Introduction to Business Intelligence features

Introduction to Business Intelligence features

Several new features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 allow you to share, control, and reuse business information.

Overview of Business Intelligence features
By using the new features available in Office SharePoint Server 2007, information workers can assemble data from multiple sources and publish that data on the Web.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 can link to business applications, such as SAP, Siebel, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005, allowing you to easily publish reports, lists, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
When you publish reports from the data in one of these systems, you provide strategic or operational data for decision-makers. Examples of reports include Microsoft Office Excel workbooks, a SQL Server Reporting Services report, or a Microsoft Office Access report. Executives and line managers rely on timely and accurate reports to make informed decisions.

At the center of the new Office SharePoint Server 2007 Business Intelligence features is the Report Center. The Report Center is a site that provides a central location for storing reports that are common to a group, whether it is as small as a one team or as large as an entire organization.

The Report Center

The Report Center site provides a central location for business-intelligence-related information. It contains special document libraries for storing reports, lists, and connections to external data sources. It also provides access to page templates and Web Parts to help you create pages and lists that contain business information. Within the Report Center, users can search for items by using categories, view a calendar of upcoming reports, and subscribe to reports that are relevant.

By default, one Report Center site is created under the top-level portal site. However, with the appropriate permissions, anyone can create a Report Center site within a team, department, or organization site.

All of the features described in this article are available in the Report Center site. However, each of the features can be accessed and used in any site and from any page within Office SharePoint Server 2007. This allows you to decide how you want to take advantage of the business intelligence features within your own Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment.

Excel Services

Excel Services enables you to store an Excel workbook on a server and then publish any part of that workbook on a Web page. Users need only a browser to view and interact with the live data. The workbook is published on the Web page by using the Excel Web Access (EWA) Web Part.

One advantage of publishing workbooks in a Web Part is that all of the calculation occurs on the server. As a result, the business logic in the workbook is never exposed. Another advantage is that there is only one copy of the workbook, and it is stored in a central, secure place.

From the Web page, you can give users "view only" rights to limit access to the workbook. For example, you can prevent users from opening a workbook by using Excel or control what they are allowed to view.

You can also create a snapshot of a workbook, rather than publishing it in interactive mode.

Excel Services is a Microsoft Office SharePoint technology that makes it simple to use, share, secure, and manage Microsoft Office Excel 2007 workbooks (.xslx, xslb) as interactive reports in a consistent way throughout the enterprise

What is Excel Services?

There are three basic components to Excel Services that interact with each other and together form the overall structural design of Excel Services.

Excel Calculation Services (ECS) is the "engine" of Excel Services that loads the workbook, calculates in full fidelity with Microsoft Office Excel 2007, refreshes external data, and maintains sessions.

Excel Web Access (EWA) is a Web Part that displays and enables interaction with the Microsoft Office Excel workbook in a browser by using Dynamic Hierarchical Tag Markup Language (DHTML) and JavaScript without the need for downloading ActiveX controls on your client computer, and can be connected to other Web Parts on dashboards and other Web Part Pages.

Excel Web Services (EWS) is a Web service hosted in Microsoft Office SharePoint Services that provides several methods that a developer can use as an application programming interface (API) to build custom applications based on the Excel workbook.

Because Excel Services is a component of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, you can also take advantage of many SharePoint technology features such as, controlling, securing, and managing access to spreadsheets, server-based performance, and ability to scale well when users are added.

Connections to external data sources

In addition to using external data sources in Excel workbooks, you can use data from other business applications, such as SAP and Siebel, in SharePoint lists, pages, and Web Parts.

Administrators usually create the system connections and can store them in a Data Connection Library in the Report Center. That way, the central pool of connections can easily be accessed and reused by anyone with permissions. However, you can create and store data connections anywhere in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 system.

By using connections to external data sources, you can build Web Pages and SharePoint lists that allow users to interact with the data in the external source without ever leaving the SharePoint page.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a visual cue that communicates the amount of progress made toward a goal. KPIs are valuable for teams, managers, and businesses to evaluate quickly the progress made against measurable goals. By using SharePoint KPIs, you can easily visualize answers to the following questions:

What am I ahead or behind on?
How far ahead or behind am I?
What is the minimum I have completed?

KPIs are created by using KPI lists and then are displayed by using special KPI Web Parts. You can store KPI lists in the Report Center or in any other site in Office SharePoint Server 2007, where they can be reused by anyone with permissions to access them.

