It may seem a bit of a surprise, but the same techniques to improve search engine optimization are inherent in Accessibility features. Let me explain. Search engines crawl the web using a "bot", for example Google uses Googlebot and Bing uses Bingbot.  The bot is responsible for two primary functions, the first is to find all the links on the page to add them to search fetch list. The second function is to index the words on the page. Bots do not have eyes nor do they have ears, so they do not see images or hear sounds, they can only "see" text.

By following some of the accessibility rules, you will be able to make the bot "see" things on a page that it would have missed without accessibility techniques. For example placing a few descriptive words on an image "ALT" attribute is meaningful and visible to bots while text embedded in images is not.

Although, "A picture is worth a thousand words", when it comes to SEO, a thousand words in any form is not necessarily a good thing. All major search engines rank pages based on the quality not the quantity of the content. A good splash of keywords is great, but if you overdo it your rank will drop. You don't need to avoid images, just keep your content out of them.

For more information about SEO check out Google and Bing's Webmaster Pages:
 http://support.google.com/webmasters
 http://www.bing.com/webmaster

For more information about accessibility see:
 http://www.w3.org/WAI/

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The SharePoint migration is not all about Web Parts, Branding, Customizations and Hardware and Software Assessments.

It is also about the users and getting their buy-in for the project.

Our users are loaded with their work. They are not very interested in having to change yet another thing on their daily routine, so we need them to be excited about the new migration.

One way to keep everybody interested on the project is by training them on the new platform; show them the new features that you will be using and get them excited about them. While no one is interested in having more work, all of us like to learn more about something that will make our lives easier.

But be careful not to over-promise and under-deliver. Take some time to go over the new features of SharePoint 2013; experiment with them on an isolated environment; consult your team of experts and do a little check list:

• Make sure you will be using that new feature,
• Make sure it will be relevant to your users,
• Be certain that it will be stable and reliable on your environment; test, test and retest. When you are done testing, test again,
• Plan carefully for deployment and training. Make sure the time to start your little “this is a great feature” campaign is right. Too many wedding proposals have gone sour because of a bad timing.

After you are certain, by all means, let it be known by all! If done properly, you may be known as the “guy who made our lives a little easier” and not the “crazy person who brought in yet another version of SharePoint.”

 I see this type situation arise all too often: A VP of Sales has a great idea like “if we knew more about our customers’ collective buying patterns I could be more effective at providing them with value added solutions at the right time”. Sounds like a pretty good idea.

Well, this idea gets tossed around with management, and eventually a decision is made to do something to capture the opportunity. So the process starts. They get somebody to write down requirements for such a project. Because this deals with customers, someone at some point will likely suggest “you need a CRM (Customer Relationship Management System”. Upon doing more research, all the wonderful things that CRMs do are built into the requirements document, because - ‘that’s a good idea’. At some point, finance is involved to set a budget. Then they give it to IT with the instruction: “Source a CRM system and someone to implement it for this much money”.  IT now owns the project and goes about casting its net and find CRM implementers. 

Can someone say ‘broken telephone’? The poor

 VP of Sales is looking for something to help him analyze customer buying patterns, but he’s going to get a full-blown CRM  - how is that going to help him?

This is an exaggerated example, but the underlying flow of events is common among a lot of companies.  What those companies don’t get is that software is supposed to solve business problems – not keep IT guys employed. I don’t mean to be hard on IT guys, since I’m one too on some days, but since when did the role of IT start to involve making key Business decisions to solve Business problems? Maybe I missed that memo.

If you’ll indulge me, let’s go back to the example and look at it from the bottom up. The bottom in this case is the poor CRM implementer who is entering into a situation they just can’t win. They don’t know anything about the customer’s business or what specific problem the software application is trying to solve. They may gain some keen insight as to what’s required by going to their IT gatekeeper, who will tell them all about what a CRM is supposed to do within their organization. They may even get a chance to meet with others and maybe even that VP of Sales, who has by this time been convinced that what he needs is a CRM system – because that’s what’s been approved for purchase. Chances are they won’t get to the root issue of what started this whole thing off.

