Business Intelligence

Our focus is to provide Business Intelligence and Performance management solutions; as specialists in this area we have a proven methodology of implementing solutions so that you, the customer, can avoid trial and error implementations with costly consequences.

We also specialize in implementing solutions using Microsoft-based solutions such as Performance Point Server 2007, Microsoft Office Share Point Services 2007 (MOSS) and SQL 2005. The reason is to utilize your current investment in these technologies and reduce your total cost of ownership of solutions that are traditionally very costly to implement.

Custom Application Development and Integration

Companies generally have a mix of applications in their environment but have difficulty exchanging information between applications or integrating data for reporting requirements from various systems. We have proven experience in providing custom application integration solutions. Our well-qualified staff design and implement custom application integration solutions using Microsoft technologies.

Staff Augmentation

Technical Projects require staff with specific skills to contribute towards the success of the project. We provide companies with experienced developers, solution architects, database administrators, project managers and quality assurance associates.

 

Our Microsoft Business Intelligence Offerings

This is the area we focus on primarily in terms of our client offerings. We have skills in all areas of the Business Intelligence Solution Stack, Data Warehousing, ETL, Reporting, Analytics and Performance Management.

When implementing such a comprehensive solution it is best to have one software vendor facilitate complete integration of all areas of Business Intelligence. To that end Microsoft Business Intelligence provides the most time and cost effective software and development environment.

Microsoft Business Intelligence offers a complete and integrated software offering that supports the entire organization. It is a full-featured suite of server, client, and developer products that seamlessly integrate with each other.

This provides easy to use information directly where individuals work, collaborate, and make decisions.

With SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Office 2007 system, along with the capabilities found in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Performance Point Server 2007, Pivotal Solutions covers the spectrum of Data Warehousing, ETL, reporting analytics and performance management solutions. This provides a complete integrated, cost effective Business Intelligence solution stack.

SQL 2005 is an integrated platform with two working environments in SQL 2005, Business Intelligence Development Studio and SQL Server Management Studio. Business Intelligence Development Studio contains project templates to develop:

  • Data Warehouses using SQL Server 2005 relational database management system (RDBMS)
  • ETL Solutions using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
  • Reporting Solutions using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
  • Analytics (OLAP) Solutions using SQL Server Analysis Services (SSIS)

Data Warehousing

SQL Server 2005 is a scalable, reliable database capable of supporting multiple terabytes of data required for the implementation of large Data Warehousing applications. SQL 2005 provides features such as table partitioning, analytic functions, star join query optimizations. SQL 2005 also provides high availability with SQL Clustering which is now available in the standard version of the product. This reduces the cost of high-end database implementations.

ETL

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a world class ETL tool that is a true platform for data integration. SSIS is part of the SQL Server Business Intelligence (BI) platform, which enables the development of end-to-end BI applications.

SSIS supports not only the development of an ETL solution but an entire ETL framework supporting features such as logging, configuration management and notification. SSIS capabilities also extend into Analysis Services allowing the processing of cubes and reports from SSIS packages.

Analytics

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) delivers online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining functionality for business intelligence applications. Analysis Services supports OLAP by letting you design, create, and manage multi-dimensional structures that contain data aggregated from other data sources such as relational databases. For data mining applications, Analysis Services lets you design, create, and visualize data mining models that are constructed from other data sources by a wide variety of industry-standard data mining algorithms. Analysis Services also makes Real-Time BI a reality with features such as Proactive Caching.

The Analysis Service offers a user-friendly model that enables you to understand business names and specify relationships between fields (Product Category - Product Subcategory - Product) so that it is possible for business users to design their own reports without help from IT.

Analysis Services offers tools for personalizing individual users' reporting experience by only showing them the data that they care about and have permission to see; in addition, Analysis Services can translate data into users' preferred languages.

