New book: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Step by Step

 

New book: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Step by Step

Another of our SQL Server 2008 books is available now online and at fine bookstores everywhere: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Step by Step by Stacia Misner (Microsoft Press, 2009; ISBN: 9780735626478; 576 pages).

Stacia’s book is one of five covering SQL Server Business Intelligence technologies. In addition to Reporting Services, we have Step by Steps for Analysis Services (coming next month), MDX, and Integration Services. These titles help you drill down on the major components of BI. We also have a book that helps put it all together for you -- Smart Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

Why so many books on BI? The market is growing, even in a currently weak economy. Microsoft business intelligence helps companies access valuable information, find ways to optimize profits and address inefficiencies, and, most importantly, save money. As the front end for accessing information, SQL Server Reporting Services is an important part of any BI solution.

As your guide to Reporting Services, Stacia starts from the most basic concepts and helps you build your knowledge and expertise through concise and clear explanations and effective examples and practices. Here’s an excerpt from the Stacia’s Introduction to give you a better idea of the book’s scope and intended audience:

Introduction

Microsoft Reporting Services is the component of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 that provides an enterprise-ready and extensible presentation layer for the Microsoft business intelligence platform. In its third release, Reporting Services continues its support for the three stages of the reporting life cycle, but it now includes several new features that improve the report development, management, and delivery processes. The new tablix and chart controls give you more options for presenting data in a report, and the new server architecture makes it easier for administrators to manage server resources and for users to access and page through large reports. As you complete the step-by-step procedures in this book, you are introduced to these and other new features, in addition to all the other features that have made Reporting Services a popular choice for implementing a reporting platform in organizations of all sizes since its initial release in 2004.

When you have finished the book, you will know how to build reports using each type of structure supported by Reporting Services and how to enhance reports with interactivity and data visualization techniques. You use these reports to learn how to move reports from the development workstation to the server environment and how to manage and secure the reports once they’re on the report server. Then you use these reports again to learn how users can access reports online and subscribe to reports for delivery on a scheduled basis. You also learn how to build and use a report model for ad hoc reporting. If you have programming skills, you can continue learning about the extensibility of Reporting Services by enhancing the reports with custom code, by developing tools to manage the report server, and by exploring techniques for integrating access to reports managed by Reporting Services into portals and custom applications.

Who This Book Is For

Because Reporting Services is a platform of technologies rather than a single application, a variety of people serving in different roles and having different skill sets all need to learn how to work with some aspect of Reporting Services. Whether you’re a report developer, IT administrator, or business user, you can use this book to learn how to perform the tasks for which you are responsible. If you’re completely new to Reporting Services, this book teaches you the fundamental concepts required to build, manage, and access reports. You need no prior experience with Reporting Services to use this book successfully. On the other hand, if you’re already familiar with an earlier version of Reporting Services, this book gives you a guided tour of the new features found in Reporting Services 2008.

Published Tuesday, March 24, 2009 4:30 PM by kjones

Microsoft Press : New book: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Step by Step