Large corporations like IBM and Oracle are using Excel dashboards and
reports as a Business Intelligence tool, and many other smaller
businesses are looking to these tools in order to cut costs for
budgetary reasons. An effective analyst not only has to have the
technical skills to use Excel in a productive manner but must be able to
synthesize data into a story, and then present that story in the most
impactful way. Microsoft shows its recognition of this with Excel. In
Excel, there is a major focus on business intelligence and
visualization. Data Visualization with Excel Dashboards and Reports
fills the gap between handling data and synthesizing data into
meaningful reports. This title will show readers how to think about
their data in ways other than columns and rows.
Most Excel books do a nice job discussing the individual functions and
tools that can be used to create an "Excel Report". Titles on Excel
charts, Excel pivot tables, and other books that focus on "Tips and
Tricks" are useful in their own right; however they don't hit the mark
for most data analysts. The primary reason these titles miss the mark is
they are too focused on the mechanical aspects of building a chart,
creating a pivot table, or other functionality. They don't offer these
topics in the broader picture by showing how to present and report data
in the most effective way.
What are the most meaningful ways to show trending? How do you show
relationships in data? When is showing variances more valuable than
showing actual data values? How do you deal with outliers? How do you
bucket data in the most meaningful way? How do you show impossible
amounts of data without inundating your audience? In Data Visualization
with Excel Reports and Dashboards, readers will get answers to all of
these questions. Part technical manual, part analytical guidebook; this
title will help Excel users go from reporting data with simple tables
full of dull numbers, to creating hi-impact reports and dashboards that
will wow management both visually and substantively. This book offers a
comprehensive review of a wide array of technical and analytical
concepts that will help users create meaningful reports and dashboards.
After reading this book, the reader will be able to:
- Analyze large amounts of data and report their data in a meaningful
way
- Get better visibility into data from different perspectives
- Quickly slice data into various views on the fly
- Automate redundant reporting and analyses
- Create impressive dashboards and What-If analyses
- Understand the fundamentals of effective visualization
- Visualize performance comparisons
- Visualize changes and trends over time
