New Job, New Demo Machine and BI tomfoolery

So today is my first day in my new role, working for TPG - The Project Group as an EPM Consultant in the UK.  Exciting time for me.

The new demo rig is now running pretty smoothly, having overcome some of the teething problems with an SSD based machine.  I know this is relatively new tech but come on, isn’t it about time this stuff was just - you know - easier!  this is the 21st century chaps.

The new machine spec is as follows:

Lenovo W520 Quad Core i7-2720QM 2.2 GHz + 16GB Ram

Crucial C300 SSD Boot drive + Crucial M4 SSD Data drive in the bay for VMs

Trusty Samsung 1TB USB3 7200 RPM drive for emergencies

Virtualisation

So now I am just mulling over my virtualisation options.  I’ve for VMware workstation VMs but the licencing costs just seem high for what it offers, so I am going to have a (another) look at VirtualBox to see how that flies.  I guess that’ll be something to keep me busy in the airport lounge or hotel bar one evening.

BI tomfoolery

So, the new role starts here.  Today’s been experimenting with BI yet again, especially around scorecards and KPI’s.  I’ve been trawling through the recent white paper (so you don’t have to!) 

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27136

which is actually a very informative read, even with the few glaring errors in the instructions (well come on its over 100 pages).

Next I intend to set up some of my own sample metrics and a dashboard suite as a sample offering.  Obviously to do this I am going to have to buy a great big whiteboard for the office, which the wife is obviously going to be really chuffed with, but needs must.

Right, time to brush down a suit for tomorrows workshop.  Bring on day 2!