Successful Business Intelligence: Secrets to Making BI a Killer App


Book Description

Praise for Successful Business Intelligence "If you want to be an analytical competitor, you've got to go well beyond business intelligence technology. Cindi Howson has wrapped up the needed advice on technology, organization, strategy, and even culture in a neat package. It's required reading for quantitatively oriented strategists and the technologists who support them." --Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor, Babson College and co-author, Competing on Analytics "When used strategically, business intelligence can help companies transform their organization to be more agile, more competitive, and more profitable. Successful Business Intelligence offers valuable guidance for companies looking to embark upon their first BI project as well as those hoping to maximize their current deployments." --John Schwarz, CEO, Business Objects "A thoughtful, clearly written, and carefully researched examination of all facets of business intelligence that your organization needs to know to run its business more intelligently and exploit information to its fullest extent." --Wayne Eckerson, Director, TDWI Research "Using real-world examples, Cindi Howson shows you how to use business intelligence to improve the performance, and the quality, of your company." --Bill Baker, Distinguished Engineer & GM, Business Intelligence Applications, Microsoft Corporation "This book outlines the key steps to make BI an integral part of your company's culture and demonstrates how your company can use BI as a competitive differentiator." --Robert VanHees, CFO, Corporate Express "Given the trend to expand the business analytics user base, organizations are faced with a number of challenges that affect the success rate of these projects. This insightful book provides practical advice on improving that success rate." --Dan Vesset, Vice President, Business Analytics Solution Research, IDC




The Definitive Guide to DAX


Book Description

This comprehensive and authoritative guide will teach you the DAX language for business intelligence, data modeling, and analytics. Leading Microsoft BI consultants Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari help you master everything from table functions through advanced code and model optimization. You’ll learn exactly what happens under the hood when you run a DAX expression, how DAX behaves differently from other languages, and how to use this knowledge to write fast, robust code. If you want to leverage all of DAX’s remarkable power and flexibility, this no-compromise “deep dive” is exactly what you need. Perform powerful data analysis with DAX for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Excel, and Power BI Master core DAX concepts, including calculated columns, measures, and error handling Understand evaluation contexts and the CALCULATE and CALCULATETABLE functions Perform time-based calculations: YTD, MTD, previous year, working days, and more Work with expanded tables, complex functions, and elaborate DAX expressions Perform calculations over hierarchies, including parent/child hierarchies Use DAX to express diverse and unusual relationships Measure DAX query performance with SQL Server Profiler and DAX Studio




Data Governance


Book Description

Managing data continues to grow as a necessity for modern organizations. There are seemingly infinite opportunities for organic growth, reduction of costs, and creation of new products and services. It has become apparent that none of these opportunities can happen smoothly without data governance. The cost of exponential data growth and privacy / security concerns are becoming burdensome. Organizations will encounter unexpected consequences in new sources of risk. The solution to these challenges is also data governance; ensuring balance between risk and opportunity. Data Governance, Second Edition, is for any executive, manager or data professional who needs to understand or implement a data governance program. It is required to ensure consistent, accurate and reliable data across their organization. This book offers an overview of why data governance is needed, how to design, initiate, and execute a program and how to keep the program sustainable. This valuable resource provides comprehensive guidance to beginning professionals, managers or analysts looking to improve their processes, and advanced students in Data Management and related courses. With the provided framework and case studies all professionals in the data governance field will gain key insights into launching successful and money-saving data governance program. - Incorporates industry changes, lessons learned and new approaches - Explores various ways in which data analysts and managers can ensure consistent, accurate and reliable data across their organizations - Includes new case studies which detail real-world situations - Explores all of the capabilities an organization must adopt to become data driven - Provides guidance on various approaches to data governance, to determine whether an organization should be low profile, central controlled, agile, or traditional - Provides guidance on using technology and separating vendor hype from sincere delivery of necessary capabilities - Offers readers insights into how their organizations can improve the value of their data, through data quality, data strategy and data literacy - Provides up to 75% brand-new content compared to the first edition




