Daniel Johnson, Jr.

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed on LUCRUM Radio with LUCRUM Marketing Manger David E. Bowman. Over some coffee at Winan’s in Vandalia, we talked about my experience in business intelligence and new media, with a bit of marketing mixed in.

David started off by asking about how I got involved in social media, and it gave me the opportunity to share how I got into blogging and podcasting, as well as to share some of the ways I’ve been managing all my presences in social media.  I shared how my passion for intelligence dashboards enables me to keep track of a lot of content I’m consuming and producing.

We also talked about New Media Cincinnati, and I loved sharing about some of the great face-to-face connections I’ve been able to make through that group and how much the group has grown over the past 11 months it’s been around.  I mentioned, for example, that at the last meetup we discussed some ideas for having a new media conference in Cincinnati as well as some ideas for community outreach.

Image by danieljohnsonjr via Flickr

Finally, David asked me for my take on how businesses are embracing new and social media and what it will take for more businesses to do so.

I really want to thank David and the team at LUCRUM for the chance to be a part of their program.  I had a great time!

Links:

• LUCRUM Radio Interview with Daniel Johnson, Jr.
• Direct download (mp3, 21:01, 28.8 MB)
• LUCRUM Corporate Web Site
• LUCRUM Blog: The Future Value of Business
• davidebowman.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Awesome time at LinkedCincinnati LIVE last night
• Cincinnati Social Media Breakfast 2
• How much does the jobless rate affect your job search?

This post originates from http://danieljohnsonjr.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

For our internal dashboard work, we’re looking at metrics for the previous month. While I could create a SQL Server stored procedure to pass these dates from a user form, I really want to create a SQL view that will show last month’s information. That way, whenever the view is opened, it always shows data for last month.

I know in VB that there are FirstDayOfMonth and LastDayOfMonth functions, but I’ve been unable to find similar functions in SQL. In my research, I’ve found “Date and Time Manipulation in SQL Server 2000” helpful. I came up with this SQL:

SELECT
CAST(CONVERT(CHAR(10), DATEADD(dd,-(DAY(GETDATE())-1),GETDATE()),101) AS smalldatetime) AS StartDate,
CAST(CONVERT(CHAR(10), DATEADD(dd,-(DAY(DATEADD(mm,1,GETDATE()))),DATEADD(mm,1,GETDATE())),101) AS smalldatetime) AS EndDate,
CAST(CONVERT(CHAR(10), DATEADD(dd,-(DAY(DATEADD(mm,-1,GETDATE()))-1),DATEADD(mm,-1,GETDATE())),101) AS smalldatetime) AS PrevMonthStartDate,
CAST(CONVERT(CHAR(10), DATEADD(dd,-(DAY(DATEADD(mm,1,GETDATE()))),GETDATE()),101) AS smalldatetime) AS PrevMonthEndDate

It returns these results:

The SQL seems a bit convoluted, especially since I’m going to be using the start and end dates as criteria in a WHERE clause. So, I’m going to create a User-Defined Function (UDF) for each. I’ll share scripts for those in a follow-up post.

—–
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I’ve Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr sql+server

Today I participated in a NOREX member TeleForum on Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Warehousing (DW). I’m including my notes taken here:

