146 days after Microsoft announced the discontinuation of the PerformancePoint Planning module, Microsoft has made the PPS Planning source code and project files available on a no-cost, individual license basis for customers and partners. It has been rebranded as Financial Planning Accelerator (FPA) and is unsupported. Interestingly, on the same web page that contains the June 18, 2009 announcement, Microsoft spotlights planning alternatives such as Clarity Systems, Calumo, and Longview Planning. I have not had a chance to work with any of these alternatives, but hope to work with one or more in the future. I’ve closed the chapter of my life working with PPS Planning and have no intention of working with it even though it’s free.

Official announcement
Financial Planning Accelerator
Microsoft is pleased to make available the Financial Planning Accelerator (FPA). The FPA is source code and project files derived from the PerformancePoint Server 2007 Planning module. Based on requests from customers and partners, we are making this code available on a no-cost, individual license.

This is unsupported source code that customers and partners can use to support or change PerformancePoint Server Planning functionality. Derived object code files can be distributed to end users with Microsoft SharePoint Server Enterprise Client Access Licenses. To obtain access to the FPA a license agreement between Microsoft and the customer or partner is required. After that agreement is in place, download instructions will be made available.

Please e-mail fpasupp@microsoft.com to request the agreement.

Last November I authored a post comparing different Masters in Business Intelligence programs offered at four universities located in the United States.  You can review my analysis by clicking here.  St. Joseph’s University has posted a video on YouTube describing their online MSBI program.  If you are considering this masters degree from SJU, I would recommend watching the video.  It is nine minutes long.  The first four minutes define Business Intelligence and the final five minutes describe the program.  I am strongly considering enrolling in this program at SJU in the Fall of 2010.  I need to wait this long because I have two children in diapers and I’m wanting them to get a bit older before taking on a masters program.  Anyway, check out the video and maybe we’ll be classmates someday!

- ez

I just finished reading The Performance Management Revolution: Business Results Through Insight and Action by Howard Dresner.  I chose this book because of the respect I have for Howard Dresner due to what he’s done for BI and EPM (Enterprise Performance Management), not to mention his past leadership role at Hyperion as Chief Strategy Officer.  Also, the title of the book peaked my curiousity and I wanted to gain insight into what Dresner has termed the Performance Management Revolution.  He begins the book by luring the reader with why he feels we are admist a Performance Management Revolution.  Throughout the book, he hits on his term, Information Democracy, which is “a principle of equality that demands actionable insight for all.”  It gives the “ability of everyone to access data, turn it into knowledge and insight through analysis, and share that insight with others.” 

I very much enjoyed reading the book.  I felt he did a good job distinguishing the differences between BI and EPM as these terms often become blended together.  The book describes how to implement EPM, going into detail on such topics as why you need an EPM Center of Excellence, how to create one, and what they should do.  If you are looking for a book that teaches you how to create KPI’s and how to best design a dashboard layout, you will want to look elsewhere.  But if you are needing to implement an Enterprise-wide Performance Management solution, this is a great book for setting you straight.  I particularly liked the chapter on gaining user adoption. 

The book is broken into three sections: 1. A Call to Arms.  2. Preparing For Battle.  3. Let the Revolution Begin.  Part One defines EPM and it’s role, thus providing justification for an EPM solution at your organization.  Part Two tells you what you are going to need to get started and the tasks to help the success rate of your EPM system.  Examples include drawing an accountability map, building an EPM Center of Excellence, standardizing and consolidating EPM tools, and how to deploy an EPM system.  Part Three helps you assess your immediate priorities based upon a series of questions.  Dresner dives into his concept of a “model EPM methodology”.  He follows the steps of implementation, education, change management, etc.  The book concludes with an excellent glossary of EPM/BI terminology. 

Dresner has turned me into a Performance Management Revolutionary.  Count me in for the revolution!  Click here to purchase the book from Amazon.

I am currently between assignments right now.  I just rolled off the client that I had been consulting at for nearly the past four years.  We accomplished a great deal in the areas of Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management.  We implemented PerformancePoint Planning into production prior to the software being released to the public.  If you have any BI / CPM needs in the St. Louis, Missouri area, shoot me an email at dstre at hotmail dot com, and we can discuss how I, along with my employer, might be able to assist you.  Looking forward to hearing from you!

