Analytics in Action

Strategies to streamline the implementation of Visual Analytics Tools such as Tableau, Qlikview & Spotfire

In many businesses, where IT is struggling to keep up with businesses data demands, rifts are developing between business users and IT. Rightly or wrongly more business users are assuming ownership of data and Business Intelligence and creating their own...

Indexes in SQL Server – making queries run fast with Clustered, Non-clustered & Column indexes

Indexes in SQL Server make  queries run faster and more efficiently.  With the size of databases increasing almost exponentially, being able to return results quickly with minimal stress on the underlying  server is crucial. This tutorial includes a practical demonstration of  performance...

Creating cloud based scorecards with Tibco Spotfire Silver -Tutorial 2

This is the second of 3 tutorials on creating scorecards using Tibco Spotfire Silver. In this tutorial I cover Connecting to multiple data sources Refreshing data Creating "drill through" visualisations Calculated fields and custom expressions Hierarchies that roll data up from months through to years Text...

Visualization-based data discovery tools

Visualization-based data discovery tools may account for less than 5 % of the Business Intelligence (BI) Market, but they are fighting above their weight in terms of profile. In 2011, Gartner placed Visualisation at the peak of the BI Hype...

Creating Cloud Based Scorecards & Dashboards Using Tibco Spotfire Sliver Tutorial 1- The basics.

An introductory tutorial on how to create cloud based dashboards that can be viewed online through browsers and on mobile devices such as Ipads. The demonstration uses the free version of Tibco Spotfire Silver.   The sample data file used...

Creating a Subreport using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 (SSRS).

A SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) subreport is a report created inside a main report. The main report acts as a container for one or more related subreports. The main report and subreport are linked via parameters. This enables related...

Adding grouping and drill down functionality to a report in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

Introduction to adding Grouping and Drill Down functionality to simple Tabular Reports in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). This simple two-step process allows you to compress flat reports and make  it easier to view large amounts of data. When used...

Adding Totals and Subtotals to a report in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

Here is a simple demonstration of how to add totals and subtotals to a report within SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Adding totals and subtotals is simple, but not very intuitive. So I hope this demo helps.

Creating a SQL Server Reporting Services Report (SSRS) that contains a parameter query

In many reporting situations users need to restrict the data visible in a report. For example filtering a master report with a drop-down list box so that only information for a specific month or product is shown. This video demonstrates...

How to create a basic SQL Server Reporting Services project with drill down functionality using the Report Wizard.

This demonstration uses Business intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) to launch the SQL Server Reporting Services wizard and create a report through a series of simple steps. The demonstration involves 1) creating a new data source (shared in this case)...

Google Motion Charts: Presenting multidimensional data in dynamic graphs

This video post  covers how to create a  Google Motion Chart  in a Google Spreadsheet and then publish it as a gadget to an iGoogle dashboard. The video also covers 1) What are Motion Charts? 2) Why use them? 3)...

Microsoft Visio Data Mining Add in for Excel

The Visio Data Mining Add In for Excel provides a very flexible template to visualize & format data mining models produced in the Excel Data Mining Addin. This demonstration covers 4 topics - 1) what is the Microsoft Visio Data...

Creating Dynamic Excel Charts & Data Tables that Automatically Update.

This video blog post demonstrates  how to use Excel data tables & the OFFSET function to create graphs & data tables that dynamically / automatically update when the underlying data changes. Amazon.com Widgets

Building Scorecards in Excel 2010 using Powerpivots.

This video blog post demonstrates how to build a scorecard in Excel 2010 using the Powerpivot addin. It also outlines the advantages of using Excel 2010 Powerpivots to build scorecards. This includes a) Data compression b) Very fast "slicing of...

How to update PowerPivots when the underlying source data changes.

In this post I demonstrate how to update data in Powerpivots. Updates are different from a data refresh as updates incorporate new columns of data- so the structure of the underlying excel table changes. A standard data refresh wouldn't pull...

PowerPivot in Excel 2010. How to refresh data.

Excel 2010 Powerpivots are great tool to report on and slice and dice data.  Often underlying data sources changes and the Powerpivots need updating.  An example might be customer segmentation changing. A data refresh is used when now new columns of...

How to build a Powerpivot in Microsoft Excel 2010

The Powerpivot addin in Excel 2010 makes it easy to build reports with  incredibly  large volumes of  underlying data data. OLAP cube technology from SQL server  is now included within Excel 2010 with the Powerpivot addin. This means it now...