Live tweeted #sqlpass’s Business Analytics VC webinar: 13 Excel Tips!

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I was live tweeting during our monthly PASS Business Analytics VC meeting, Here are the tweets to learn about 13 Excel Tips!

Thanks everyone who attended, I hope it was helpful!

Here are some ways to follow the Virtual Chapter:
Website: http://bavc.sqlpass.org/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOiRAA4gBxEeVxwmEZ1qy1w
Twitter: https://twitter.com/passbavc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/PASS-Business-Analytics-Virtual-Chapter-6701113

Business Intelligene Dashboard for Quality Managers

Quality Test Results Dashboard
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Business Goal:

Need to understand the patterns in Quality test results data across all plants.

Summary:

– The solution involved creating a Business Intelligence system that gathered data from multiple plants. I was involved in mentoring IT team, development and end-user training of a Business Intelligence Dashboard that used SQL server analysis services as it’s data source.

– Dashboard development involved multiple checkpoint meetings with business leaders since this was the first time they had a chance to visualize quality test results data consolidated from multiple plants. Since they were new to data visualization, I used to prepare in advance and create 3-4 relevant visualization templates to kick off meetings.

Mockup:

(it is intended to look generic since I can’t discuss details. Also, drill down capabilities had been added to the dashboard to go down to the lowest granularity if needed)

Quality Test Results Dashboard

How to train your users to create their own Business Intelligence reports? #3 of 5: User Experience, Trainer, Content

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In part #1, I wrote about why is it important to enable business users to create their own BI reports.

In part #2, I wrote about three pre-training preparations – 1. Data 2. Tool 3. Understanding Culture.

In this post, part #3, I am going to write about three more important topics before you schedule trainings. Here they are:

1. user experience

2. Training Content

3. Trainer

Let’s talk about them in more detail:

1. User Experience:

How many clicks does it take for a user to get to the data? Measure this! From desktop, It’s Ideal to have 3 clicks or less to get to the data. If you more steps that users need to follow to get to the data, the chances of them getting lost somewhere else increases. If you have a great user experience, it’s easier for users to not have to remember how to get to the system. Here’s one example of an ideal User Experience:

Click #1: Click on web browser & type the name of the BI site (or pull it from favorites)

Click #2: On a BI site, they will have a “team site” (and that would show up automatically based on windows authentication) and they will see a reports categorized by subject areas. They will click on their subject area.

click #3: Click on a template and it will download the excel based template to user’s computer. (The template needs to be pre configured to connect to the data source)

In summary, easy-to-navigate BI sites are a huge plus!

On point #2, I had mentioned a BI site. You need some place for users to collaborate with their team & share reports. If you can’t setup SharePoint BI sites, then consider some shared network folders or have it on a common web site, some place that users can use to collaborate.

On point #3, I had mentioned “templates”. They may be excel files or blank power view reports configured to connect to the data source. Don’t ask your users to enter data source credentials – who would remember hxajfafhjfdakjinstance2143452 anyways?! Have templates that are ready to consume for end-users.

2. Trainer

Who needs to train user? of course, the trainer to have decent public speaking and communication skills along with being an expert at the end-user tool. He/she will also have to understand the business value of the data that the users are being trained on.

Now depending on the demand for training,  a trainer could be hired full-time/part-time to train users.

If there’s not enough budget or training demand, IT managers can consider requesting Business Intelligence Developers/Consultants/Architects or IT analysts to train the users.

If possible, IT managers can also request an analyst from the business group to do the training.

It would be great to record the trainings in video/document format for users to review them later.

3. Training Content & Format

3a Content

There are various methods to design training content:

– Look at Frequently asked questions from user community & design training content around them

– Invite smaller group of users for “beta” testing your training content. see if they like it! And keep improving your training content iteratively as you have more training sessions.

– Look at resources available online or books, user groups, etc for best practices & samples

– build upon the work of your colleagues, your past work, ask for feedback!

– And most importantly, remember to communicate business value in your training content.

– consider including Hands on (practice sessions) content in your training.

