryption, compression, auditing capabilities, database mirroring and the ability to hot add CPUs. Read more at the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 website.

Silverlight

Silverlight is a new web presentation technology that enables the creation of visually stunning interactive user experiences. Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. By combining vector graphics, 2D animation and streaming video and audio, Silverlight can offer an internet user experience well beyond what HTML and Dynamic HTML can offer.

SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) is the successor to SharePoint 2003 and builds upon many of its original features. MOSS is designed as a collaboration platform providing intuitive and simple interfaces to allow your business to store corporate knowledge. It utilises powerful workflow functionality to streamline and automate business processes and increases accessibility of information through powerful search facilities.

PerformancePoint SP1

PerformancePoint SP1 provides enhancements to features, stability and performance. For planning, performance of opening workbooks has improved significantly and workflow options are available to increase query performance. For monitoring, KPIs can be linked to reports, display formatting and filter performance has improved. PerformancePoint is now supported on Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft BI Blog

SQL Server 2008 Hits the Market!:

Great news for Microsoft BI fans everywhere, as we're excited to announce the launch and availability of SQL Server 2008 today. If you're interested in learning more about the new product, to download a trial, to find a partner, or plan on attending the upcoming PASS event, the largest gathering of SQL Server users anywhere, click over to the SQL Server website to learn more, and be sure to click over to the SQL BI information as well to see the amazing new features for the millions of SQL BI users around the world. Really impressive stuff from the developers here, and well worth the wait!

SQL Server 2008 is focused on three main themes--trust, productivity, and intelligence. There are so many great new features in the product for BI, they're too long to list, but they can roughly be distilled across a few main themes: unlocking your data using the data warehousing capabilities of SQL Server 2008--across any data source and for all your data; delivering the right information to the right people in the right format--in time to make the right decision--all through powerful new wizards and new design tools that help you build integration, reporting, and analysis solutions all within the same environment; and driving actionable insight--delivering a rich, personalized user experience which enables more users in your organization to drive action from the insight they gain.

All with the familiar Microsoft Office 2007 style ribbon, familiar Microsoft user interface, and interoperability you expect and need from your Microsoft BI system.

There's lots of information on Robert Bruckner's SQL Server Reporting Services blog on details of the product and its key features, downloads are available via MSDN, and TechNet, and if you'd like to see the SQL Server 2008 BI datasheet, just click here and you can download your own copy.

Congratulations to everyone on the team for an outstanding new product that really cements our leadership position in the marketplace!

Microsoft to Acquire DATAllegro:

I'm sure most of you have seen the news by now, but Microsoft announced last week at the financial analyst conference that it has acquired the assets of privately-held data warehousing company DATAllegro, based in Alisa Biejo, CA, in Orange County. This is a big day for Microsoft BI, for our continued penetration and growth into the enterprise space, and for our BI strategy and growth in handling large data warehouse workloads.

DATAllegro has built a scale-out data warehouse solution that has joined together scale and high performance to 100's of terabytes. While they deliver an appliance (hardware and software together), the hardware is all off-the-shelf industry standard components. As you can see by visiting the DATAllegro website, they get rave reviews from their enterprise customers, where deployments range from 20 TB all the way to 200+ TB's--now THAT'S a warehouse! Couple that with their query return speed, and you've got a heck of a productivity tool that makes analysts, DBA's and BI report builders very happy campers.

If you'd like to see the Microsoft PressPass information on the aquisition, please click here. After the transaction has closed we'll be back with more news and information on how this exciting technology will continue to enhance our BI portfolio!

Registration for the 2nd Annual Microsoft BI Conference Now Open!:

Well everyone, we're finally live and accepting reservations for the 2nd annual Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference in Seattle on October 6th!

With over 60 break-out sessions, partner pavillions, hands-on-labs, chalk talks, demonstration, customer meetings and great fun in the city of Seattle, you know it's going to be a great time.

We anticipate this being the largest BI conference anywhere--so now's your chance to be a part of it. Click HERE to be taken to the conference registration site, as well as to check out the agenda, logistics, pricing, everything you need to know!

Looking forward to seeing all of you in Seattle in a few months!