Simpson Associates are proud to be Silver Sponsors of this year's SQLBits conference to be held in London from the 29^th to the 31^st March.  This event will be the UK technical launch of Microsoft SQL Server 2012.  SQLBits is Europe's largest SQL event and SQLBits X will be the largest event to date with speakers attending from around the world. Many of Simpson Associates' consultants will be attending the event, make sure to seek us out.  In addition we will shortly be announcing a series of UK seminars presenting many of the new features and business benefits of adopting SQL 2012.  For more information regarding SQLBits visit www.sqlbits.com 

All of our IBM Cognos 8 training courses have now been updated for IBM Cognos 10; these course descriptions can be found at: http://www.simpson-associates.co.uk/courses and look out for all new Active Reports, Business Insight Authoring and Business Insight Advanced options soon.  Our new Training Brochure will be published later this week. 

Simpson Associates have a great first day at Conference11 the Annual Conference of UCSIA.  If you are yet to visit us we are at Stand 40 come and sign up for a free Management Information Strategy Workshop. 

IBM Cognos 10 is set to be launched on the 25th October 2010. 

Signup and watch the live launch here.

Can't wait till then watch the introduction video here.

Simpson Associates have been working with IBM Cognos and one of our UK customers on the Cognos 10 beta program over the last 6 months thus we have a unique ability to help you understand the benefits of Cognos 10.

In the words of one of our clients: "I wish we had met Simpson Associates six months earlier - it would have saved us a lot of time. We are delighted with the service that Simpson Associates has given to us. They even delivered a series of standard documents and procedures to really kick-start the engagement."

The SQLBits conference is the largest SQL Server conference in Europe and this year will take place at The University of York from 30th September to 2nd October.  Simpson Associates are pleased to be able to offer their customers a 20% discount on the Friday sessions …and the Saturday is free to attend.

The previous six conferences have established it as a must-attend event for DBAs, developers and BI professionals who work with Microsoft SQL Server and this year will be the biggest event ever, with there being capacity for over 500 SQL Server professionals; we hope to see you there.

Simpson Associates announces a series of breakfast and half day seminars covering Microsoft SharePoint 2010.  The 'Insight into SharePoint 2010' series is focused on giving you an introduction to Microsoft SharePoint with a particular emphasis on the Business Intelligence components available.  Simpson Associates are very excited about the upcoming release of the next version of SharePoint and are already working with the product to ensure that our clients are able to maximise their investment in this technology.  These events are being held in York, Birmingham and London, further details can be found here.

The Times newspaper on Tuesday 1st December contained a very informative Business Intelligence supplement, if you missed it then it is available here.

One of the articles discussed Microsoft's next generation of Business Intelligence and what will be released with Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008R2.  Microsoft  is also extending its "managed self service" offering with a product called PowerPivot.  PowerPivot is an add-in for Excel that allows large amounts of structured and unstructured data to be easily analysed within Excel and shared via SharePoint. 

Simpson Associates has been working this these products over the last couple of months,  if you would like to understand more about how these products will deliver benefits to your organisation please contact us.

 

From the 20th to the 21st of November, Giles Horwood and Dave Kerby attended the SQL Bits Goes West SQL Conference.

"This was a great event that allowed us to build upon the beta testing that we have been doing for the next versions of SQL Server, SharePoint and Office. We were able to see a number of demonstrations of SQL 2008 R2, the new PowerPivot functionality and the new Master Data Management features."

SQL Server 2008 R2, Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 have many new features that can contribute towards Business Intelligence becoming pervasive across an organisation. For example, with the introduction of PowerPivot, users will be able to analyse millions or even tens of millions of records within Excel or over the Web, at speed.  All the additional features mean that, by means of upgrades, users will be able to capitalise on investments made in Microsoft SQL Server, Office and SharePoint.

As a business, we are continuing to work with beta software to ensure that when this software is released in the first half of 2010, we have the detailed knowledge to assist clients adopt these new technologies.

To understand how Simpson Associates can assist you in maximising your investment in Microsoft SQL Server today, and with the new releases planned for next year, contact us.