On Preparing for the MCITP: BI Developer Certification

Kudos to world-reknowned consultant, trainer and blogger Teo Lachev, founder of Prologika and author of Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005, on his latest efforts. A new training guide, MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-445): Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence—Implementation and Maintenance is designed to help you prepare for the first of two Microsoft certification exams towards the MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer designation. The guide is now available from Microsoft Press and can be ordered on Amazon.

Although a book like this is certainly long overdue, I expect it to be a huge success-- I happen to know more than a few BI developers and consultants out there eager to pick up this new title. Congratulations to Teo (who provided the SSAS 2005 content) and his co-authors Erik Veerman, Dejan Sarka, and Javier Loria.

- Adrian Downes

On an Objective View of PerformancePoint Server 2007

The Business Application Research Center and OLAP Report have put together an objective report on PerformancePoint Server, which evaluates the product suite across the following criteria:

- Product and Commercial Issues
- Architecture
- Data Access Functionality
- Calculation Functionality
- Reporting Flexibility
- Time Series Intelligence
- Currency Support
- Security and DBMS Issues
- Human Factors
- Application Building Features
- Performance

The 36 page report is available for download (via Microsoft) here. It is well worth the read for those of you currently evaluating the product.

- Adrian Downes