This could have gone a different way. The VP of Sales could have directly gone in search of a partner to provide him with his problem:  “if we knew more about our customers’ collective buying patterns I could be more effective at providing them with value added solutions at the right time”.  What he would have found is a partner with expertise in Business Intelligence. That partner could have worked directly with him to understand his business, understand the problem and the impact it has on the business, and propose a solution that would specifically meet the business needs with a measurable return on investment. 
Sound too easy? Well in our business the second scenario is a recipe for success – if we can’t engage with the business user then we won’t take on the project. We just won’t do that to your business.

It doesn’t really matter if you are selling heavy machinery or if you are an Economic Development Director trying to attract investors to your town: you need to have the best website.

Many decades ago, the consumers of your product or service would pick up the phone to engage with you and only then, they would start learning about your offer. You could educate them and guide them as you spoke with them or you visited them; they would read your brochures and listen to your presentations.

Today, buyers find out more than 80% of what they want to know about a product or a service, before contacting anyone. By the time they call you, they have educated themselves on what they want, how they want it and how much they want to pay for it. You have no time to do this over the phone or the meeting anymore.

When, you ask then, is the best time to tell them about your service or product? The answer is: at your website.

Your potential client will start there as a visitor, looking for information. If they don’t find truthful and useful information with you, rest assured that they will find it somewhere else. Wherever they find what they are looking for, they will stay there. And read. And read. And read.

The visitor on the website will get nurtured until he is ready to click at a button that says something like “Can we contact you?” At this point, he will become a lead and the whole sales process will continue from there.

That is the reason why good websites, either for companies or for governments, have become critical for business: if done correctly, they will bring revenue. If done wrong, they will drive potential clients away and to your competitors.

Websites today, and this is especially true for the Canadian local governments, cannot be static pages anymore. Sometimes they need to be open to the public and some other times they need to have a password and an ID, conducting us to an Intranet or an Extranet. Sometimes, they need to be both! Most of the times, they need to be interactive, showing maps; helping us with common problems; directing parties interested to the proper person; helping us out to fill forms or teaching us how to calculate our return on investments.

As these sites have become more and more complicated, several tools have emerged to help preoccupied content developers to create better pages. 

At Konverge we have specialized in two of them:

• SharePoint 2013 (www.sharepoint.com), owned by Microsoft, is a leading tool used to create Intranets and Extranets. It is also used to make public websites.
• Umbraco (www.umbraco.com) is an open source Content Management System, or CMS used in more than 110,000 sites today.

There may be hundreds of different ways to create a compelling Website. You need to develop yours today (or yesterday) to convert all those strangers and visitors into leads and customers.

 About the Author:
Arshad is a SQL and BI Developer focusing on Data Warehousing projects for Microsoft.

URL: Article Source

Problem

SQL Server 2012 introduced an unified BI Semantic Model (BISM) which is based on some of the existing as well as some new technologies.  This model is intended to serve as one model for all end user experiences for reporting, analytics, scorecards, dashboards, etc. In this tip, I will talk in detail about the new BISM, how it differs from earlier the earlier Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) and how BISM lays down a foundation for future.

Solution

SQL Server 2005 and 2008 had the Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) for creating OLAP and data mining solutions.  SQL Server 2008 R2 introduced the VertiPaq engine for storing data in a highly compressed format in memory at runtime.  This technology improved the performance of analysis significantly faster in Excel with PowerPivot. Further, PowerPivot could be deployed to SharePoint for collaboration and to convert personal Business Intelligence (BI) solutions to team/organization BI. SQL Server 2012, has introduced an unified Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM) which is based on some of the existing as well as some new technologies.  This model is intended to act as one model for all end user experiences for reporting, analytics, scorecards, dashboards, etc. whether it is personal BI, team BI or organizational BI.

