About The SQL Fix-It Guy

Denver-based freelance developer, trainer and data architect available for small and big jobs.

Contact

Noah@SQLFixItGuy.com

720-295-1799 or 347-678-8279

My specialty is planning, building and fixing:

• SSRS reports.

• Integration Services (SSIS) solutions.

• Data Warehouses (SSAS).

• PowerView Data Models (SSAS Tabular).

• MS Access Databases.

• Excel VBA Programs.

I am also available to train your staff.

I have spent the past 2 decades helping leading organizations (banks, hospitals, energy companies and government agencies) improve upon their reporting capabilities by planning, developing, fixing and fine-tuning their database-oriented applications.

Some of my past clients:

• Goldman Sachs
• The Toronto Stock Exchange
• GE Capital
• Sears
• Bank of America
• JP Morgan Chase
• Morgan Stanley
• Charles Schwab

Do you have an SSRS report that is showing cryptic error messages or giving you the dread "query timed-out" message?

Do you have an MS Access Database that won't open up because it is missing a "reference"?

Do you have an Excel file that goes into a macro death spiral every time you open the workbook?

If you answered YES to any of the above questions, don't panic!  Relief is nearby.  I have fixed these sorts of problems and much much worse over the past 17 years.  

Phone, email or text me to setup a free consultation.

Noah@SQLFixItGuy.com

720-295-1799

347-678-8279

Below are testimonials from past clients via Noah's LinkedIn Profile:

"Noah's excellent technical skills in Excel/ACCESS VBA , SQL , RDBMS has been an asset to our team. He has efficiently supported our global user base. He is an excellent team player. "

Josemon Joseph worked directly with Noah at JPMorgan Chase

"Noah took on multiple technology projects bringing a sense of order to chaos in several areas. He also took on technology support duties, rectifying and documenting numerous legacy application, macros, and reporting systems. I appreciated the work effort and professionalism Noah brought to his role." 

Steven Daniel Oberleas worked directly with Noah at Charles Schwab

"I worked closely with Noah during his time at Charles Schwab. 

His technical skills are excellent, being one of the most knowledgeable, creative, reliable and trustworthy developers I have worked with.  

Noah took a large inventory of Excel macros and Access databases (1000+ macros) and worked to improve and standardize them so the rest of our team would not be burdened with long-term productions support issues. We now have a huge inventory of applications that can be supported by a very small team.

Noah left a positive impression with everyone he worked with and I would highly recommend him for any IT position"

Richard Plumb worked directly with Noah at Charles Schwab

"Noah is a tremendous doer. He is focused, determined and willing to overcome any challenge. Noah was always willing to share his knowledge with others and keep everyone in the loop. Noah is tremendous technical expert and as a programmer can design just about anything."

Menashe Shua worked with Noah at Goldman Sachs

"Whenever our team faced a challenge, Noah was our ace in the hole. His determination, ability to adapt and overcome any technical obstacle earned him the respect of the entire team."

Al Raiani worked directly with Noah at Morgan Stanley

"I hired Noah at Morgan Stanley to do remediation work for us, but quickly noticed that he was an expert level developer, experienced and diligent, whose breadth of talent could add significant value to a team faced with complex requirements. He has the intellect, training and experience to solve any problem with professionalism and superlative results. A creative and personable individual, Noah displays integrity, discretion and a consistent ability to deliver on schedule. I'm more than happy to endorse and recommend Noah. "

Ken McAndrew was Noah's client at Morgan Stanley

Reports Dog-Slow? Use these tried and true techniques to make your reports BLAZING fast

Tricks from the Trade:  Tips and Advice from a seasoned Microsoft Business intelligence Developer

Developing numerous reports over the years, I've encountered situations where despite extensive fine-tuning, I just couldn't get it to run at an acceptable speed.

One of the tricks I have utilized in this situation is to setup a report to refresh when no-one is looking (usually in the wee hours of the morning) and make sure it does not refresh later in the day when people are actually viewing it.

The report opens almost instantly and the user perceives it to be quick, little knowing that the report was a total resource hog when it actually ran first thing in the morning.

The users don't have to to twiddle their thumbs when they open the report and the report server is not a hit with an expensive query every time it is run - so this kind of setup is beneficial on many levels.

Depending on your reporting platform, setting up reports to run this way can take some creative planning.  This is accomplished quite easily with SQL Server reports (SSRS) but I have done this with Crystal Reports, Excel and MS Access as well.  

If you are using SSRS, there are easy to configure processing options to setup report snapshots, caching or subscriptions  - or a combination of all of these features.

Report snapshots are scheduled times when the underlying data for a report is fetched and saved with the report, so that virtually no processing takes place afterwards.  When the user opens the report after the snapshot has run - the data is already there and the report is rendered instantly.

Caching is similar to a report snapshot in that the data is fetched and saved with the report. But, instead of the report refresh being scheduled, the caching occurs whenever the report is open for the first time.  So, the first user takes a hit in this situation but subsequent users can open the report instantly.  (There is a scheduling component involved with caching as well, because you have to specify when the cache expires, but I will go into this in another post.) Snapshots are usually preferable to caching because none of the users have to suffer through report refreshes with the latter option.

Subscriptions come in handy if you MUST include user parameters in your report.  Subscriptions allow for parameters so long you can specify default parameter values.  Schedule the subscription to refresh the report as early as possible and configure the subscription to email the report to the users, or have the subscription export the report to a PDF or Excel file. This accomplishes the same goal as snapshots and caching, so long as your users know to only open the exported report file, not the original SSRS report.  

A note about user parameters.  In most cases I have found that these parameters are predictable enough that they don't really need to be specified by the user. For example, if the report requires a date, and that date is always yesterday, you can calculate that date it the report itself without requiring parameters.  If you are able get rid of parameters altogether, then snapshots or caching are better options than subscriptions.

About the Author:
Noah Meyer, aka The SQL Fix-It Guy, is a Denver-based database developer, trainer and coach and has spent the past two decades helping leading organizations (banks, hospitals, energy companies and government agencies) improve their reporting capabilities by fixing and fine-tuning their customized software implementations.