Report subscription in SSRS 2008

In SSRS 2008, Report can be subscribed and sent to and UNC file share and also by email. By default only UNC file share location will be availble.

In order to subscribe mail delivery, follow the steps:

1. Go to report configuration manager
2. Click on Email settings
3. Provide from address and smtp server name
4. Save the changes.
5. Go to you report manager
6. open your report and go to subscription section
7. Create new subscription and provide the mail and schedule details.

You are all set!!!

Launching report builder from command prompt @SSRS

Many of you may question, whether we can launch report builder from command line. While it is in fact possible, it is an unsupported feature in SQL Server 2005. That said, here's how to do it. You just need to specify what report server to connect to, like this:
ReportBuilder.exe /s=http://mybox/reportserver
Other supported URL parameters are also recognized when passed on the command line, like this:
ReportBuilder.exe /s=http://localhost/reportserver "/My Favorite Report"
ReportBuilder.exe /s=http://localhost/reportserver "/model=/Models/Adventure Works"

Working with Transaction Cotainers for Jet Oledb provider @SSIS

Issue: If you try to user transaction container, and if your data flow task contains Jet oledb provider then transactions will not work.

Solution: User Excel or other source in place of Jet oledb provider.

Decimal points issue while working with Excel Source @SSIS

Issue: In SSIS if you use Excel source in Data flow and if you have column in your excel file with decimal points then sometime during SSIS import fetched decimal values from excel are different from actual decimal values.

E.g In Excel, Amount column has 19.31 then while doing SSIS import, it will fetch 19.30000009.

Solution:

-Try to use Jet Oledb provider in place of Excel source

- Also provide EXTEND PROPERTIES value as "EXCEL 8.0;IMEX=1" in Jet Oledb provider.

Which are the Business Intelligence Softwares?

Microsoft business intelligence tools are well up to market requirements and they are :

• SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
• SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)
• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)

Why do we need BI tools?

• Facts of survey done by IDC (a sister company to CIO's publisher).

• According to the survey:
• The amount of data is growing rapidly. 
• Accessing unstructured data is difficult but increasingly necessary to decision making
• To manage the avalanches of data , business intelligence tools are becoming more widespread.
• Timely business intelligence has become mission critical to many enterprises

Solutions for all of the above listed problems is Business Intelligence tools.

What is Business Intelligence?

• Business intelligence (BI) refers to skills, knowledge, technologies, applications, quality, risks, security issues and practices used to help a business to acquire a better understanding of market behavior and commercial context.

• Business Intelligence (BI) is about getting the right information, to the right decision makers, at the right time.

• Simple words.. Convert Data into Information
• Data: Collection of facts collected as a result of some activity
• Information: Data that are processed to be useful. 
• and the tools that helps you to achieve that is called Business Intelligence Tools.