Author: Barry Crowell

Kick-Start Your Data Warehousing

Many of the projects that I’ve been working on over the last 12 months have evolved integrating data into a data warehouse. Specifically companies are looking to import more data from other systems to do various types of analysis.  Data integration is nothing new, companies have been doing it for a long time, but usually with a very manual process that includes vast Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

What Is a Data Warehouse?

A data warehouse is a database designed to enable reporting and data analysis activities.  Data warehouses store current and historical data from one or more disparate sources.  Some of these sources may include:

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December 12, 2014

Part 5 of 5: Power BI, Sharing the Wealth

We have put a lot of hard work into this blog series with building a patron analysis so now it’s time to share the wealth of our analysis insights with the rest of the company.  Power BI’s web site and mobile approach with the deployment of Office 365 and refreshable data through a Data Management Gateway, is the perfect solution.  The Data Management Gateway has come a long way since the first version and with version 1.2 it now supports many data source types from Power Query connections.

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October 24, 2014

Power BI – Power Pivot – Creating your first data model and KPI.

While PowerPivot isn't necessarily “new technology,” businesses are trying to move towards it due to how Excel savvy end users can create their own reports without tying up IT resources. KPI's are just another addition to PowerPivot that allows users to visually analyze data across millions of rows.

A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a graphical representation that displays progress against a predefined measure or business goal. KPIs make it easier for end users to evaluate the amount of progress without reading a bunch of data.

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September 5, 2014

Power Query–The Heavyweight Champ of Power BI

What is Power Query? Power Query is a self-service data extraction tool that is a free add-in for Excel 2010 or higher. It allows users that are already comfortable with Excel a smaller learning curve to start enjoying Power Query. Power Query has a vast array of options that it can use as data sources…

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July 22, 2014