Reporting

SQL Server Reporting Services is natively integrated with .NET report services and is part of whole Microsoft BI solutions. It is designed to provide one of the most comprehensive BI and reporting solutions on the market today.

Reporting Services in SQL Server 2005 provides enterprise reporting capabilities and addresses a new audience of business users who want to interact with data in an ad hoc fashion as well as create their own reports from scratch and share them with others.

SQL Server 20005 Reporting Services has many improvements in the areas of report design, processing, and interactivity. There are also improvements to performance and scalability.

SSRS provides enhanced integration with other components within SQL Server 2005 including SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), and SQL Server Management Studio. Reporting Services also has tighter integration with Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, enabling reports to easily participate in corporate portal scenarios.

Reporting Services provides unparalleled reporting integration into the Visual Studio development environment. In addition, freely redistributable Microsoft Windows and ASP.NET controls make it easy to embed reporting in both server-based and client-based applications.

SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services includes Report Builder, a new ad hoc reporting tool that enables business users to create their own reports and explore corporate data. Report Builder incorporates a user-friendly business query model that enables users to build reports without deep technical understanding of the underlying data sources.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 delivers centralized access to information. SharePoint portal server makes it easy to create live, interactive business intelligence (BI) portals that assemble and display business-critical information from disparate sources, using integrated BI capabilities such as dashboards, Web Parts, scorecards, key performance indicators (KPIs), and business data connectivity technologies. Centralized Report Center sites give users a single place for locating the latest reports, spreadsheets, or KPIs.

  • Excel Services and Reporting Services in the portal
  • Report Center: out-of-the-box BI portal experience
  • Dashboards, KPIs, and Report Libraries
  • Integrated with Portal, Collaboration, Enterprise Content Management and Workflow functionality

Excel Services runs spreadsheets and performs calculations on a Web server, delivering results to users through a browser and to other applications through a Web services API.

Office 2007 (Excel 2007)

Excel 2007 provides great Analysis features and integrates with SSAS. With Pivot tables and visualization feature set, Excel 2007 is a great tool for Analysis.

Key Performance Indicators, calculations, conditional formatting and actions are just a few examples of business logic that you can define once in Analysis Services and then expose automatically in Excel Pivot Tables. Part of the beauty of this is that all users see the same thing in their Pivot Tables because the formatting, for example, is calculated in one place - on the server.

When analyzing data in Analysis Services, all the business logic is centrally managed in one analytical model so that every user will see the same numbers, calculated using the same business logic. Any changes made to the model will immediately be available to all Excel PivotTable users when they update their report.

Performance Point Server:
Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007 is a complete Performance Management (PM) application providing Score carding, Analytics and Planning for enterprise and mid-market customers. Office Performance Point Server 2007 enables businesses to improve their performance by providing all employees with the ability to measure manage and align their activities to company strategy using the familiar and easy-to-use Microsoft Office environment they already know and use every day.

Performance / Dashboards:
Business scorecard manager or BSM along with Office 2007, MOSS 2007, SSAS, SSIS and SSRS provides a complete, robust end-to-end BI development environment on Microsoft stack.

Deep Insight and Good Context

  • Score cards, reports and charts can be rapidly assembled and connected on web pages
  • Provides immediate access to analysis functionality for drill down, filtering, sorting, and ranking
  • Insight into transactional data by drilling down through KPIs
  • Web Parts connections drive all-on-one-page interaction; Report View filters work together with Score card filters

Collaborative Business Management and Action

  • BSM works with MOSS 2007 for enhanced team collaboration
  • Annotations for contextual communication
  • Integration with MS Collaboration platform
  • Personalized score cards and views of relevant reports, tasks, project plans and notifications
  • Data-driven alerts available on Scorecard and KPIs
  • Distribution is made easy with export capabilities to Excel, PDF, HTML and TIFF formats

End User Empowerment

  • Provides business analysts the ability to build, manage and consume KPI's and score cards
  • Enables building comprehensive views that include charting, reports and pivot for detailed analysis
  • Provides end-users the ability to add / change personal score card views.

