Chapter overview: Configure business intelligence features

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

In this article:

  • Configure access to business data

  • Register line-of-business applications in the Business Data Catalog

  • Customize business data lists, Web Parts, and sites

  • Configure business data search

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 enables the integration of data from line-of-business applications with features that enable that data to be found, displayed, and analyzed along with other content by users who use SharePoint sites.

After you have planned the line-of-business applications, SharePoint lists, and sites for your organization, you must configure the connection between data in applications and the features in your deployment that use data.

Configure access to business data

The first step to enabling business data within your deployment involves configuring access to business data. You must configure access to the Business Data Catalog for a Shared Services Provider (SSP) administrator. For each line-of-business application, you configure access to the underlying database, or to a database that contains a copy of the data that has been isolated from the data. Finally, you configure access to the business data that is made available by the Business Data Catalog, so that business data features are available for the users who use that data and unavailable to other users.

For more information about configuring access to business data, see Configure access to business data.

Register line-of-business applications in the Business Data Catalog

When you register line-of-business applications in the Business Data Catalog, you select the business data types and properties for each business data type to import. You select fields in the line-of-business application and then map them to business data properties that appear in SharePoint lists, Web Parts, business dashboards, and the Report Center site.

For more information about registering line-of-business applications in the Business Data Catalog, see Register business applications in the Business Data Catalog.

Customize business data lists, Web Parts, and sites

After you configure access to business data and imported business data types and properties, you can include the data in SharePoint lists and Web Parts. These lists and Web Parts are used in sites across your organization, particularly business dashboards and the Report Center site. Business data displayed in dashboard sites enables complex data analysis and action through business intelligence features, such as Excel Web Access Web Parts and key performance indicators (KPIs).

These features are implemented by site administrators and end users, but business planners and SSP administrators should work closely with these users during initial deployment to implement the decisions made during planning.

For more information about customizing business data in lists, Web Parts, and sites, see Customize business data lists, Web Parts, and sites.

A key step to making business data easily available is to integrate business data into your initial search deployment. For more information about finding business data, see Configure business data search.

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See Also

Concepts

Plan for business intelligence