Drive Business Performance

A few months ago I read a great Performance Management (PM) book entitled Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution by Bruno Aziza and Joey Fitts.  This 278 page book not only outlines the key components of a successful PM solution, but provides details how a PM solution can impact the culture of your organization.  The authors have created a PM maturity model that contains six stages.  They refer to it as the Six Stages of Performance Management Value.

1.  Increase Visibility
2.  Move Beyond Gut Feel
3.  Plan for Success
4.  Execute on Strategy
5.  Power to Compete
6.  Culture of Performance

In the last stage, the Culture of Performance, an organization has created a Performance Management culture where employees are empowered to make good decisions and effectively execute the right things.  It goes into a belief where managing performance must become a part of an organization’s DNA.  The authors provide examples along the way of various companies that are at each stage.  In addition, they provide a framework for measuring your own organization to see where you fit into the model and provide solutions for how to improve.

In addition, the authors effectively disect the three core capabilities to manage performance.
Monitor:  What happened?  What is happening?
Analyze:  Why?
Plan:     What will happen?  What do I want to happen?
The book breaks down each capability and describes how a Performance Management solution can be most effective.

After reading this book, I was able to create a two hour “Introduction to Performance Management” class by simply following the structure of the book.  I recommend Drive Business Performance to executives, directors, and managers that are wanting to improve their organizations.  This is also a great read for consultants wanting to get a better understanding of Performance Management.

On a personal note, I was very interested in the book because one of the companies they examined is a client of mine.  I enjoyed learning Fitts and Aziza’s opinions on my client’s PM solution that I’ve been so heavily involved in.

One thing to note, the authors are tightly aligned with Microsoft’s PM solution, PerformancePoint Server 2007.  However, not once in the book do they mention the software.  I think its a good thing they did not promote a particular technology.  They did write a follow-up book with some other authors, entitled Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007.  This book continues on their concepts and describes how PerformancePoint can be a technology used to achieve their Culture of Performance.  But you definitely do not need to be aligned with Microsoft Technologies to enjoy Drive Business Performance.

Grab a copy and read it for yourself.   There are also audio versions available as well.

Also, click here to read a review from Business Finance Magazine. 

- ez

Seventeen months after PerformancePoint Server was made available to the general public (September 2007), Microsoft has announced today (January 23, 2009) that they are discontinuing the Planning module.  The Monitoring & Analytics module will be moved to Office 14 SharePoint.  Planning will receive one more update with a Service Pack 3 release in mid-2009 and will be supported for existing customers. 

Official Microsoft Video Announcement from Guy Weismantel
http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/E/E/AEEE26CB-1536-4EC9-809E-536F6E49A1BB/Guy_Weismantel_BI_Announcement_MBR.wmv

http://blogs.msdn.com/bi/archive/2009/01/23/microsoft-bi-strategy-update.aspx

On a personal note, I am truly disappointed as I have invested a great deal of time learning the Planning module.  I learned of this announcement yesterday and I spent last night reflecting over my experiences with the help of a few beers.  I have been working with the software since May 2007, four months prior to the release date.  I dove in head first and have read nearly four PerformancePoint books.  I received my PerformancePoint certification in June 2008.  I had recently begun writing a white paper on PPS Planning Data Integration using SQL Server Integration Services.  As I reflect over the past two years of my career, I remind myself that it’s not all for naught.  I’ve learned a great deal about Business Performance Management and Business Intelligence that will still apply to my career.  Through this blog, I have met some terrific people across the globe who shared the same passion and aspirations around PerformancePoint.  And for that, I am very thankful.  For those of you silent readers, I hope you have found my postings useful.  My blog will live on.  I haven’t determined the format yet, but it will surely focus on other areas of Business Intelligence and wherever my work and life experiences may take me.  You haven’t heard the last from me.

Friends and curious readers, I raise my glass, and offer a toast to new beginnings. 

I will conclude with a quote from the last line in the movie, Gladiator, as I say my farewell to Planning:

“And now we are free.  I will see you again… but not yet… Not yet!”

