Neal Waterstreet

Atlanta Microsoft BI Group – September Meeting

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Please note the new meeting location below.

When: Tuesday, September 25, 2018 6:30-8:30 ET

Topic: Mastering data with Microsoft Master Data Services (MDS) for strategic advantage

Overview: Mastering customer, product, employee, job, and recipe data has become increasing important to companies focused on becoming data driven organization:

Mastering Data with Microsoft Master Data Services (MDS):

  • Data Modeling Strategy
  • Hierarchy Strategy and Management
  • Application-level transaction management
  • Bulk data movement
  • Security and Access
  • Microsoft’s MDS Direction

Other Strategies and Consideration for mastering data:

  • User Experience, Governance and Data Stewardship
  • Address, Person, and Email Standardization
  • Matching Records and Survivorship
  • Workflow and Event needs
  • Direct and real-time Application Integration

Speaker:  John Rossiter is a subject-matter expert in Master Data Management with a focus on strategy, governance, and process with twenty years of experience serving clients in multiple industries: high tech, retail, airline/aerospace, government (Federal, State, Municipal), consumer packaged goods, and financial services. John has successfully led large consulting projects, leveraging technology, process improvement, and change management to deliver a wide range of solutions, including Master Data Management, ERP system implementation, Supply Chain Management, and eCommerce.

Sponsor: Profisee is an Atlanta area base Master Data enterprise software company solely focused on master and reference data management with customers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

RSVP at http://atlantabi.pass.org/

When: Tuesday, September 25, 2018 6:30-8:30 ET

Where: Microsoft Technology Center, 8000 Avalon Boulevard, Suite 900, Alpharetta, GA 30009 (https://binged.it/2KQLAPw)

Atlanta Microsoft BI Group – August Meeting

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Please note the new meeting location below.

When: Tuesday, August 28, 2018 6:30-8:30 ET

Topic: Advanced Analytics with Power BI

Overview: Power BI has become an increasingly important data analytics tool. This presentation focuses on the advanced analytics options currently available in Power BI. Attendees to this talk will see:

  • Microsoft’s perspective on advanced analytics development: the Team Data Science Process
  • What the general options are for advanced analytics on Azure
  • What the specific native advanced analytics capabilities are in Power BI
  • Some ideas on pairing Power BI with other technologies in advanced analytics architectures

See https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-expands-self-service-prep-for-big-data-unifies-modern-and-enterprise-bi/ for the latest announcements.

Speaker: Mark Tabladillo Ph.D. is a data scientist at Microsoft. His career has focused on industry application of advanced analytics, using a variety of analytics tools including SAS, SQL Server Analysis Services, Cortana Intelligence (including Microsoft R Server and Microsoft Machine Learning Services), R, and Python. He was a founding member of the Atlanta Microsoft BI User’s Group eight years ago, and this group’s second presenter.

Sponsor: Don’t settle for “one size fits all” training. Choose Accelebrate, and receive hands-on, engaging training precisely tailored to your goals and audience! Our on-site training offerings range from ASP.NET training and SharePoint training to courses on ColdFusion, Java™, C#, VB.NET, SQL Server, and more.

RSVP at http://atlantabi.pass.org/

When: Tuesday, August 28, 2018 6:30-8:30 ET

Where: Microsoft Technology Center, 8000 Avalon Boulevard, Suite 900, Alpharetta, GA 30009 (https://binged.it/2KQLAPw)

Bose Headphones

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My Logitech h800 headphones finally died a few weeks ago courtesy of the kids. I liked them, especially for the price, but they were missing a few features I wanted. First, for some reason, I always had a problem pairing them with my phone. The Bluetooth issue was with by my phone, or it may have been with the headset, I have no idea. Second, they didn’t fit well. They were comfortable, but the foam was never fit tightly. Finally, I need something that is noise canceling. Noise canceling is a nice feature to have in noisy work environments.

I started by looking for a simple headset. I initially purchased the Jabra Evolve 40 UC to replace the h800. The 40 UC worked well, but I didn’t particularly enjoy having a wired connection. I kept pulling my phone off the desk or trying to stand up and having them fall.

I finally settled on the Bose QuietComfort 35 Series II. They cost more than most of the other options, but they solve all of the problems I was looking to solve. They are very easy to pair, and they can be paired to multiple devices at once. They’re also pretty comfortable and fit over the ear. I haven’t had them fall off yet either. One area that did need a few days to get used to was the noise canceling. Now that I’m used to it I’m able to work and have calls with background noise. It helps in areas where there are multiple people on the phone at the same time. I’ve also tried them on a couple of flights, and they work very well in the air.

Atlanta Azure DataFest Day 1

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Today was the inaugural Atlanta Azure DataFest at the Microsoft office in Alpharetta. Stuart Ainsworth; who has organized many other events (SQLSaturday), is running it. It’s just about the right size crowd for the Microsoft office at Avalon.

A few notes…

I like the scheduling. Three one hour sessions with short breaks in between in the morning. Then in the afternoon, it broke into three separate tracks. Tomorrow’s schedule keeps the three tracks, but have three-hour deep-dive sessions in the morning and switch to one hour sessions in the afternoon.

The rooms were full, but most didn’t feel crowded. The one exception was one of the sessions I attended. I counted 23 people standing at one point – a very popular session! There weren’t a lot of extra chairs. We’ll need to be aware of that for next month’s SQLSaturday.

I was a little late this morning and didn’t have breakfast, but for lunch the food was excellent, and the line went quickly. There was plenty of time for networking and catching up with friends.

I think it was a plus that this is during the week. Events like these may attract a different crowd on weekdays than on weekends. The crowd seemed to have a diverse range of experience with Azure.

For the sessions and speakers, so far so good. All of the presentations I attended seem to have gone well. One thing I noticed is that there were many questions for the speakers. They all did a great job interacting with the audiences.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow!