This thesis deals with the Master Data Management (MDM), specifically its implementation. The main objectives are to analyze and capture the general approaches of MDM implementation including best practices, describe and evaluate the implementation of MDM project using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services (MDS) realized in the Czech environment and on the basis of the above theoretical background, experiences of implemented project and available technical literature create a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. To achieve objectives above are used these procedures: exploration of information resources (printed, electronic and personal appointments with consultants of Clever Decision), cooperation on project realized by Clever Decision and analysis of tool Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services. Contributions of this work are practically same as its goals. The main contribution is creation of a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first (theoretically oriented) part deals with basic concepts (including definition against other systems), architecture, implementing styles, market trends and best practices. The second (practically oriented) part deals at first with implementation of realized MDS project and hereafter describes a general procedure for implementation of the MDS tool.

This thesis is focused on XML and related technologies. The XML language is directly linked to the databases and its support in databases. The overview of the XML support provided by various database products and systems are presented in this work. Support in the MS SQL Server 2008 is discussed in more detail starting with the mapping of relational data to XML and vice versa to support of the XML data type and work with it through XQuery. Also some indexing techniques are briefly presented. Finally, the support in MS SQL Server 2008 is demonstrated by means of a sample application, which verifes the theoretical knowledge in practice.

This thesis is focused on research of available resources about applicable methods and approaches of implementation of Business Intelligence in sales department of mid-size local company focused on information technologies. The solution is aimed on controlling and performance measurement. Local specifics and company culture of innovation and creativeness are considered during the whole work. The next part of the work is analysis of the company environment and appropriable process of implementation matching current maturity level of company. The goal is to define appropriable set of indicators for performance measurement of sales representatives in order to reflect the reality and allow the relative comparison of individuals. This solution is applied in specific company and as a result there are identified issues of this proposal and suggested recommendations for the future modifications. The work is based on research of available resources and identification of the best practices methods of design and implementation of this system. The next part contains detail analysis of the company, application of conclusion of the theoretical part and suggestion for optimal process of successful adaptation. As a result the structure of metrics has been built and it was verified that the detail analysis is required for relevant definition of the scope of the project, identification of risks and preparing the real schedule. It has been verified, that implementation of performance measurement system requires complex changes in company culture and close coordination to other triggered changes in workflow and quality of recorded data in information systems.

The report analyses if some common problems can be avoided by using modern technology. As a reference system “Fartygsrapporteringssystemet” is used. It is an n-tier web application built with modern technology at time, 2003-2004. The aim is to examine whether ASP.Net MVC, Windows Communication Foundation, Workflow Foundation and SQL Server 2005 Service Broker can be used to create an n-tier web application which also communicate with other systems and facilitate automated testing. The report describes the construction of a prototype in which the presentation layer uses ASP.Net MVC to separate presentation and business logic. Communication with the business layer is done through the Windows Communication Foundation. Hard coded processes are broken out and dealt with by Workflow Foundation. Asynchronous communication with other systems is done by using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Broker. The results of the analysis is that these techniques can be used to create a n-tier web application, but that ASP.Net MVC, which at present only available in a preview release, is not sufficiently developed yet.

The thesis deals with connecting SAP ERP system via local database system MS SQL Server using the tools SAP BI, data synchronization between systems and advanced usage of T-SQL language for preparing data for web applications and reports written in PHP. The thesis contains a brief overview of the SAP system and the possibility of connecting to the SAP system. The general principles of described solution can be used in conjunction with other systems and programming languages.

Business Intelligence (BI) concept has continued to play a vital role in its ability for managers to make quality business decision to resolve the business needs of the organization. BI applications comes handy which allows managers to query, comprehend, and evaluate existing data within their organizations in order to obtain functional knowledge which then assist them in making improved and informed decisions. Data warehouse (DW) is pivotal and central to BI applications in that it integrates several diverse data sources, mainly structured transactional databases. However, current researches in the area of BI suggest that, data is no longer always presented in only to structured databases or format, but they also can be pulled from unstructured sources to make more power the managers’ analysis. Consequently, the ability to manage this existing information is critical for the success of the decision making process. The operational data needs of an organization are addressed by the online transaction processing (OLTP) systems which is important to the day-to-day running of its business. Nevertheless, they are not perfectly suitable for sustaining decision-support queries or business questions that managers normally needs to address. Such questions involve analytics including aggregation, drilldown, and slicing/dicing of data, which are best supported by online analytical processing (OLAP) systems. Data warehouses support OLAP applications by storing and maintaining data in multidimensional format. Data in an OLAP warehouse is extracted and loaded from multiple OLTP data sources (including DB2, Oracle, SQL Server and flat files) using Extract, Transfer, and Load (ETL) tools. This thesis seeks to develop DW and BI system to support the decision makers and business strategist at Crystal Entertainment in making better decision using historical structured or unstructured data.

Rapporten presenterar skapandet av en produktkonfigurator och flera förslag på hur den kan förbättras. Uppdraget gavs av System Andersson till två studenter på Jönköpings Tekniska Högskola som genomförde detta som sitt examensarbete. Rapporten diskuterar möjliga lösningar på en produktkonfigurator och visar ett resultat som utgår från dessa lösningar. Produktkonfiguratorn i rapporten består av två delar. Dels konfigurationsdelen som hjälper användaren att skapa nya produkter utifrån valda artiklar. Artiklarna sorteras automatiskt av produktkonfiguratorn så att endast kompatibla artiklar kan sättas ihop. Detta sker med ett ”drag and drop” gränssnitt. Dessutom innehåller produktkonfiguratorn en kompatibilitetsdel, vars uppgift är att underlätta vid definierandet av kompatibilitet mellan artiklar. Detta kan göras löpande under tiden en produkt konfigureras om så önskas. Användaren kan välja på två eller flera artiklar som ska vara kompatibla med varandra, eller hela kategorier. Sist i rapporten diskuteras de val som gjorts under arbetets gång och möjliga förbättringar som kan göras på produktkonfiguratorn.

This diploma thesis deals with the problem of automatic alerting on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 platform. Thesis was elaborated with Clever Decision s.r.o. company which significantly contributed to thesis assignment. Main goal of this thesis is to provide a solution concept for absence of alerting for multidimensional data in Microsoft's product. Alerting is aimed at critical business data -- Key performance indicators - KPIs. KPIs are used to deliver enhanced business performance through Corporate Performance Management concept. These indicators need to be watched frequently. Considering that alerting solution is convenient for watching the data. Solution concept is based on market research of Business Intelligence (BI) platforms which dominates the market. Platforms are examined for their alerting capabilities. Next goal is to provide overall insight to KPI management -- creating, managing, analyzing and monitoring of KPIs. Thesis is divided into three sections. First part creates theoretical background for solution creation and describes the field of KPI management. Second part consists of market research using selected criteria. Third part is aimed at providing the solution concept through web application fixing the absence of alerting on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 platform. This thesis is primarily intended for Clever Decision company but also for various BI experts dealing with alerting problems on BI platforms. Thesis serves also as a theoretical summary of KPI management which is commonly evaded by available technical literature.

This thesis is oriented on practical usage of tools for data mining and business intelligence. Main goals are processing of source data to suitable form and test use of chosen tool on the test case. As input data I used database which was created as result of processing forms from research to verify the level of IT and economics knowledge among Czech universities. These data was modified into the form, which allows processing them via data mining tools included in Microsoft SQL Server 2008. I choose two cases for verification the potentials of these tools. First case was focused on clustering using Microsoft Clustering algorithm. Main task was to sort the universities into the clusters by comparing their attributes which was amounts of credits of each knowledge group. I had to deal with two problems. It was necessary to reduce the number of groups of subjects, otherwise there was a danger of creation too many clusters which I couldn't put the name on. Another problem was unequal value of credits in each group and this problem caused another problem with weights of these groups. Solution was at the end quite simple. I put together similar groups to bigger formation with more general category. For unequal value, I used parameter for each of new group and transform it to scale 0-5. Second case was focused on prediction task using Microsoft Logistic Regresion algorithm and Microsoft Neural Network algorithm. In this case was the goal to predict the number of presently studying students. I had a historical data from years 2001-2009. A predictive model was processed based on them and I could compare the prediction with real data. In this case, it was also necessary to transform the source data, otherwise it couldn't be processed by tested tool. Original data was placed into the view instead of table and contained not only wished objects but more types of these. For example divided by a sex. Solution was in creation of new table in database where only relevant objects for test case were placed. Last problem come up when I tried to use prediction model to predict data for year 2010 for which there wasn't real data in the table. Software reported an error and couldn't make prediction. During my research on the Microsoft technical support I find some threads which refer to similar problem, so it's possible that this is a system error whit will be fix in forthcoming actualization. Fulfillment of these cases provided me enough clues to determine abilities of these tools from Microsoft. After my former school experience with data mining tools from IBM (former SSPS) and SAS, I can recognize, if tested tools can match these software from major data mining supplier on the market and if it can be use for serious deployment.

This master thesis deals with an analysis of reporting in business and its technological coverage by Microsoft Business Intelligence portfolio. The main objective of this work is to analyze the individual organization's requirements on reporting and coverage options. This work can serve as a tool for implementation of reporting in a company or for increasing the efficiency of reporting. The first part is theoretical. It deals with Business Intelligence as an environment for reporting. It also defines the basic concepts. The next part covers the area of reporting. This section provides an insight into the history, definition of outcomes and detailed classification of reporting from different perspectives. Furthermore, the definition of users reporting and the reporting standards in companies is also covered. At the end of this chapter, there is the definition of the benefits of reporting for companies. The main part of this master thesis is an analysis of the requirements for reporting in companies. The chapter defines five key perspectives which are described in a greater detail. The methods how companies should methodically approach these requirements are also discussed. The chapter further looks at the requirements for a concrete report. An output of this chapter is an effective template for gathering requirements for a specific report. The last chapter focuses on reporting portfolio analysis of Microsoft and defines the concept of Microsoft. It provides detailed information about reporting products that Microsoft offers. An analyses and a mapping of the individual characteristics of the products and the requirements is defined in this thesis.