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Today, business analytics is largely focused on self-service software and pushing business intelligence capabilities down to the end user. In this three-part handbook, we drill down on the trends and technologies serving to further the scope of SQL Server BI capabilities today.

Readers will learn more about those capabilities, starting with the five developments technology expert Bob Sheldon says fit most strongly into the BI equation -- and those are just a sample of the myriad developments at play. Readers can also expect an in-depth look at the risks and rewards involved in SQL Server implementation -- especially as full, self-service analytics become the norm. We close with a look at Power Map, the three-dimensional mapping tool originally introduced as GeoFlow. The add-on to Microsoft Excel 2013, not yet released to production, can plot more than one million rows of data from an Excel workbook using columns, heat maps and bubble visualizations -- and is quickly gathering steam as a potential answer to more accurate, in-depth data visualization.