SQL Server Analysis Services Vision

SQL Server Analysis Services has become a market leader due to its performance, scalability, accessibility, reduced total cost of ownership and relative ease of solution development. Analysis Services in SQL Server 2012 has broadened its capabilities, features, ease of development and scope of reach even further. To define the vision for this next generation product release, the Analysis Services product group has decided on a set of key guiding principles for broader adoption.

• Build a BI platform based on the strengths and successes of Analysis Services and expand its reach to a much broader user base
• Bring together the relational and multidimensional models/projects under a single unified BI platform – best of both worlds together under an unified. BI Semantic Model platform
• Embrace the relational data model – which is easily, well and widely understood by developers and IT Pros around the world
• Provide flexibility in the platform to suit the diverse needs of BI applications
• Continue to make use of its rich existing ecosystem of tools, developers, their skillset and partners for ease of development

Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM)

The Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM) is a single unified BI platform which has both multi-dimensional as well as tabular data modeling capabilities to offer best of both worlds and choice for the developer. As we all agree, the relational data model is relatively easier to understand and used by a larger group of developers than multi-dimensional models, hence it makes sense to embrace the relational/tabular data modeling for broader adoption and to ensure utilization of customers' existing investments and skill available with them.

The model based on BISM can integrate data from heterogeneous data source including traditional data sources like relational databases, LOB applications or un-traditional sources like data feeds, text files, Excel, cloud services, etc. and users can work with the data stored in the model in all of these ways regardless of how the model (whether it's multi-dimensional or tabular) was developed. Having said that, the BI Semantic Model is the one model that powers all end-user experiences and can be accessed in an intuitive way using Reporting Services, Power View, PowerPivot, Excel, SharePoint, etc.

Any model based on BISM can be conceptually divided in three layers: Data Model, Business Logic and Queries and Data Access.

Data Model - BI Semantic Model developers can choose between multi-dimensional or tabular projects based on the needs of their application, their skill set and the client tool can consume the model using a multi-dimensional or a tabular interface.

• Multi-dimensional - BI Semantic Model allows traditional ways of creating multi-dimensional model; it allows creating a model with a cube and dimensions normally based on dimensional data model/star-snowflake schemas of a relational data warehouse.
• Tabular - BI Semantic Model also allows creating a model based on relational data sources and makes the development much easier as it is easier to understand.

Business Logic and Queries - Again, BI Semantic Model developers and client tools can choose between MDX and DAX based on application needs, skill set, user experience, etc.

• MDX - MDX (Multi Dimensional Expression) was introduced with Analysis Services long back and now has become the de-facto BI industry standard for multi-dimensional business logic, calculations and queries for OLAP.
• DAX - DAX (Data Analysis Expression) is an expression language based on Excel formulas that was introduced initially with PowerPivot and is built on tabular concepts (tables, columns, and relationships). DAX can be used to support model development (like creating calculated columns, measures, and KPIs for tabular models and PowerPivot models), relationship navigation, context modification and time intelligence

 Data Access - The Data Access layer integrates data from heterogeneous data sources; there are basically two modes for data retrieval and management as discussed below. Though there is a tradeoff between the two modes and the BI Semantic Model developer needs to make the choice based on application needs, local data storage requirements and data latency.

• Cached - Cached data mode retrieves data from all the sources and stores it in a compressed data structure that is optimized for high speed data access. MOLAP is the storage format that has been used in Analysis Services cube (for multi-dimensional model) for many releases of Analysis Services. It is optimized for OLAP and uses techniques such as pre-built aggregates, bitmap indexes, and high degree of compression to deliver great performance and scale. Whereas VertiPaq is an in-memory column store engine (for tabular model) that combines state-of-art data compression and scanning algorithms to deliver blazing fast performance with no need for indexes, pre-calculated aggregates or tuning.
• Pass-through - Pass-through mode pushes query processing and business logic down to the underlying data sources, thereby exploiting the capabilities of the source system and avoiding the need to copy the data as part of the model. ROLAP is complementary to MOLAP of multi-dimensional model whereas DirectQuery is complementary to VertiPaq of tabular data model. Both attempt to push query evaluation, as much as possible, down into the underlying data sources. ROLAP is optimized for large fact tables and relatively small dimension tables (star schema), while DirectQuery is mostly neutral towards the backend database structure though in SQL Server 2012, DirectQuery is supported only for models that are based on a single SQL Server relational data source.

