ANNOUNCING BI SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

2008 Q3 MEETING!!!

September 12

We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting our BISIG meeting at Microsoft Corporation, 8300 Norman Center Drive, Suite 950, Bloomington, Minnesota, 55437 from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm. We hope you will plan to attend this meeting where we have lined up two very exciting and informative speakers.

12:30-1:00	Registration
1:00-1:15	BI SIG Updates & Announcements - Hear about how the organization is growing and changing to better serve you! - Agenda for the day and introduction of speakers
1:15-2:30	Spreadmart to Data Mart Conversion Presented by: Dan English – Magenic & Joe Beeck - GfK Custom Research North America Everybody probably has spreadmarts somewhere in their organization. They start out small and quickly grow and become mission critical. This presentation will be talking about taking an Excel spreadmart reporting solution and migrating it into a data mart solution. Both sides of the project with be discussed, business and technical. We will compare spreadmarts vs data marts, discuss how the solution was architected, options that were explored, technologies used, and challenges that had to be overcome. About Dan English: a Senior Consultant with Magenic, a national Microsoft Gold Certified partner, focusing on Business Intelligence. Has been working with Microsoft technologies for over 10 years and doing data warehousing for over 5 years. Dan started up a blog this past year at http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com/ posts screencasts on YouTube and MSN videos in regards to SQL Server 2008 new features – search keyword ‘Magenic’. About Joe Beeck: a Principal Developer/Team Lead at GfK Custom Research North America. Joe has been working with Microsoft technologies for over 10 years. His current role is primarily focused working with the business users to gather requirements to provide to the project team and manage the projects.
2:30-2:45	Break
2:45 – 3:00	Microsoft Update Update on the new developments with Microsoft BI
3:00 - 4:30	Business Intelligence Requirements:How Business Analysis Should be Conducted to Ensure a Successful BI Initiative Presented by: Trent Seashore – SafeNet Consulting & Dean Larson - SafeNet Consulting The quality of business analysis is a critical determinant of how successful a BI initiative will be. If the business’ needs and solution requirements are not thoroughly understood, analyzed, documented, communicated and maintained, then whatever BI solution is developed will have little prospect of being meeting the business’ exceptions. About Trent Seashore, MBA: Trent has more than 20 years of Information Technology experience in both business and systems roles. Trent has a unique blend of technical and business expertise along with a successful track record of designing, implementing and supporting BI solutions through technologies such as Business Objects, Cognos, Crystal, SAS Hyperion and others. About Dean Larson, CBAP, MBA: Dean is a Certified Business Analysis Professional with 7 years of practical business analysis experience. He has led requirements planning, elicitation, and documentation efforts at Xcel Energy, GMAC-RFC, Allianz Life, and the National Arbitration Forum. Dean is the Vice President of Marketing for the Twin Cities' local Internal Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) chapter and he also has an MBA from the University of St. Thomas.
4:30 - ???	Social and Networking: Meeting will adjourn with networking opportunity. Enjoy this time to meet your speakers and other members of the community. Refreshments will be provided.