Business Intelligence Features in SharePoint 2010

Table of Contents:

Overview:....................................................................................................................................................2

Products Involved in this paper:..................................................................................................................2

OLTP vs OLAP:..............................................................................................................................................2

Site Template:.............................................................................................................................................2

Building an Analysis Service Project............................................................................................................7

Analysis Services Project Structure:.........................................................................................................9

Analytic Chart below:............................................................................................................................16

Analytic Grid below:..............................................................................................................................16

A dashboard can be created..................................................................................................................16

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Overview:SharePoint 2010 includes Performance Point Services, a set of features that help build Dashboards, Scorecards, KPIs, Analytic Charts, Grids and visualize data using Drill Down, Drill Up and Decomposition Trees.

Products Involved in this paper: OS: Windows 7 Ultimate SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer Edition

OLTP vs OLAP:To get started, it is important to have the data source against which you would like to build your dashboards. PPS allows you to connect to SQL Server Tables, Excel Workbooks, SharePoint Lists and also SQL Server Analysis Services data sources. However, if you have an OLTP Data source, you are restricted to create only KPIs, Scorecards and Dashboards to hold them.

The power of PPS however can be fully explored only if you have an Analysis Services DataSource.

Site Template:The Site Template from which the PPS Designer can be invoked is from the “Business Intelligence Center”. This can be created only as the Top Site of a Site Collection.

The Site Template looks like this:

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Start Using PerformancePoint Services opens up this screen:

Run Dashboard designer then opens up the Dashboard Designer (Smart Client)

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In the Dashboard, you have to first establish the Data Sources. However, when you try to connect to your Database, you may get this error.

This is caused because the Secure Store Service does not contain the credentials for PPS to connect to the required data source.

On the Performance Point Service Application, when you are trying to configure your PPS, you might get this error

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In Secure Store Service, generate a new Key

Once the key has been generated, this is the interface

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Go back to PPS

By clicking Ok, it creates a Target Application in the Secure Store Service

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Building an Analysis Service ProjectBuilding a small Analysis Service Project & Cube which can be used for building Analytic Charts, Grids in PPS

As mentioned in the summary, in order to explore the fully explore PPS capabilities, Analysis Services Cubes may have to be created.

So we setup a sample table, that contains some sample data. In the sample table, ensure atleast one identity field, date time field and amount (int) columns are present.

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Once the Table is created, we will go ahead and create the Analysis Services Project using SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio (available in SQL Server Standard, Enterprise or Developer Editions).

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Analysis Services Project Structure:Steps:

1. Creating a Data Source2. Creating a Data Source View3. Creating a Cube (and placing the required measures and dimensions inside)

Measures usually are mapped to numerical data like Sales Amount and Dimensions on Fact data like Location or Product.

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Just ensure, inside the Dimension, the required attributes are made available:

Once the above is ready, the Cube will be ready to be processed. In the Project Properties, ensure, it points to a SQL Server Analysis Services instance in the Deployment category.

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The project will then be ready to be processed:

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Then you can connect to the SQL Server Analysis Instance and ensure the Analysis Service Project has created the Cubes in there. Once you see that inside, click on Process to process the Cube.

Once the Cube is processed, the Cube extracts the required data from the OLTP and you can browse the data inside using various Dimensions and Measures.

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You will now be ready to create a Data Source to the Analysis Services Database and the Cube as below. Please note that the Cube will not be listed in the Cubes dropdown till the Cubes are processed and you are able to see the data inside within the SQL Server Management Studio.

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You can then create Analytic Charts and Grids as below. Dimensions and Measures can be dragged and dropped on Columns or Rows.

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Analytic Chart below:

Analytic Grid below:

A dashboard can be created (in this example, a two rows Dashboard has been created).

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In the Dashboard, the Analytic Charts and Grids are placed on top of each other. After that “Deploy to SharePoint” can be used to Deploy it to SharePoint.

A suitable Master Page can be selected for the Dashboard. Minimal.Master usually gives the maximum space for your elements (minimal.master is the same page that is used for the SharePoint Search Center as well).

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You also get a Decomposition Tree based on SilverLight

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