KPI types

Indicator using data in SharePoint list
Indicator using data in Excel workbook (this one uses the Excel Services public webservices APIs)
Indicator using data in SQL Server Analysis Services
Indicator using manually entered information.
Filter Web Parts

Filters allow you to display only the subset of data that you are interested in viewing. For example, a data set can contain five years' history of multiple products for the entire country/region. By using filters, you can display something more meaningful, such as only one sales region, only one product, or only the current year.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 has 10 Filter Web Parts that enable you to enter or choose one or more values to change the contents of one or more Web Parts on a page to display exactly the information you need.

For example, the Current User Filter Web Part automatically filters information based on who is logged on to the computer. This is useful when you want to display only information, such as customer accounts or tasks, that is currently assigned to that user.

Another way to use filters is to display a workbook in an Excel Web Access Web Part and link that workbook to a filter that allows people to choose a product for which they want to view information. In addition, you can link the Filter Web Part to more than one Web Part on the page. As a result, when a different product is selected in the Filter Web Part, all other Web Parts on the page are updated to reflect the currently selected product.

Dashboards

Dashboards are tools that are used to communicate status and to drive action. An Office SharePoint Server 2007 dashboard is a Web page template that allows you to assemble and display information from disparate sources such as reports, charts, metrics, and key performance indicators.

You can create your own dashboard page by using various Web Parts, or you can add Web Parts to pages that already exist in your site. However, if you are creating a dashboard on a new page, starting with the template may be faster. It is just a starting point — you can add or delete items and change the appearance of the page after you create it.

The following Web Parts are included with the dashboard page template.

Web Part	Provides the ability to
Excel Web Access	Add an Excel workbook, worksheet, or worksheet range.
KPI List	Display a KPI List (optional).
Apply Filters (button)	Display the Apply Filters button.

Related Information

Have links related to other page items.

Summary

Describe information about plans and status.

Contact Details

List the name of the person to contact about the page.

BDC The BDC is a new shared service that enables users to access data from back-end business applications on their SharePoint sites via Web Parts, lists, search, or as part of their user profiles. While the BDC does not store the data directly, it defines business applications and supports the access of the content in real time via web services or database connections. In some cases, the BDC may feature complementary information to that which is stored in SharePoint. For example, an organization may use Active Directory for its authentication service and to store basic user profile information. However, the Human Resources central tracking database may contain much richer details, which you can store in user profiles and which would be highly useful for audience creation and personalization.

The Business Data Web Parts support the display and interaction of business information from those back-end systems, making it possible for users to view up-to-date information immediately from their working environment. These Web Parts allow users to search for information, drill down for more detailed information, or view predefined reports.

Business Data Web Parts No required coding, and reusability These Web Parts enable you to display business data on your portal site without writing any code. Also, these Web Parts are generic and reusable and can show any type of data ( entity) registered in the Business Data Catalog.

Connectability These Web Parts support Web Part connections and make it easier to create Master-Detail applications without writing any code. For example, you can display customers and their details using the Business Data List and Business Data Item Web Parts by simply connecting them. These Web Parts can also be integrated in dashboards.
Customization These Web Parts support WYSIWYG editing in Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and can be customized using XSLT transformations.

Business Data List Web Part: Allows you to display information from a business application related to a specific entity. This information may be based on a predefined filter so that users automatically see a list when viewing the Web Part, or it may be based on searches that the user conducts within the Web Part.

Related Business Data List Web Part: Connects to another Web Part, such as the Business Data List Web Part to show more information related to a selected item such as product subcategories or customer invoices.

Business Item Web Part: You can use this on its own to display a single item, but often it is connected to another Web Part to display details of a selected item. For example, you can use a Business Item Web Part to display invoice details based on a user’s selection of a customer invoice from a Related Business Data List Web Part

SSO: Single sign-on (SSO) is a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server feature that provides storage and mapping of credentials such as account names and passwords. Using SSO, portal site–based applications can retrieve information from third-party applications and back-end systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relations Management (CRM) systems.

The use of single sign-on functionality enables users to authenticate only once when they access portal site–based applications that need to obtain information from other business applications and systems.

Caching:Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes advanced caching capabilities to maximize the performance of the Web sites.

The following table shows the available kinds of caching and where each type is implemented.

Use this kind of caching…

At the…

Notes

Output caching and cache profiles

Individual page level

Ideal for heavily accessed Web sites that do not have to frequently present new content.

Object caching

Individual Web Part control, field control, and content level

Includes cross-list query caching and navigation caching

Disk-based caching for binary large objects (BLOBs)

Individual BLOB level

Supports .gif, .jpg, .js, .css, and other image, sound, and code files that are stored as BLOBs