This blog focuses on implementing and extending business intelligence and B2B collaboration solutions for specialty trade contractors. The goal is to implement and extend solutions gracefully without writing a ton of custom code. I use primarily Microsoft tools such as SharePoint, SSRS, SSAS, Dynamics ERP and WennSoft vertical solutions.

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How to Publish an InfoPath form to SharePoint

1.                   You will need a InfoPath client.   File | Publish, choose SharePoint Server.

2.                   First you must publish to a network location that you can access from SharePoint Central Administrator and make some configuration settings.

               a.   File | Publish

               b.  Choose the Forms Server location.  Note this is not your site collection site, but rather the server location accessed through Central Administration | Manage Form Templates.  You will specify your Form Library later.   Then click Next.

3.  Choose the “Administrator Approved Form Template” if you want the template to be available across your site collections.

4.  Choose the network location (or local if on the SharePoint server already) that you want to publish the form to.

5.  Identify the fields that you want available as columns in the list view of the document library that will house the form.

6.  Make sure the form published successfully.

7.  Central Administration| Manage Form Templates

8.  Click Upload form template.   Enter the location where you published the template in the steps above and, if this is a new template, you can clear the “Upgrade the form template if it already exists” checkbox.

9.  In a few moments, you should get a success message.

10.  Next activate the form to the site collection(s) you want to use it as a content type in.

11.  Remember to change site collections as necessary.

12.  Now, go to your site collection.   At the root, in the Form Templates folder, you should now see your new template with a “New” indicator next to it.

13.  In your site, create a new library edit content types.

14.  No you should be able to add new content types and select the one you added from the list.   As a result, you will see your new content type added to the list in the Content Types section.

15.  You can create views using any of the columns that you promoted during the publish process.

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Delivery Methods for SSRS Dashboards

I have found that one of the benefits of building dashboards with SQL Server Reporting Services is that we can deliver them to the user in multiple ways without having to re-develop. Here are some examples:

  • Inside GP rich client on the home page or from the customized reports menu
  • Via the Business Analyzer, a stand-alone client application written for Microsoft Dynamics
  • Inside SharePoint / PMP, like this:

         

  Or, I have found I can deliver in other ways, such as:      

  • In SSRS Report Manager, via browser
  • Emailed in Excel, PDF or other formats on a predefined, scheduled basis
  • Emailed in Excel, PDF or other formats, but only when a specific set of conditions exist (requires SQL Enterprise or 2012 BI Edition)
  • In Outlook, by clicking on a particular folder that links to the report
  • As a data feed to PowerPivot (the Excel PowerPivot table uses the report as its data source instead of a table) 

I particularly like using this tool for these types of simple dashboard because I am able to achieve a high degree of reuse.  By building in drop list filtering, multiple grouping options and drill-down in each dashboard part, I have found that we can also provide some level of interactiveness (is that a word?) because the user can “self-serve” some answers to initial questions that a dashboard metric generates.

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Planning a Dashboard Project

Introduction

I have done some presentations recently on dashboards as an entree into Business Intelligence solutions for contractors and thought I would share some of the high points.   This article will cover what the goals of dashboards are, several things to consider in design, some common misconceptions and  considerations when considering moving your organization along the path to becoming an insights-driven organization.

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