Business Intelligence For Dummies


Book Description

You're intelligent, right? So you've already figured out that Business Intelligence can be pretty valuable in making the right decisions about your business. But you’ve heard at least a dozen definitions of what it is, and heard of at least that many BI tools. Where do you start? Business Intelligence For Dummies makes BI understandable! It takes you step by step through the technologies and the alphabet soup, so you can choose the right technology and implement a successful BI environment. You'll see how the applications and technologies work together to access, analyze, and present data that you can use to make better decisions about your products, customers, competitors, and more. You’ll find out how to: Understand the principles and practical elements of BI Determine what your business needs Compare different approaches to BI Build a solid BI architecture and roadmap Design, develop, and deploy your BI plan Relate BI to data warehousing, ERP, CRM, and e-commerce Analyze emerging trends and developing BI tools to see what else may be useful Whether you’re the business owner or the person charged with developing and implementing a BI strategy, checking out Business Intelligence For Dummies is a good business decision.




Learning Tableau 2019


Book Description

Create powerful data visualizations and unlock intelligent business insights with Tableau Key FeaturesExplore all the latest Tableau 2019 features and redefine business analytics for your organizationCreate impressive data visualizations and interactive dashboards to get insights from your dataLearn effective data storytelling to transform how your business leverages data and makes decisionsBook Description Tableau is the gold standard of business intelligence and visual analytics tools in every industry. It enables rapid data visualization and interpretation with charts, graphs, dashboards, and much more. Updated with the latest features of Tableau, this book takes you from the foundations of the Tableau 2019 paradigm through to advanced topics. This third edition of the bestselling guide by Tableau Zen Master, Joshua Milligan, will help you come to grips with updated features, such as set actions and transparent views. Beginning with installation, you'll create your first visualizations with Tableau and then explore practical examples and advanced techniques. You'll create bar charts, tree maps, scatterplots, time series, and a variety of other visualizations. Next, you'll discover techniques to overcome challenges presented by data structure and quality and engage in effective data storytelling and decision making with business critical information. Finally, you'll be introduced to Tableau Prep, and learn how to use it to integrate and shape data for analysis. By the end of this book, you will be equipped to leverage the powerful features of Tableau 2019 for decision making. What you will learnDevelop stunning visualizations that explain complexity with clarityExplore the exciting new features of Tableau Desktop and Tableau PrepConnect to various data sources to bring all your data togetherUncover techniques to prep and structure your data for easy analysisCreate and use calculations to solve problems and enrich analyticsMaster advanced topics such as sets, LOD calcs, and much moreEnable smart decisions with clustering, distribution, and forecastingShare your data stories to build a culture of trust and actionWho this book is for This Tableau book is for anyone who wants to understand data. If you’re new to Tableau, don’t worry. This book builds on the foundations to help you understand how Tableau really works and then builds on that knowledge with practical examples before moving on to advanced techniques. Working experience with databases will be useful but is not necessary to get the most out of this book.




