By subscribing to SQLBI+, you have immediate access to all content published prior to your subscription starting, as well as all the updates and new content published in the duration of your subscription. The subscription model allows us to invest in niche areas that we are passionate about and that will make a subset of very advanced users very happy! Having access to this content is invaluable, as there are few other sources that will go to that level for you.

Before going into details, the value proposition of SQLBI+ is simple: we know that each piece of content may be crucial to helping you do your job, one day or another. Based on our interactions with our market we are estimating that one to two pieces will be a game changer each year for each advanced user. This principle guides us in selecting content: we must include topics important for professional model authors that may not be available in a single, organized way in the Microsoft documentation or other articles / books / courses. Access to the content of SQLBI+ saves you a ton of research and testing time, and thus increases your productivity. We have a proactive approach to producing content, so it is ready for you when you need it rather than us using your needs as ideas for future pieces.

Why SQLBI+

SQLBI already offers a portfolio of courses for DAX, data modeling, and the Tabular technology used by Power BI, Analysis Services, and Power Pivot for Excel.

Several introductory courses are free, whereas medium to advanced courses are paid.

Full transparency as always: When it comes to video courses, each video course represents a significant investment. Only topics that we know will serve a large audience and last a certain amount of time can justify being promoted and purchased as separate products. However, grouping multiple advanced pieces dedicated to separate niche topics under one single subscription enables us to provide a quality service to a more select audience.

SQLBI+ is to be used as an added bonus as it does NOT contain access to Mastering DAX, Data Modeling nor any of our other, foundational courses: it is intended for an audience of professional model authors who spend considerable time creating and deploying Tabular models in Power BI and Analysis Services.

The ultimate goal of SQLBI+ is to increase the productivity of model authors by providing in-depth information that we know will save you both research and testing time while adopting new technologies in the Tabular world.

To achieve said goal, SQLBI+ relies on a different business model. Instead of our team using a production budget for each piece of content, with SQLBI+ we use a container that can fund the development of content targeted to niche areas. By subscribing to SQLBI+ you are supporting the project and thus allowing us to prepare more fun pieces.

SQLBI has and will continue to publish free articles and videos about basic and advanced topics. However, SQLBI+ is nothing like the collection of articles and videos we publish for free.
SQLBI+ is a collection of longer and more in-depth content that would not fit the size of a standard article or video.

Content types in SQLBI+

The long-term goal of SQLBI+ is to produce advanced content in any format that suits our more proficient audience’s needs. At this initial stage, we have identified three delivery formats:

  • Structured courses: The structured course is like any other course delivered on the SQLBI video learning platform. The course is a structured collection of videos with subtitles and transcripts that facilitate the use of bookmarks and search within the content. Each section of the course contains a private discussion area, as you may be used to from our more generalist video courses.
  • Whitepapers: most of the topics covered in the structured courses inside SQLBI+ come with a matching whitepaper in PDF format. While many prefer the video format of a course, others prefer written text. SQLBI+ provides both!
  • Individual sessions: SQLBI+ also includes individual sessions that explore specific topics – they do not follow the structure of regular courses; they are more similar to conference sessions and are always available in the subscription.

We might add additional format types in the future. Still, we think that having the flexibility to produce the content in a more or less structured way gives us enough flexibility to cover more topics for you.

Guarantee of future content

Besides the content available at the launch of the service, SQLBI+ is committed to publishing the following fresh new content every year:

  • 2 structured courses
  • 1 whitepaper
  • 4 individual sessions

At SQLBI we always want to do more, so this is just the minimum guaranteed. The delivery of new content will take place over time, so expect to see new awesome content published every 2-3 months.

The initial offer in SQLBI+

The initial offer included in SQLBI+ has two structured courses with two corresponding whitepapers:

  • Writing DAX Queries explains in depth how to write DAX queries for a report. You can use DAX queries in Excel, and 80% of the content is also useful for creating calculated tables in Power BI and Analysis Services. The content includes most of the table functions in DAX, which are also useful in other DAX expressions.
  • Composite models is the shorter name for a feature called “DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services”. In practice, these are the models you obtain when extending an existing Power BI dataset (or AS database) by adding tables imported in the local model or by connecting tables stored in other Power BI datasets or Analysis Services databases. This course explains how composite models work internally, with the goals of avoiding performance bottlenecks and designing the best architecture for your specific solutions.

The three individual sessions available at the start of SQLBI+ are the following:

  • Inside the VertiPaq Engine: A deep dive into the internals of a database architecture: discover how Vertipaq stores information to gain better insights into the engine, and understand the best way to model your data warehouse to leverage the VertiPaq features. We propose common and useful techniques to increase your compression ratio and obtain higher performance from your Tabular data model.
  • Introducing calculation groups: This session introduces the syntax of calculation groups, when they should be used, and several examples of use cases. You will also learn how calculation groups work internally and their limitations.
  • My Power BI Report is slow: what can I do? You created a wonderful Power BI report, but you have to wait too long when opening it. Changing a slicer selection is also slow. Where should your analysis of the problem begin? What can you do to optimize performance? This session will guide you in analyzing the possible reasons behind a BI report being slow. Using Power BI Performance Analyzer and DAX Studio, you will determine whether you should change the report layout or if there is something in DAX formulas or the data model responsible for the slow response. At the end of this session, you will understand how to locate a performance bottleneck in a Power BI report so that you can focus your attention on what really matters.

These sessions were delivered at conferences worldwide and are now available in a studio-recorded version, thus with better video and audio quality.

The future

Here is the plan for new SQLBI+ content scheduled for the first 6 months of 2023:

Of course, there will be more to come.

Finally, thanks to SQLBI+ we can focus on super niche, complex topics!
Don’t wait and help us produce more content by subscribing to SQLBI+ today!