Next-Generation Business Intelligence Software with Silverlight 3

This is an excellent book for both BI professionals and developers interested in Silverlight. While the book is more geared to the BI side, there are still plenty of thorough code examples showing how to display the data. Beyond Silverlight, the book also covers how to create visualizations using Expression Blend 3. Chapter 7, Enhancing Visual Intelligence in Silverlight, was particularly useful as it showed how to create a cross-tab visualization - something that I work with nearly every day. If I have any complaint, it would be that the book would have benefited from being in color. Some of the visualizations would have been more meaningful with color print.

In purchasing "Next Generation Business Intelligence Software with Silverlight 3", I was hoping to gain insight into how Silverlight can be used to create simple, performant, and attractive tools that can be easily consumed by any average user on their desktop. I must admit that while I have been working with business intelligence data for years, I have not had any experience working with Silverlight technology, and was more than skeptical when I read that this book could be just as valuable for BI professionals and strategic decision makers as it is for Silverlight developers. I was however pleasantly surprised to learn that was absolutely the case. There are actually objectives specifically geared towards each of the 3 intended target groups at the beginning of each chapter that help to keep the reader focused on what is most relevant to them. The samples and supplemental website also provide ample supporting information around each of the exercises presented in the text. Overall this book is extremely well written and organized and is a must read for any professional working with Silverlight and/or next generation BI concepts.

I recently finished reading Next Generation Business Intelligence Software with Silverlight 3. I loved it. I work for ProModel Corporation which specializes in modeling and simulation of business processes. I was shocked that such a specific book about BI in Silverlight is already written. I found the content of the book very relevant to the software I create. ProModel bread and butter has been its simulation engine(s), but over the last several years, we have more heavily focused on UX and we have invested heavily in Silverlight so we could leverage our existing IP. Bart's book has inspired us to add more value in certain areas of application by surfacing some key information the user would like to see. I enjoyed the BI 1.0 versus BI 2.0 discussion. I feel the author has years of experience worth sharing in terms of surfacing key information to users. I appreciate his willingness to share this knowledge. I am incorporating several ideas presented in the book in the next release of several products we create such as Sparklines, multi-threading to improve performance and collective intelligence. The book is not heavy in code, but just enough to kick start you. I have leveraged the book code samples to facilitate conversations within the development team. Thanks, Dan