• Started off by defining BI and DW. I like the Wikipedia definitions myself. Also discussed what Master Data Management is; i.e., managing data that has become aged and may or may not be needed as much as current data. (The company I currently work for doesn’t really think of what I do as BI and DW, but developing Decision Support Systems (DSS) is really at the crux of what I do here.)
• Two polls on where participants are in implementing BI and DW in their organizations. Most are either currently using or evaluating, versus implementing.
• Discussed scope of data definition and data modeling that should be done before getting into BI/DW. One caller will be building theirs from scratch versus buying something that was developed for someone else in their industry. (I wonder if different BI solutions have been developed for different industries.) Data cleansing is so vital when doing modeling. (Amen to that!)
• Discussed risks in software selection and implementation. Licensing brought up as part of risk. Making sure that appropriate number of licenses (user vs site) important. How solution builds report cubes (pre-calculated or built at run-time) can affect performance and user experience. sBase(?) mentioned.
• Practical support from vendors also brought up as consideration. Everything works great at the demo, but on the implementation there could be issues. Ask for references. NOREX mentioned that’s part of the service they provide for members.
• Discussed tools that are used, and pros and cons of each. One member mentioned Sybase IQ. Others are using Business Objects, SQL Server Reporting Services, and Oracle tools. Crystal Reports also mentioned.
• Someone asked for experience with the Obvient strategies tool. No one on the call mentioned having any experience.
• Any local government entities using data mining tools? No one on the call had any comments. Topic to be passed on to the government members outside the call.
• SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services – how is it being used, other considerations. Has a lot of capability and interacts well with Visual Studio. Another member, however, saw a demo at Microsoft- some problems with creating a cube and error messages hard to decipher.
• Discussed how to implement SQL Server Reporting Services through Sharepoint. (We use Windows Sharepoint Services as our company’s intranet and are looking at how to do this.) No one on the call had any expertise to offer.
• Discussed whether anyone uses Excel 2007 as a BI client. Some of the new functionality of Excel lends itself to an entry-level BI implementation. Some accountants in one organization using Excel to manipulate data from their other BI system. No one taking advantage of the BI capability yet. Concerns raised about quality of data, security, and versions.
• Poll on whether anyone using SAS to access Star Schema data: dimensional modeling vs entity-relationship modeling. (Not really applicable to us in our organization.)
• Release management best practices from Dev and Test to Production environments sought. How to manage things that are not necessarily files that can be version-controlled? Really speaking about reports and dashboard components.
• One member mentioned his process is such that a developer will create a report and work from it at his desktop. Then when it’s ready for deployment, he will publish it.
• Other members mentioned a more rigid change management structure with development, QA, and production environments. (I guess it depends on the specific tools and systems being used.)

—–
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I’ve Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr

Are you using Google Alerts and RSS feeds to track your company’s presence on the internet? How about competitors?

Since this blog reflects me personally, I choose to omit specific company names. As the disclaimer says, opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and not of any employer, past or present.

A few months ago I set up some Google Alerts and RSS feeds to track mentions of the company as well as its other web properties, and the names of key management personnel. Also, at the management’s request, I set up some additional alerts for another company against whom the company has taken legal action.

Most of the time I get false positives or results I’m already aware of. Yesterday, however, I saw an article (and several subsequent links to it via Google Alerts/RSS feeds) about that other company and forwarded it to the COO.

I received this email a few minutes ago (emphasis added by me):

Dan,

Your article yesterday on [THE OTHER COMPANY] was great. I shared it with [THE OWNER OF OUR COMPANY] and there was information in that article that our attorney did not know about.

Thank you!

[NAME]
Chief Operating Officer

Rich Palmer recently shared some good thoughts on Google Alerts, too:

For more information, check out the NewPR Wiki: What Should Every Company Be Monitoring? page.

—–
Check out my other blogs:
Daniel Johnson, Jr.
Get That Job!
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr
Connect on LinkedIn
Interesting Things I’ve Read

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr google+alerts rich+palmer pr public+relations

This is one of the posts where I describe the more technical aspects of a project I’ve been working on. The contents here are meant mainly to trigger my own memory when needed in the future.

The HR department has requested a census report so that the company can shop around for benefits with other vendors. In typical fashion, the information needs to be laid out in such a way that none of the “canned” reports from the business system will suffice.

I know where to get the demographic information (employee ID, client ID, city, state, zip, salary, etc.), but this is the first time I’ve had to track down information such as premium rates, employer contribution, employee contribution, and coverage tier.

I sat with the HR director to find out where she’s able to see this information. Back at my desk, I launched a SQL Server Profiler Trace, filtering to my login ID and session ID. Then I navigated to those same screens to help identify which objects in SQL Server I need to look at.

From there I’ve been able to target the specific tables I need for my SQL scripts.

—–
Check out my other blogs:
Journey Inside My Mind Blog
Journey Inside My Mind Podcast
Get That Job!
QuotesBlog
Twitter.com/danieljohnsonjr

Related tags: daniel+johnson+jr