3b. Format

There are various training format & depending on your needs you will have to decide on the format of delivery mechanisms and training schedules:

Delivering mechanisms: In person or virtual.

Time: One hour-long/2 hour-long/one-hour for three days/ etc

I have had virtual trainings with users from Asia at 9 PM Easter Time & I’ve had 6 AM Eastern time meetings for users from Europe. You’ll need to decide the format that works best for you.

Conclusion:

In this post, I wrote about three topics for training business intelligence users 1. user experience 2. Trainer 3. Training Content.

Licenses required in Excel 2013 & Office 365 for Power View and/or Power BI:

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Here’s a quick chart that I created based on reading up from different sources about licenses required in office 2013/office 365 to use Power View and/or Power BI. It was not straight forward and I had to use multiple sources to find this information, so hopefully this helps you:

Power View Power BI Excel 2013 License

Please Note:

Double check w/ official sources. The chart is meant to guide to find the right license for your needs. Please use this as a starting point & use official resources before making a purchase decision.

Sources Used:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/powerBI/pricing.aspx#fbid=ygmkLW5EEH9

http://blogs.technet.com/b/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/archive/2013/02/27/unable-to-use-excel-2010-powerpivot-workbooks-in-excel-2013.aspx

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2013/08/19/excel-2013-stand-alone-now-includes-powerpivot.aspx

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/power-view-explore-visualize-and-present-your-data-HA102835634.aspx

http://cwebbbi.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/office-2013-office-365-editions-and-bi-features/

PASS BA VC: Analyzing Road Traffic Accident Data in #PowerBI by Chris Webb #sqlpass

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Join PASS Business Analytics VC on Thu, Mar 27 2014 12:00 (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) for “Analyzing Road Traffic Accident Data in Power BI” by Chris Webb. In this one hour session, Chris will spend an hour going over the details on how he developed his amazing demo for the Power BI contest (see here & here).

here’s the link to Register: http://bit.ly/SQLPASSBAVC

Demo:

We hope to see you there!

Paras Doshi
VP – Marketing, PASS BA VC

How to embed or integrate Power View reports into SharePoint pages?

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Why do you want to do that?

One of the common tactic that you can consider to drive adoption of a Business Intelligence system is to integrate/embed the BI reports to the APPS/SITE that the users are already using. Don’t make your users come to you, go to them! As a part of that, I figured out a way to integrate/embed Power View in a Site that was used by existing user base.

You can integrate/embed Power View reports in SharePoint web Parts. Here’s How:

Power View sharepoint integrate embedImage Credit & For step by step tutorial, please refer to: Integrate Power View with SharePoint using web parts

Note:

Environment: SQL Server 2012 in SharePoint Integrated mode w/ Power View Activated for the site. Also, SharePoint Enterprise 2010.

 

Quick Note about the Filters in the Power View Report:

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You can put the fields as filters in two different areas:

1. View

2. Chart/Table

An end-user asked me the difference between the them today:

Filter area Power View Chart TableIt’s helpful to have more than two chart/table in a view (think of view as one excel single sheet) to understand the difference. So let’s say you have two charts in a single VIEW:

How do you filter data in both charts?

By putting the field in the VIEW area.

They can be called View-Level Filters

How do you filter data in just one of the chart/table?

By putting the field in the Table/Chart area.

They can be called Visualization-Level filters.

Official Resource:

Filtering, Highlighting, and Slicers in Power View

A Note about “Edit Report” button seen on Power View reports in SharePoint:

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Power View reports that are hosted on SharePoint has “Edit report” which you cannot hide:

Power View Edit report buttonWe can’t hide this button but how do you give someone “read-only” access to Power View?