Extensible Solution

  • Ability to extend BSM with advanced analysis solutions
  • Easy integration with LOB Applications
  • Partners can extend BSM using its Web Services’ APIs and SharePoint platform
  • BPM ISVs can extend Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005 using it's SharePoint platform and web services’ APIs to provide an end to end BPM offering

Pivotal Solutions is head and tails above the others. I really appreciate the fact that when I prepare a profile or description of the positions I am interested in filling, they will often come back and question me, even challenge me, to make certain the profile truly matches my needs. Ours is a business relationship as opposed to a transactional one.

-Brad Manning, CIO, Quaker Chemical Corp

This will be a major hiring year for us. It's a great time to be in healthcare. Steve will be our primary go-to guy.

- Scott Steinkirchner, Senior Project Manager, Geisinger Health System

I need retailers who know IT. That's what Pivotal Solutions provides me with. It's a highly personal approach in a generally impersonal industry.

-Ginny Sforza, VP of Information Technology, Bloomingdale's, Inc.

Pivotal spends the time selecting the ideal candidates before they send recommendations to us. They do the editing. They do the matching. The end result is fewer resumes but far more qualified candidates.

-Brad Manning, CIO, Quaker Chemical Corp

I could never get this level of person by working with Monster. I need the personal touch and Pivotal provides that. Steve has a background in IT, which is good, but even more important, he can read people. That makes for a perfect storm.

-Ginny Sforza, VP of Information Technology, Bloomingdale's, Inc.

They carefully select candidates so that we don't have to interview all kinds of inappropriate or incompetent people.

- Scott Steinkirchner, Senior Project Manager, Geisinger Health System

Pivotal Solutions is distinguished by what I would call a "less is more" approach.

-Brad Manning, CIO, Quaker Chemical Corp

Pivotal Solutions achieves the greatest possible challenge for me: they find me people who are half IT brains, half business brains. That hybrid is critical to what my department does and Steve Edelman makes it happen even though few people in the IT world have that fusion of experience and skills.

-Ginny Sforza, VP of Information Technology, Bloomingdale's, Inc.

Most search firms rely on the "more is more" way of conducting business.
Meaning, they assemble a batch of resumes, send them along to us and hope that one of them sticks.

-Brad Manning, CIO, Quaker Chemical Corp

Pivotal Solutions acts at times in an HR capacity. They place with us before the scheduled time and it's just wonderful. When we have to let go of someone, they remove from our plates what we prefer not to handle and they do it superbly.

- Scott Steinkirchner, Senior Project Manager, Geisinger Health System

Pivotal Solutions always does. There is no substitute for that. Steve and I meet, we map things out and then the search begins. All too often search firms send over a ton of resumes and hope one sticks. Pivotal Solutions’ superior style is just the opposite.

-Ginny Sforza, VP of Information Technology, Bloomingdale's, Inc.

Pivotal Solutions turned us on to the contract-to-hire process. We don't have to hire someone without knowing how he/she will perform on the job. We can wait 90 days, assess them, and then make a decision.

- Scott Steinkirchner, Senior Project Manager, Geisinger Health System

The best way to summarize this is that Pivotal knows us--they make it their business to know who we are and what we need.

-Brad Manning, CIO, Quaker Chemical Corp

Our main IT department is based at Macy's offices in Atlanta and I am free to use their help in recruiting but I find I can talk until I am blue in the face and they don't seem to get the unique kinds of people I need.

-Ginny Sforza, VP of Information Technology, Bloomingdale's, Inc.

We are in nowhere-Pennsylvania. This is not an easy place to recruit people to. But Pivotal Solutions’ extensive database of prospects makes it easy for us to have them handle it and they always find the right people for us.

- Scott Steinkirchner, Senior Project Manager, Geisinger Health System

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