Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
creation or investing in the hardware, software, and processes necessary to support even a small data
mart before the migration to a new tool or process is absolutely necessary.
To get started quickly, a SharePoint site collection owner can create a specialized site type called
Business Intelligence Center. It includes a set of libraries and supports content types specific to BI
such as Excel workbooks and dashboards. It can also store reports if Reporting Services is configured
to run in SharePoint integrated mode. In addition, the Business Intelligence Center includes a special
document library for data connections that power analysts and BI developers can use to create new
workbooks, reports, Visio diagrams, and PerformancePoint content. We use the term SharePoint BI to
refer generically to the features supported in Business Intelligence Center because they can be imple-
mented independent of this site type.
We've already mentioned SharePoint dashboards as a way to present workbooks, reports, and Per-
formancePoint components. Dashboards can include all kinds of other content, such as Visio Services
diagrams and Filter Web Parts. They're supposed to be simple enough such that anyone can build a
dashboard page, but in reality, power analysts and BI developers are the creators of dashboards.
Filter Web Parts on the dashboard make it easy to customize content on a dashboard page for
each user. The same filter value can update multiple Web Parts on the same page. Working with
dashboard pages is not difficult when merely adding a group of Web Parts. However, it can be a bit
more challenging to configure correctly when attempting to link these Web Parts together for use
with a filter, especially if the Web Parts come from different data sources. For this reason, constructing
anything but the simplest of dashboards is usually a task assigned to a BI developer.
Visio Services
Visio Services provides another way to visualize data. It supports live connections
to data sources for use in web-based Visio diagrams that display information ranging from a color-
coded status about projects to the current state of processes to the availability of servers, and so on.
Conceptually, the purpose of a Visio diagram is similar to that of a dashboard because it helps busi-
ness users see trends and outliers at a glance.
Visio diagrams are accessible in a document library or can be added to a SharePoint dashboard by
using a Visio Web Access Web Part, so they are just as easy for users to consume as any other content
available in SharePoint. Like Excel Services with workbooks, Visio Services does not require users to
have Visio installed on their computers before they can view a diagram published to SharePoint.
The development of Visio diagrams is in the realm of a specialist who understands how to build
them and how to connect the data to the diagram properly by using the Visio 2013 desktop applica-
tion. Supported data sources for Visio Services include SQL Server, SharePoint lists, Excel Services,
Microsoft Access, and any source accessible with an OLE DB or ODBC provider. No other tool provides
functionality like Visio Services, so the diagrams are not reusable for team BI outside of SharePoint
unless the team develops a custom application.
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