Analysis Services Deployment Mode

Now with SQL Server 2012, an installation of Analysis Services can be done either in multi-dimensional, tabular or PowerPivot for SharePoint mode. As discussed above each of these deployment modes uses a different engine (Analysis Services engine for multi-dimensional whereas VertiPaq engine for tabular or PowerPivot for SharePoint) and works differently by using different storage structure and memory architecture. Each Analysis deployment mode supports different set of data sources, development/management tools, query language, etc.

Check out this table outlining all of the details.

During the installation of Analysis Services, on the Setup Role page of the SQL Server Setup, you need to select the SQL Server Feature Installation option for Multi-dimensional and Data Mining or Tabular mode, or PowerPivot For SharePoint option. Once you are done with the installation of Analysis Services, you cannot change the deployment mode of an existing Analysis Services instance (from multi-dimensional to tabular or vice-versa). Though multiple instances of Analysis Services can co-exist on the same server, each running a different deployment mode.

Why the BI Semantic Model? Why Microsoft BI Stack?

First, the BI Semantic Model is a highly performing and scalable. The performance and scalability comes from the MOLAP and VertiPaq storage engines that enable data volumes all the way from a few megabytes up to multiple terabytes. MOLAP used bitmap index, pre-calculated aggregates in compressed formant for high performance whereas VertiPaq uses in-memory column store engine that combines high compression and scanning algorithms to deliver blazing fast performance with no need for indexes, pre-calculated aggregates or tuning.

Second, the BI Semantic Model is feature rich.  The value lies in the sophisticated data modeling capabilities and complex business logic that can be expressed using MDX and DAX languages.

Third, the BI Semantic Model offers flexible modeling capabilities. In other words, Model developers can choose between the multi-dimensional or tabular data modeling based on their experience and skill-set, between MDX and DAX for business logic, and between cached and pass-through modes for data access, data latency and storage. Regardless of the model developer’s choices, client tools see a single model and can consume it using the multidimensional or tabular interfaces and send MDX or DAX queries for accessing the model.

In this tip, I talked in detail about new BISM, its architecture, how it differs from earlier UDM and how BISM lays down a foundation for future. In the next tip I am going to talk in detail about differences between multi-dimensional model vs. tabular model, when to choose one model on another and step by step guide on creating tabular model project, please stay tuned.

 By Lynda Bourne, DPM, PMP

Given the amount of work involved, most of your project communication efforts should focus on the stakeholders crucial to the success of your project. And this requires answering two key questions: Who are the most important stakeholders, and why are they important?

Determining who's important is usually straightforward, based on an assessment of the stakeholder's power and involvement in the project. Understanding why each "important stakeholder" is important helps you define the type of relationship you need to develop for effective communication.

Enter the mutuality matrix, a useful project communications tool that starts with two dimensions:

• Each stakeholder needs something from the project to further his or her interests, or alternatively, needs nothing from the project.
• The project requires the active support (assistance or resources) of the important stakeholders, or alternatively, requires nothing from the stakeholder.

