Join me for a fun, educational journey learning the latest in data analysis.
Many employees see Excel as static, they feel they already know what they need. This is a huge business mistake in today’s environment, so this is where we start. Basic recap of Excel for those of you who are new. We then move onto many of the more productive features in Excel that you may not be clear on, functions, charts, pivot tables and more. As we increase our knowledge, we see how advanced Excel capabilities including PowerPivot can shave time off of our daily workload. PowerPivot allows users to aggregate data from many different data sources to create a single report.
Next we discuss ETL and Data Modelling. ETL is how we clean up the data from the multiple data sources I mentioned above. As you can imagine, the data is not just “ready to go”. In Data Modelling we learn how the data sources are related and how best to make use of this. This could be a place to stop for those of you who ‘never’ leave Excel. If you decide to stop here, you will likely be more knowledgeable than most users of Excel.
The next level is DAX and Power BI. DAX is a language that is not difficult to pick-up at all. If you are comfortable in Excel or SQL, you will have no problem. DAX allows you to make your own ‘rules’ within tables. These rules are sort of virtual, meaning they don’t exist within your dataset until you create them. Finally, we experience Power BI. Power BI is so advanced a user can work with machine learning and AI inside this application. These subjects are beyond the scope of these lessons at this time, but should you follow along, you will have taken yourself or your company to the edge of artificial intelligence and algorithms.
When you have completed the steps above, you will be able to build amazing reports that are fit for a Fortune 500 company. You now have actionable information and can make more informed decisions. These reports will be used by management and the executive team.