Google Analytics Breakthrough


Book Description

A complete, start-to-finish guide to Google Analytics instrumentation and reporting Google Analytics Breakthrough is a much-needed comprehensive resource for the world's most widely adopted analytics tool. Designed to provide a complete, best-practices foundation in measurement strategy, implementation, reporting, and optimization, this book systematically demystifies the broad range of Google Analytics features and configurations. Throughout the end-to-end learning experience, you'll sharpen your core competencies, discover hidden functionality, learn to avoid common pitfalls, and develop next-generation tracking and analysis strategies so you can understand what is helping or hindering your digital performance and begin driving more success. Google Analytics Breakthrough offers practical instruction and expert perspectives on the full range of implementation and reporting skills: Learn how to campaign-tag inbound links to uncover the email, social, PPC, and banner/remarketing traffic hiding as other traffic sources and to confidently measure the ROI of each marketing channel Add event tracking to capture the many important user interactions that Google Analytics does not record by default, such as video plays, PDF downloads, scrolling, and AJAX updates Master Google Tag Manager for greater flexibility and process control in implementation Set up goals and Enhanced Ecommerce tracking to measure performance against organizational KPIs and configure conversion funnels to isolate drop-off Create audience segments that map to your audience constituencies, amplify trends, and help identify optimization opportunities Populate custom dimensions that reflect your organization, your content, and your visitors so Google Analytics can speak your language Gain a more complete view of customer behavior with mobile app and cross-device tracking Incorporate related tools and techniques: third-party data visualization, CRM integration for long-term value and lead qualification, marketing automation, phone conversion tracking, usability, and A/B testing Improve data storytelling and foster analytics adoption in the enterprise Millions of organizations have installed Google Analytics, including an estimated 67 percent of Fortune 500 companies, but deficiencies plague most implementations, and inadequate reporting practices continue to hinder meaningful analysis. By following the strategies and techniques in Google Analytics Breakthrough, you can address the gaps in your own still set, transcend the common limitations, and begin using Google Analytics for real competitive advantage. Critical contributions from industry luminaries such as Brian Clifton, Tim Ash, Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Jim Sterne – and a foreword by Avinash Kaushik – enhance the learning experience and empower you to drive consistent, real-world improvement through analytics.




Microsoft Power BI Complete Reference


Book Description

Design, develop, and master efficient Power BI solutions for impactful business insights Key FeaturesGet to grips with the fundamentals of Microsoft Power BI Combine data from multiple sources, create visuals, and publish reports across platformsUnderstand Power BI concepts with real-world use casesBook Description Microsoft Power BI Complete Reference Guide gets you started with business intelligence by showing you how to install the Power BI toolset, design effective data models, and build basic dashboards and visualizations that make your data come to life. In this Learning Path, you will learn to create powerful interactive reports by visualizing your data and learn visualization styles, tips and tricks to bring your data to life. You will be able to administer your organization's Power BI environment to create and share dashboards. You will also be able to streamline deployment by implementing security and regular data refreshes. Next, you will delve deeper into the nuances of Power BI and handling projects. You will get acquainted with planning a Power BI project, development, and distribution of content, and deployment. You will learn to connect and extract data from various sources to create robust datasets, reports, and dashboards. Additionally, you will learn how to format reports and apply custom visuals, animation and analytics to further refine your data. By the end of this Learning Path, you will learn to implement the various Power BI tools such as on-premises gateway together along with staging and securely distributing content via apps. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide by Devin Knight et al. Mastering Microsoft Power BI by Brett PowellWhat you will learnConnect to data sources using both import and DirectQuery optionsLeverage built-in and custom visuals to design effective reportsAdminister a Power BI cloud tenant for your organizationDeploy your Power BI Desktop files into the Power BI Report ServerBuild efficient data retrieval and transformation processesWho this book is for Microsoft Power BI Complete Reference Guide is for those who want to learn and use the Power BI features to extract maximum information and make intelligent decisions that boost their business. If you have a basic understanding of BI concepts and want to learn how to apply them using Microsoft Power BI, then Learning Path is for you. It consists of real-world examples on Power BI and goes deep into the technical issues, covers additional protocols, and much more.