These assumptions create four quadrants for categorizing each of the important stakeholders:

• Project needs nothing/stakeholder needs nothing: Stakeholders in this quadrant are usually protesters. In this case, you have two communication options: You may be able to defuse their opposition by providing better information, but this only works if the protesting is based on false assumptions. Otherwise, you may choose to limit communication with the stakeholder whilst keeping the communication channels open.
• Project needs nothing/stakeholder needs something: The stakeholders in this quadrant are the easiest to manage from a communication perspective. You are already providing their requirements as part of the project deliverables. All that's required is to provide reassurance that their needs will be fulfilled. If their requirements are outside of the project's scope, the stakeholder should initiate a change request.
• Project needs something/stakeholder needs something: This group needs active management. Project communication must clearly link the stakeholder's support or resources to how the project fulfills his or her requirements. Take the time needed to develop robust relationships to facilitate cooperation.
• Project needs something/stakeholder needs nothing: Stakeholders in this quadrant are a major risk. They're typically regulatory authorities, or people who have to inspect or approve the project's work as part of their business. Carefully build a proper professional relationship that respects the integrity of the stakeholder's position while at the same time ensuring your communications are received and acted upon.

Once you understand the mutuality matrix, the way you communicate with each of the important stakeholders can be adjusted to ensure both parties achieve a satisfactory outcome. For example, the time and effort saved by minimizing communication with intractable objectors can be invested in building relationships with your key suppliers.

Keep in mind that each stakeholder will also be either supportive of or opposed to the project. Important stakeholders against the project — typically competitors and objectors — usually need nothing from the project and your communication should be focused on minimizing the objections. Similarly, important stakeholders who need something from the project are usually either passive or supportive, and your communication should be focused on building robust relationships.

How do you identify and communicate with important stakeholders?

There are several ways to measure the success of your Intranet within your company. I am sure you have read about several ways to do it.  But there is a very simple test that you can do too.  See that new guy on the corner of your office? Maybe he has been around for two weeks or two months. He is a golden opportunity for the evaluation of your Intranet and you could approach him in a casual coffee talk with one of the following questions:

• When you started here, were you informed about our Intranet?
• Do you know where to find in our Intranet all the stuff that you need for your work?
• Has our Intranet been a key factor in your learning about the company?

If the new guy wasn’t even informed about our Intranet and how to use it to learn about his new job, then we have a lot of work to do.  If, on the other hand, he says he was trained on our site and how to access information, what to find where and how to use it, then we are on right track, but we can still ask him about tips for improvement.  A key success factor in hiring a new employee is the “Talent to Market.”  This refers to the time that it takes a new person to learn all he needs about our company to be productive. Our internal portal can help to dramatically decrease the Talent to Market time, if used correctly.

Some things we may want to evaluate include:

• Do the new personnel know where our Intranet is?
• Were they given access to it?
• Were they trained on how to use it?
• Is the information on our Portal useful and up to date?
• How soon does it take for our new people to start contributing with their own content to our Intranet?
• Was there anything that you needed (documents, forms, calendars, phone lists) that you found somewhere else and not in the Intranet?
A new person can bring new light to old problems and this is not an opportunity to be missed.

 1. Why Change?

“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”
-- Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

Implementing any new software in an organization requires massive effort – not just in building the software, but in changing the behaviours of the organization to adopt the new software. In all cases, the potential rewards far outweigh the significant effort required.

To help your organization assess the change required, we request that your senior executives respond to the following questions:
What are the keys to success in your industry?  What are your current competitive pressures? 

• Do your customers require customization of your product line?  Is mass customization part of your manufacturing strategy?  
• How long does it take to train your sales staff?  Are there complex technical elements in selling your product?
• Do you have the need to offer new products or make product changes, and have the information quickly distributed to the marketplace?
• Do you have a timeline in mind?  Is there any reason for urgency?

2. Who’s the team?

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.... ”
-- John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)

There are many pieces of the puzzle to make any successful systems implementation project possible.  It starts with a steering committee, with a strong mandate and a clear vision of the future.  At the center of the action is a project leader with an abundance of energy, the glue that binds the project, the leader that inspires the team.  Even more important are the many team members who contribute great efforts that move the project forward.

