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Showing posts from April, 2017

Business Analytics and Visualization

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It has been a while since I posted a blog article.  Things have been busy and unfortunately my blog has suffered.  Not only have I been busy working in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform arena, but I have also been teaching at a local university.  This past semester I taught Business Analytics and Visualization.  It was a fun course to teach and I was able to introduce business students to the power of analytics using both Power BI and Tableau.  The text for the course was Introduction to Business Analytics, 1 st Edition by Vernon Richardson & Marci Watson.  The text did a great job of covering the types of analytics and the mindset and approach you should follow as a business analyst.  I recently used some of this material in a presentation at an FPnA conference, and it was well received, so I thought I would put the thoughts together here for everyone to read. In today's data-driven world, the ability to transform raw data into meanin...
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I finally took a close look at Power BI

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I have been working in the Business Intelligence space for the past several years.  During this time, I have watched the rise of Microsoft Power BI from a distance.  They were a competitor, so while I kept an eye on them, but I did not really spend that much time in the tool.  I knew the software I was selling and supporting must be better.  We have been around longer and we actually sell our software.  You can get started with Power BI for free or upgrade to Power BI Pro for only $9.99 a month.  How good can it be at that price point? Well with some recent employment changes, I have now had more time to actually dig deeper into Power BI, and while it is far from perfect, I have to admit I am beginning to understand what all of hype is about.  Power BI is a serious player in the Business Intelligence space. Probably one of the best features of Power BI is the community.  There are a lot of people using it and because of this there are a ...
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Welcome

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Welcome to my new blog.  I have been working with data in one form or another for over 25 years.  The data has taken on my forms, from audit work papers, ledger sheets and inventory cards to SQL databases, Excel spreadsheets, on-line information and much more.  Understanding this data often brought many challenges and that is what led me to start working with different Business Intelligence solutions.  When I first started I didn't even know what Business Intelligence was.  I just needed some reports.  I used tools like Excel or Crystal Reports or other report writers, but I quickly learned the data needed more than just a report.  Fast forward to today and Business Intelligence solutions seem to be everywhere.   The industry is changing very quickly and there is a lot of information available.  I do a lot of research and work for clients, so I have decided to keep that information in a central location.  That is why I have created thi...
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