Update January 26, 2009:

Here are a couple links to published articles on the rise and fall of PerformancePoint Planning.

http://www.olapreport.com/Comment_Bizdemise.htm
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/blog/archives/2009/01/microsofts_big_1.html

Yesterday I decided to check out a VPC (Virtual Personal Computer) image that Microsoft offers as a free download.  I found links to the Microsoft All Up BI VPC 7.1 on Russell Christopher’s blog. 

http://performancepointblog.com/2008/12/all-up-bi-vpc-71-available-for-public-download/

This VPC contains everything you would ever want related to Microsoft BI.  SQL Server 2005, PerformancePoint, SharePoint, ProClarity, Office 2007, etc.  Hmm, I wonder when they’ll create an updated VPC with SQL Server 2008…

Anyway, I haven’t had much time to play around with it yet, but I did want to share a minor obstacle I had to overcome to get the VPC running.  I wanted to copy all the VPC files to my Western Digital My Passport 250 GB external hard drive.  However, I kept receiving an error that the drive was out of space.  This left me scratching my head because I could see I had over 230 GB of free space.  After some discussion with a co-worker, we decided I needed to reformat the external hard drive.  It comes out of the package formatted using FAT32.  FAT32 can only handle up to a 4 GB file.  That’s why I was receiving an out of space error.  So, I copied the contents of my external hard drive to my laptop (which is running Windows XP), and then opened up Computer Management by right clicking on “My Computer” and selecting “Manage”.  From here you can find “Disk Management” under “Storage”.  Select the correct drive for your external hard drive and format using NTFS.  I didn’t time how long it took, but it sure seemed like about an hour or so.  Once complete, my hard drive could store the VPC.  From that point, it wasn’t long before I was up and running.  Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to snag some more RAM for my laptop, because 2 GB of RAM is simply not enough!  I found some tips on a blog for speeding up the All Up VPC version 6, but I haven’t tried them out yet.  Another task for another day.  http://performancepointing.blogspot.com/2008/07/speeding-up-all-up-bi-vpc.html

By the way, older operating systems won’t be compatible with NTFS.  From what I’ve read, it sounds like Windows 95/98/Me won’t recognize NTFS.  So, if you’re running an older operating system, be sure to do your homework prior to reformating your external hard drive.

- ez

We ran into an issue earlier in the year where we wanted to sort our PPS Planning Product hierarchy through an automated process as part of the nightly batch cycle.  The Product dimension is custom defined and we refresh the data for both D_Product and H_Product tables daily.  We created a flat hierarchy in the Member Set (all children have the same parent in the Member Set or H_ table).  So in order to create the hierarchical relationships, we use a Member View based off of member properties (attribute columns) in the Product dimension to create the actual hierarchy relationships.  Regardless of how you decide to create your hierarchical relationships (Member Sets versus Member Views), you’ll likely want to sort the records.  I have not had success trying to update the SequenceNumber field using BizSystemFlag = 300 methodology.  My goal was to avoid writing an actual UPDATE statement against the Appliction database, so I use the work around below when loading data to the H_Product table.  Through this SQL, I am able to set the Sequence Number using the ROW_NUMBER() OVER() functions when inserting records into the H_ table on the StagingDB using BizSystemFlag = 200.  PerformancePoint automatically increments the SequenceNumber by 1024, so I follow the same increment standards in the example below.  The SQL statement sorts the data based upon member property columns (attributes) that are user defined in the dimension.  If you are using SSIS to perform the ETL, the SQL statement would be in your OLE DB Source and the destination would be the H_Product table.  For this process to work, you would first need to delete the data from the H_ table prior to loading using BizSystemFlag = 400.

SELECT
   NULL as RowId
  ,d.MemberId
  ,0 as ParentMemberId
  ,a.SequenceNumber
  ,200 as BizSystemFlag
  ,NULL as BizSystemErrorDetails
FROM D_Product d
JOIN (   
     SELECT MemberId, 
     ROW_NUMBER() OVER(
            ORDER BY Attribute1, Attribute2, Attribute3, [Name])* 1024 as SequenceNumber
     FROM D_Product
     WHERE Label NOT IN (‘NONE’)
     ) a
ON d.MemberId = a.MemberId
ORDER BY a.SequenceNumber