• Is there a clear unified vision?  If so what is that vision?
• Has the steering committee been identified?  Does this committee have members with the mandate for change?
• Has the project leader been identified?  Does this project leader command the respect of key knowledge users in throughout the organization?
• Have you identified key user representatives from key departments such as Marketing, Customer Service, Engineering, Information Technolgoy, and Sales?
• Have you identified the owners of data? Are these experts also computer savvy?
• Do you have an adaptive team, capable of learning new concepts quickly?

3. What do you need?

"The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measure anew every time he sees me, whilst all the rest go on with their old measurements, and expect them to fit me."
-- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

A successful software implementation requires the collaboration of business process owners, business process consultants, and software implementation experts. 

• Do you have a large volumes of data?  Or do you have very complex data?  Or both?
• Is it a major effort to keep data up-to-date?
• Can you provide samples of your current system or process and other sales training material or customer service training material?
• Have you attempted this process before?  What were the results, and what were the lessons learned?  
• Do you have an ERP system?  MRP system?  CRM system? Other system that holds your data?

4. Are you ready?

"We must learn to tailor our concepts to fit reality, instead of trying to stuff reality into our concepts."  Victor Daniels

A successful software implementation requires a partnership approach, from inception to completion.  Our team at Konverge has decades of experience in software development and systems integration.  We understand that it’s more about the people than the technology.  We bring more than the software product.  We bring the process to make it happen.

• Where does your data currently reside?  Is it in Excel spreadsheets, or database?
• Do you have an existing system  or process that you are trying to replace? If so, what platform is it running on?  What language was the source code written?
• What is the quality of your current data?  Do you have a process in place to ensure data quality?  Do you have a methodology for your product data?
• How much change is required in the process for your data?  Do you anticipate minor streamlining of your processes, or reinventing major processes?
• Are you comparing vendors based on feature checklists, or professional services capabilities?
• Are you committed to the change, regardless of the anticipated challenges?

In many corners of the software industry the word bug has extremely evil connotations. Even I prefer the word issue over bug. It is not exactly known when the term bug was first coined, but it is clear it was in the dark ages of computing when computers were massive foreboding castle like structures. Problems loomed behind those metallic frames of electronic circuitry with a new problem popping up in the same way that cockroaches scatter when the lights are turned on.

Rumour has it that ever since the day Grace Hopper in September 1945 found a moth stuck between some relays which prevented the Harvard Mark II computer from working, computer problems are called bugs. Thomas Edison in 1896, before computers were invented, referred to the word bug to describe problems with electrical circuitry. But wait, what about William Shakespeare? Surely he had no idea about computers or electronics, yet if you check Henry V1, part iii – Act V Scene II King Edward calls Warwick a – you ready – a “Bug”.

It would seem that etymologically bug refers to anything that is frightful or annoying.
 
To me it is certain that when software goes wrong it fits the bill of being annoying to the user and somewhat frightful to the developer – so I am going to go back to calling those issues bugs.

10 best Intranets of 2013

As they have done for several years now, the Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) released in January their pick for the 10 best Intranet sites of this year.

Several findings are interesting:

• The only Canadian company that made the list was WorkSafeBC, the Worker's Compensation Board of British Columbia. They had three months to improve their site and chose to use SharePoint 2010. That brings us to our next point.
• 70% of the winners are using SharePoint 
• 80% of the winners used outside consultants to help with the project. These consultants helped with tasks such as:
  • Development, 
  • Design, 
  • Usability Research, 
  • Planning
  • Project Management and 
  • Scheduling
• Although WorkSafeBC made their improvements really fast, the average time to create one of these winning sites is 27 months or about 2.3 years.
• Many of the winners are using SharePoint to facilitate document creation and management. This is probably due to the fact that the product integrates very easily with Microsoft Office.
• A great factor in the success of the project involves educating the employees about Team collaboration. As we have always maintained, a team can create the greatest site, but if no one knows it is there or they don't know how to use it, the project will have a limited success.

A lot more can be learned reading the full report for this year. You may start at: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/intranet-design/

Enjoy!