To do so, you’ll have to host the Power View report in a SharePoint library where a user has read-only access. When a user opens the report, he/she could click on edit report & make changes to Power View report but they won’t be able to save the report instead they’ll see an error:

Power View Access Denied

Official resource: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/power-view-in-sharepoint-server-create-save-and-print-reports-HA102834736.aspx

[update]:

Also, check out this MSDN forum thread, it describes a solution to hide the “toolbar”: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/cec0feff-1055-4b53-a5ae-00373abdabdd/how-to-disable-edit-report-option-in-powerview-report-in-sharepoint-2013?forum=sharepointdevelopment

[Notes] Atlanta Business Intelligence User Group – Mapping Data in Power View & Tableau

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Here are my notes from the Atlanta BI user group that I attended today:

Topic: Head-to-Head on Maps: Mapping Twitter in Tableau and Power View

Power View

Tableau

Setup/Installation?Office 2013 [Professional Plus editions], SharePoint 2010 onwards [Enterprise Editions]Public, Online, Desktop, Server
LicensingGet applicable office/SharePoint licenseTableau Public is Free.Tableau Online is $500 per user/year.

Tableau Server has Per-User or Per-Server-Core model

*Note that if you’re using Tableau server’s per-user model the cost is $1000 per named user/consumer (min. 10 users) and $2000 seat for 1 developer.

**Contact Tableau Sales. Please don’t evaluate the product based on the information provided here as the information might change in future

Data Sources[SharePoint] Power Pivot Model, Analysis Service Cubes[Excel 2013] You can connect to data sources that excel supports and then create power view report on top of it.Tableau Public Supports Excel, Access & Text filesOther version of Tableau can connect to a variety of data sources.
Product CategoryAd-hoc reporting a.k.a Self Service Business IntelligenceAd-hoc reporting
Ease of useeasyeasy
Visually Compelling?YesYes
Custom Shape FilesNoLimited
Motion effectNoYes
Product maturityPower View is new to the gameTableau is a leader in data visualization space
Additional NotesPower Map is an add-in by Microsoft that focuses on “Mapping”. It’s part of the newly announced Power BI suite.

What Problems does Power BI solve?

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I’m at PASS Summit 13 this week and I’m seeing nice amount of excitement among Business Intelligence Pros about “Power BI” so I thought I would post a brief post about problems that Power BI addresses:

#1: Mobile BI:

  • The Visualizations that you’ll publish to Power BI sites would use the HTML 5 rendering & hence the support for Mobile BI.
  • There’s also a native Microsoft Power BI app for Windows 8 so you can use surface tablets for Mobile BI. IOs (apple) or Android native apps have NOT been announced yet.

#2: An end-to-end self-service suite of tools for Power Users:

  • Users will be enabled to search, analyze and visualize data using Power Query, Power Pivot & Power View. Plus it allows them a way to collaborate with each other.

#3: Easier way to search for data that’s available inside & outside for organization:

  • One of the key themes of “Power BI” has been easier discovery of data that’s available to you to analyze.
  • This is really important from an adoption standpoint because with the technologies that we have today, we can’t enable power users to search for “data-sets”. Power BI enables IT to publish Data Catalogs which I imagine would make it easier for power users to search & connect to data sets & start analyzing!

#4: cool tools that people *want* to use it.

  • Power BI has rich user experience.
  • Users can build cool visualizations & create some business value
  • Since this is a “self-service” suite, it seems to be designed as a user-friendly set of tools. This is important because if a user is “confused” or “over whelmed” then they are not going to use the tool & find something else.

#5: Gateway to the future:

  • The Human-computer interaction is evolving. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen tools like Siri (apple audio powered personal assistant) which allows users to use “Natural Language” to interact with computers
  • Power BI has a tools called “Q&A” that allows users to do business analysis using “Natural Language”. I don’t know the maturity of the current offering but I’m excited about the possibilities that this could offer in future!
  • Imagine a computer (in some amazing futuristic form) and you say to it “sales trend in north america region during past 12 months” and it gives a you nice trend chart that you can use to start analysis.

Cost-benefit analysis of this cloud-powered suite of tools*

  • (Book Mark for future editing: The cost of the tool & its general availability is not announced, so I didn’t talk about the cost-benefits that we might see so I’ll defer this analysis until after the details are announced)

What do you think? What are the problems and pain-points that Power BI is trying to solve?