 
I hope this helps.
- ez

I recently performed some research into graduate schools offering a Master of Science in Business Intelligence (MSBI).  As of November 7, 2008, I found three Universities in the United States that have such a program.  They are Saint Joseph’s University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), University of Denver Daniels College of Business (Denver, Colorado), and American Sentinel University (online university).  A fourth school, the University of Alabama Manderson Graduate School, offers an MBA with a Business Intelligence Concentration.  Information concerning these programs will change, so please consult each university before making any decisions based upon this article.  All content is subject to change (especially tuition costs!) and will likely be out of date a few months after the original post.  I would encourage anyone who has participated in any of these programs to post a comment.  I would love to hear what you think.  I have not applied to any of the programs, but I find the idea of a Master Degree in Business Intelligence to be quite intriguing.

Here are some basic comparisons of the programs:

Legend:
ASU:  American Sentinel University
DU:   University of Denver Daniels College of Business (Denver, Colorado)
SJU:  St. Joseph’s University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
UA:   University of Alabama Manderson Graduate School of Business (Tuscaloosa, Alabama)

 
Online vs On-Campus:
ASU:  Online only
DU:  Campus only
SJU:  Online and Campus
UA:  Campus only, Full Time program

Tuition:
ASU:  $390 per credit hour (minimum 12 credit hour commitment over 12 months)
DU:   $916 per credit hour for the 2008-2009 academic year.  Other fees apply.
SJU:  $785 per credit hour (fees included),  Approximately $23,550 total
UA:   Estimated Totals*      Resident   Non-Resident
       First and Second Year  $19,450.00 $42,650.00 
       Price not broken out by credit hour.  This is a full time program.

Credits required to graduate:
ASU:  36,  12 3-credit courses, Students may be eligible to transfer up to 18 hours from previous graduate study.
DU:   58,  10 Daniels Compass, 44 Business Intelligence Core, 4 Elective
SJU:  30,  10 3-credit courses, 20 month program, 8 week classes done one at a time
UA:   60

GMAT/GRE Required:
ASU:  NO   ASU is a GMAT-using school, but a GMAT or a GRE is not required.
DU:   YES
SJU:  YES
UA:   YES

Objectives:
ASU:
The objectives of the online program are to:

Identify and understand the functional areas of business intelligence.
Develop analytical, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills applicable to real-world problems.
Apply sound analytical skills and business principles to decision making with respect to operational and strategic activities.
Develop sound financial planning, reporting, and information models which satisfy regulatory considerations such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
Develop corporate dashboards which utilize key performance indicators that managers and workers can use to improve day-to-day business operations.
Use a framework such as Six Sigma to analyze all aspects of business operations as well as find and implement quality-control improvements and efficiencies.
Recognize and solve potential risks and put in place policies and procedures which minimize the impact of business interruptions.

DU:
Not clearly stated, but I found this excerpt…
Information, business intelligence, is no longer the exclusive domain of IT or research departments. That’s why Daniels has created a one-of-a-kind program that takes you across disciplines — data warehousing, marketing, finance and management and operations — so you’ll know how to gather and leverage information to lead organizations, control decisions, and be relied upon to steer enterprises.

SJU:
The online Business Intelligence Master’s degree at Saint Joseph’s University helps you develop:
- The ability to create business models for forecasting and business analysis
- A fundamental understanding of Business Intelligence technologies
- The ability to integrate information from all aspects of the organization into a big picture understanding
- A solid foundation in technology and a grasp of the decision-making tools that will aid your ability to interpret information

UA:
Not clearly stated, but I found this excerpt…
One of the few programs of its kind offered within a college of business, it delivers the exceptional knowledge, skills and experience you need to produce valuable results for your organization. And, it’s one of the few graduate business programs to prepare you for certification in SAS Enterprise Miner, the premiere software tool for the data mining industry.

