Need DW/AS Evangelism information

I have recently created cubes using the company I work
for data. I would like to switch form using Crystal
Reports to using AS and Reporting Services.
However I am not the greatest public speaker. Does anyone
know where I can find a few good web pages that will help
to convince my bosses that using AS is the way to go as
well as Reporting Services. In other words I need to
become a Data Warehouse Evangelist.
Can I get an Amen from the congregation.
(the following questions can be asked by your "opponents")
Why do you want to change a working technology in your company?
if CR is used and works fine, why changing to a new technology?
What are the costs advantages?
What we can't do today and we will do with a DW?
Using a reporting solution does not need datawarehouse, today a lot of
reports can be generated directly from an operationnal system. So if you ask
for a datawarehouse solution, is that because you want to provide more power
and new features to your users, so its a good argument for you.
Providing ad-hoc analysis features is a good point which required a
datawarehouse. And using this datawarehouse for the end users reports is
important to make sure that everyone will see the same cleansed information.
But does your user really need ad-hoc access?
If a user open 1 report by month, too bad. If a user asked you for a new
report every day, you have found the solution.
Crystal report cannot be compared to analysis services and a datawarehouse
solution!
So switching from a simple reporting solution to an ad-hoc query solution
based on OLAP cubes + reports is not allways simple. You'll win only if your
boss need to have answers to questions and if today these answers takes a
long process.
No added value, you'll loose.
Find a guy who need this type of solution in your company (like a HR analyst
or financial manager...) and this person will help you to promote your idea.
No sponsor, no success.
From my experience, if you found a process improoved by a datwarehouse
solution, you win.
In my job, I have reduced the time to create the budget from 2 months to
1week.
I have provided near real time access to information only available only 1
time a day before, and with a higher data quality (in a manufacturing
company).
In another hand, I have projects failure: too complex system not used by the
end user is the first reason. Data not needed by the end user in the
datawarehouse. Bad change management following the project=not used project.
Be prepared for a lot of questions is your better way to win.
Propose a prototype is also a good way to convince you boss, if they can
compare the old and new version of their job, they promote you :-)
"Phil396" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0aa801c52bfc$c6e5f780$a501280a@.phx.gbl...
>I have recently created cubes using the company I work
> for data. I would like to switch form using Crystal
> Reports to using AS and Reporting Services.
> However I am not the greatest public speaker. Does anyone
> know where I can find a few good web pages that will help
> to convince my bosses that using AS is the way to go as
> well as Reporting Services. In other words I need to
> become a Data Warehouse Evangelist.
> Can I get an Amen from the congregation.
>

Need DW/AS Evangelism information

I have recently created cubes using the company I work
for data. I would like to switch form using Crystal
Reports to using AS and Reporting Services.
However I am not the greatest public speaker. Does anyone
know where I can find a few good web pages that will help
to convince my bosses that using AS is the way to go as
well as Reporting Services. In other words I need to
become a Data Warehouse Evangelist.
Can I get an Amen from the congregation.(the following questions can be asked by your "opponents")
Why do you want to change a working technology in your company?
if CR is used and works fine, why changing to a new technology?
What are the costs advantages?
What we can't do today and we will do with a DW?
Using a reporting solution does not need datawarehouse, today a lot of
reports can be generated directly from an operationnal system. So if you ask
for a datawarehouse solution, is that because you want to provide more power
and new features to your users, so its a good argument for you.
Providing ad-hoc analysis features is a good point which required a
datawarehouse. And using this datawarehouse for the end users reports is
important to make sure that everyone will see the same cleansed information.
But does your user really need ad-hoc access?
If a user open 1 report by month, too bad. If a user asked you for a new
report every day, you have found the solution.
Crystal report cannot be compared to analysis services and a datawarehouse
solution!
So switching from a simple reporting solution to an ad-hoc query solution
based on OLAP cubes + reports is not allways simple. You'll win only if your
boss need to have answers to questions and if today these answers takes a
long process.
No added value, you'll loose.
Find a guy who need this type of solution in your company (like a HR analyst
or financial manager...) and this person will help you to promote your idea.
No sponsor, no success.
From my experience, if you found a process improoved by a datwarehouse
solution, you win.
In my job, I have reduced the time to create the budget from 2 months to
1week.
I have provided near real time access to information only available only 1
time a day before, and with a higher data quality (in a manufacturing
company).
In another hand, I have projects failure: too complex system not used by the
end user is the first reason. Data not needed by the end user in the
datawarehouse. Bad change management following the project=not used project.
Be prepared for a lot of questions is your better way to win.
Propose a prototype is also a good way to convince you boss, if they can
compare the old and new version of their job, they promote you :-)
"Phil396" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0aa801c52bfc$c6e5f780$a501280a@.phx.gbl...
>I have recently created cubes using the company I work
> for data. I would like to switch form using Crystal
> Reports to using AS and Reporting Services.
> However I am not the greatest public speaker. Does anyone
> know where I can find a few good web pages that will help
> to convince my bosses that using AS is the way to go as
> well as Reporting Services. In other words I need to
> become a Data Warehouse Evangelist.
> Can I get an Amen from the congregation.
>

Need a way to switch specific data from columns

Basically I have 635k records in a table with a person's first name, and date of birth (other stuff but it's not relavent). I imported all the data from excel files, but somehow a bunch of records got the first name and date of birth mixed up, so I'm trying to write a stored procedure that would switch the first name with the date of birth wherever the firstname is purely numeric, or something of the sort. Now records are in fact repeated so another possible but more time taking solution is to write a stored procedure that I give the date of birth and it does the switching around for the respective date of birth when it's found inside the First name. Any suggestions? All the code I've written has proved useless :/

so I'm trying to write a stored procedure that would switch the first name with the date of birth wherever the firstname is purely numeric, or something of the sort.

If you have an ID column all you would need to do is check if there are multiple records (count(*)> 1). if so keep the first one (min(id) or whichever you choose), delete the rest, get the two values into local variables and update the record in hand.
if you already made an attempt post some code and we can help you out.