Learn Power BI


Book Description

Solve business challenges with Microsoft Power BI's advanced visualization and data analysis techniques Key FeaturesCreate effective storytelling reports by implementing simple-to-intermediate Power BI featuresDevelop powerful analytical models to extract key insights for changing business needsBuild, publish, and share impressive dashboards for your organizationBook Description To succeed in today's transforming business world, organizations need business intelligence capabilities to make smarter decisions faster than ever before. This Power BI book is an entry-level guide that will get you up and running with data modeling, visualization, and analytical techniques from scratch. You'll find this book handy if you want to get well-versed with the extensive Power BI ecosystem. You'll start by covering the basics of business intelligence and installing Power BI. You'll then learn the wide range of Power BI features to unlock business insights. As you progress, the book will take you through how to use Power Query to ingest, cleanse, and shape your data, and use Power BI DAX to create simple to complex calculations. You'll also be able to add a variety of interactive visualizations to your reports to bring your data to life. Finally, you'll gain hands-on experience in creating visually stunning reports that speak to business decision makers, and see how you can securely share these reports and collaborate with others. By the end of this book, you'll be ready to create simple, yet effective, BI reports and dashboards using the latest features of Power BI. What you will learnExplore the different features of Power BI to create interactive dashboardsUse the Query Editor to import and transform dataPerform simple and complex DAX calculations to enhance analysisDiscover business insights and tell a story with your data using Power BIExplore data and learn to manage datasets, dataflows, and data gatewaysUse workspaces to collaborate with others and publish your reportsWho this book is for If you’re an IT manager, data analyst, or BI user new to using Power BI for solving business intelligence problems, this book is for you. You’ll also find this book useful if you want to migrate from other BI tools to create powerful and interactive dashboards. No experience of working with Power BI is expected.




Beginning DAX with Power BI


Book Description

Attention all SQL Pros, DAX is not just for writing Excel-based formulas! Get hands-on learning and expert advice on how to use the vast capabilities of the DAX language to solve common data modeling challenges. Beginning DAX with Power BI teaches key concepts such as mapping techniques from SQL to DAX, filtering, grouping, joining, pivoting, and using temporary tables, all aimed at the SQL professional. Join author Philip Seamark as he guides you on a journey through typical business data transformation scenarios and challenges, and teaches you, step-by-step, how to resolve challenges using DAX. Tips, tricks, and shortcuts are included and explained, along with examples of the SQL equivalent, in order to accelerate learning. Examples in the book range from beginner to advanced, with plenty of detailed explanation when walking through each scenario. What You’ll Learn Turbocharge your Power BI model by adding advanced DAX programming techniques Know when to use calculated measures versus calculated columns Generate new tables on the fly from existing data Optimize, monitor, and tune Power BI to improve performance of your models Discover new ideas, tricks, and time-saving techniques for better models Who This Book Is For Business intelligence developers, business analysts, or any SQL user who wants to use Power BI as a reporting tool. A solid understanding of SQL is recommended, as examples throughout the book include the DAX equivalents to SQL problem/solution scenarios.




Power Bi - Business Intelligence Clinic (Color Version): Create and Learn


Book Description

If you want to learn Business Intelligence software, if you are looking for specific BI tool, or if you are trying to decide on your next new BI solution, you will love Business Intelligence Clinic. One dataset, multiple solutions: Each book is about a different BI software, and you will follow step-by-step instructions to create a professional sales dashboard with the same friendly dataset. The BI Clinic series is suitable for everyone - managers, analysts, students... - It will help you compare different Business Intelligence tools, learn the basics, and select the best for your project, company, customers, or personal needs. In this Create and Learn book, Power BI - Business Intelligence Clinic with more than 300 images (Color Version), you will you go through important topics of Microsoft Power BI Desktop - a Free BI tool from Microsoft. You will learn how to install Power BI Desktop, get data, model your data, work with visuals and reports, create a sales dashboard, and share your work with others. We will not go into deep theories as the purpose of this book and all Create and Learn material is to make the most of your time and to learn by doing. You will follow step-by-step instructions to create a professional sales dashboard, and eight warm-up dashboards to help you rapidly increase your Power BI knowledge. I hope this book will help you to start your journey in the Business Intelligence world and give you the right tools to start building professional reports and dashboards using Microsoft Power BI. Thank you for creating and learning. Roger F. Silva For Kindle ebook, or Black & White (cheaper than color), versions use this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J3DLBXK Check the Business Intelligence Clinic series One dataset, multiple solutions: Power BI - Business Intelligence Clinic Excel - Business Intelligence Clinic Tableau - Business Intelligence Clinic Qlik - Business Intelligence Clinic