Curriculum:
ASU:
COURSES Credit Hours
BUSI500 Overview of Business Intelligence 3
BUSI510 Data Mining 3
BUSI520 Balanced Scorecards and Performance Dashboards 3
BUSI530 Business Performance Management 3
BUSI540 Customer Relationship Management 3
BUSI550 Business Intelligence Tools 3
MGT540 Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation 3
IS550 Project and Change Management 3
IS565 Decision Support and Intelligent Systems 3
IS575 Data Warehousing 3
BUSI599 Business Intelligence Capstone Research Project 6

DU:
Daniels Compass Courses
The Essence of Enterprise
Leading at the Edge
Ethics for the 21st Century Professional

Business Intelligence Core Courses
Introduction to Business Intelligence
Enterprise Intelligence
Data Warehousing
Applied Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence Practicum
Quantitative Methods
Applied Statistical Modeling
Data Mining I
Marketing Strategy
Marketing Research
Competitive Strategies

SJU:
DSS 4415 Contemporary Information Technologies
DSS 4715 Developing Decision Making Competencies
DSS 5515 Concepts and Practice of DSS Modeling
DSS 5525 Database Management Theory and Practice
DSS 5535 Enterprise Data
DSS 5545 Applied Business Intelligence
DSS 5555 Advanced Business Intelligence
FIN 4315 Shareholder Value Management
FIN 5305 Financial Institutions and Capital Markets
FIN 5055 Portfolio Management

UA:
YEAR ONE, FALL SEMESTER
AC 521   Concepts of Financial Mgmt. Accounting 3
OM 506   Decision Modeling & Business Intelligence 3
MGT 517  Organizational Theory 3
MKT 518  Marketing Management and Decision Making 3
ST 509   Statistics for Business Applications 3

YEAR ONE, SPRING SEMESTER
EC 500   Managerial Economics 3
FI 504   Foundations of Financial Management 4
MIS 511  Management Information Systems 2
OM 516   Production Operations Management 3
ST 532   ADVANCED DATA MINING 3

YEAR TWO, FALL SEMESTER
GBA 525  Business Policy 3
MGT 542  Management Communication 3
ST 521   INTRODUCTION TO DATA MANAGEMENT 3
________ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ELECTIVE 3
________ ADDITIONAL ELECTIVE* 3

YEAR TWO, SPRING SEMESTER
LGS 522/IBA 550 Legal-Ethical Environments in Business/IBA 1.5/1.5
ST 522   ADVANCED DATA MANAGEMENT 3
________ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ELECTIVE 3
________ ADDITIONAL ELECTIVE* 3
________ ADDITIONAL ELECTIVE* 3

*ADDITIONAL ELECTIVES include any reasonable graduate course approved by a concentration advisor.  Suggested courses include economics, finance and operations management.  Students completing OM 506, ST 532, ST 521 and ST 522 will receive UA/SAS Data Mining Certification.

Web Addresses:
http://www.americansentinel.edu/Programs/MSBI/index.php
http://www.daniels.du.edu/business-intellegence-master.aspx
http://www.sju-online.com/programs/business-intelligence-masters.asp
http://mba.cba.ua.edu/curriculum/concentrations/business_intelligence.php

Other related links:
http://www.b-eye-network.com/channels/index.php?filter_channel=1531
http://www.tdwi.org/News/display.aspx?ID=8855
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/04/prweb521950.htm

-ez

From time to time, I’ll be questioned how a record was created in PerformancePoint Planning.  A quick check of the LoadingControlID in the table of interest can provide insight into how the record was generated.  This field provides a code, normally 1000 or 2000.  But if you don’t know the meaning of the code, it does not help too much.  I performed a search over the Internet and found very little on the topic of the LoadingControlID.  So, I hope you will find this post helpful.  There is a table in the application database called LoadingControlID that contains all the definitions of these LoadingControlID’s.  Below are the definitions.

0         Unknown
1000   ReferenceDataSubmission
2000   DataLoad
3000   GenericCalculation
3001   SharesCalculation
3002   Consolidation
3003   IntercompanyReconciliation
3004   CurrencyConversion
3005   OpeningBalanceRule
3006   MovementRule
3007   SeedingRule
3008   AllocationRule
4000   DataSubmission
5000   TypeLibraryGenerated
6000   AssociationFactDataMovement

My experiences have shown that data loaded via the PPSCmd have a LoadingControlID of 2000 (DataLoad).  Data that is manually entered via the Planning Business Modeler has a code of 1000 (ReferenceDataSubmission).

When loading new records via the PPSCmd or from the “Load Data From Staging” command in Planning Business Modeler, there’s no need to populate this field as PPS generates the correct code on its own.

-ez