Folks,

We don't have an event scheduled for May. Instead, I'd like to draw your attention to an event taking place on May 12th. One of our members and past presenters, Andrew Brust, will be joining Bill Baker -- essentially the “father” of BI at Microsoft -- to talk about the good-vs.-evil qualities of Excel as a BI tool. There will also be some coverage of PowerPivot.

The talk will be given twice on May 12th, once, in the morning, under the auspices of TDWI’s NY Chapter, and then that evening for the NY Tech Council’s BI SIG. The latter has a charge of $15 for non-members. The invite is below.

Shortcuts for registrations:

• 8:30 am-12 noon session: http://tdwichapters.o...
  
• 6:00pm – 8:00pm session: https://www.nytech.or...
  

Dear MS/SQL Server Professional,

“I.T. Can Run, But I.T. Can’t Hide from MS/Excel” is the topic of our upcoming Seminars for The Data Warehouse Institute™ (TDWI) and the New York Technology Council (NYTECH) on May 12th in New York City. We are pleased and excited to have with us, as our keynote presenter and co-facilitator, from Seattle, Mr. Bill Baker: visionary, Distinguished Engineer, founder and former leader of Microsoft’s Business Intelligence unit, and progenitor of the first three releases of MS/Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Integration Services and the SQL Server Management Studio. Bill will be joined by Mr. Andrew Brust, CTO, author of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2008, columnist, educator, and principal at twentysix New York. Both will be joined by our case history presenter, Mr. Boris Litvin, CEO and founder at Ortess, Inc.

Without question, Microsoft Excel is the world’s most-utilized technology for business reporting and analysis. Virtually all office employees know how to use Excel. Yet, since its initial release in 1985, IT leaders have resisted Excel’s formal integration into the enterprise architecture – even attempting to eliminate its use in some organizations! Perhaps unfairly, IT complaints include lack of centralized standards and control, proliferation of spreadmarts, and inordinate consumption of talent. With the imminent release of Excel 2010, the debate is likely to renew once again. After 25 years however, it is clear that Excel is here to stay.

As managers and leaders of the IT decision support environment, ever-attendant to the needs of our business communities, we must have answers to the following questions:

• Why is Excel so popular, and why the resistance from IT?
  
• How can IT work in partnership with the business to embrace Excel?
  
• Where does one find the enterprise reference model, management discipline and best practices necessary to instantiate a more formal, well-behaved integration of Excel into the BI decision support ‘stack’?
  
• What’s new in Excel 2010, and how will its features and behaviors assist, or exacerbate, IT’s management of the technology?
  

TDWI and NYTECH Seminars are open to all BI/DW technical and business professionals.

The Data Warehouse Institute™ (TDWI) Chapter Seminar

Date: Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 8:30 am-12 noon
Where: Two Penn Plaza, New York City, at Information Builders headquarters (conveniently located above Penn Station)
Register at: TDWI NYC Tri-State Area Chapter page

New York Technology Council (NYTECH) Special Interest Group
Date: Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where: 245 Park Avenue (at 46th Street), New York City, at Robert Half International
Register at: NYTECH Business Intelligence SIG Event page

About Our Presenters

Mr. Bill Baker graduated from M.I.T. in 1979, and by the early 90’s was Sr. VP of Product Development at IRI Software where he led the development of the Express multi-dimensional database, purchased by Oracle in 1995. Beginning in 1996, Bill spent twelve-plus years at Microsoft where he started-up their Business Intelligence unit and delivered three releases of Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Integration Services and the SQL Server Management Studio. During his tenure at Microsoft, Bill was honored with the title of Distinguished Engineer. Currently, Bill is serving on several corporate boards and is assisting local software startups in the Seattle area.

Mr. Andrew Brust is Chief, New Technology at twentysix New York, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in NYC. He is co-author of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (Microsoft Press), serves as the Microsoft Regional Director for NY and NJ and is a member of Microsoft's BI Partner Advisory Council. Often quoted in the technology industry press, and himself a columnist for Redmond Developer News and Visual Studio Magazine, Andrew has 20 years of experience consulting in numerous industries.

Mr. Boris Litvin is the CEO and founder of Ortess, Inc., a software development and IT services provider, specializing in high-performance, Excel-based business intelligence and transaction solutions for the Financial Services industry. With 15 years of hands-on and leadership experience in implementing financial technologies, Boris is proficient in all phases of the development life cycle of trading systems, including pricing models, hedging, risk and P&L reporting.