Skip to main content

Home/ BI-TAGS/ Group items tagged answers

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
cezarovidiu

8 Principles That Can Make You an Analytics Rock Star -- TDWI -The Data Warehousing Ins... - 0 views

tdwi.org/...iples-analytics-rock-star.aspx

BI principles analytics

shared by cezarovidiu on 08 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Great design, high-quality code, strong business sponsorship, accurate requirements, good project management, and thorough testing are some of the obvious requirements for successful analytics systems.
  • As a professional in the field, you must be able to do these things well because they form the foundation of a good analytics implementation.
  • Successful analytics professionals should follow a set of guiding principles.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Principle #1: Let your passion bloom
  • If you do not love data analytics, it will be hard to become an analytics rock star. No significant accomplishments are achieved without passion. For many people, passion does not come naturally; it must be developed. Cultivate passion by setting goals and achieving them. Realize that the best opportunity in your life is the one in front of you right now. Focus on it, grow it, and develop your passion for it! That excitement will become obvious to those around you.
  • Principle #2: Never stop learning
  • Dig down deeper about the business details of your company. What, exactly, does your company do? What are some of its challenges and opportunities? How would the company benefit from valuable and transformative information you can deliver? Take the time necessary to learn the skills that are valuable for your business and your career. Keep up-to-date with the latest technologies and available analytics tools -- learn and understand their capabilities, functions, and differences.
  • Deepen your knowledge with the tools that you are currently working on by picking new techniques and methodologies that make you a better professional in the field.
  • Principle #3: Improve your presentation skills and become an ambassador for analytics
  • persuasiveness and effectiveness
  • Improve your presentation and speaking skills, even if it is on your own time. Excellent and no-cost presentation training resources are readily available on the internet (for example, at http://www.mindtools.com/page8.html. Practice writing and giving presentations to friends and colleagues that will give you honest feedback. Once you have practiced the basic skills, you need to enhance your skills by improving your
  • You must be able to explain, justify, and "sell" your ideas to colleagues as well as business management. Organizational change does not happen overnight or as a result of one presentation. You need to be persistent and skillful in taking your ideas all the way up the leadership chain.
  • Principle #4: Be the "go-to guy" for tough analytics questions
  • Tough analytics problems typically don't have an obvious answer -- that's why they're tough! Take the initiative by digging deep into those problems without being asked. Throw out all the assumptions made so far and follow logical trial and error methodology. First, develop a thesis about possible contributors to the problem at hand. Second, run the analytics to prove the thesis. Learn from that outcome and start over, if needed, until a significant answer is found. You are now well on your way to rock star status.
cezarovidiu

Saving Current Values with Cascading LOVs - 0 views

www.danielmcghan.us/...ent-values-with-cascading.html

apex cascading lov

shared by cezarovidiu on 05 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • cezarovidiu on 05 Jan 14
     
    "Saving Current Values with Cascading LOVs A friend, Monty Latiolais, recently asked an interesting question regarding cascading LOVs: Say you've got two LOVs...STATES and CITIES. They both default to 'ALL' and 'ALL'. Since CITIES is dependent on STATES, as soon as STATES is changed, CITIES is blanked out. What should happen is that CITIES gets re-evaluated as in the following example... let's say STATES is ALL and CITIES is "Houston". If one then changes STATES to "Texas", CITIES should remain "Houston" as that is a valid value for CITIES. So basically, is it possible to maintain the selected value of an item if that same value exists in the list of values after refreshing? That's a great question! Thanks to new events in the APEX framework and Dynamic Actions the solution is far easier than it would have been in the past! Click here to see the demo but continue reading to learn how it all works… There are a three main events you need to be concerned with when it comes to cascading selects: change apexbeforerefresh apexafterrefresh The change event is a standard part of JavaScript and the DOM. This event fires when the user manually changes the value of the select list but can also be triggered programmatically via JavaScript. The apexbeforerefresh and apexafterrefresh events are custom events in the APEX framework. They fire just before and just after AJAX requests refresh something on the page. The events work with many items and regions that utilize this technology. In this example we have two select lists: parent and child. If you change the value of the child select list then the change event will fire and that's it. But if you change the value of the parent select list a lot more happens to the child select. Here are some of the highlights: The current LOV values are cleared out The apexbeforerefresh event is triggered An AJAX request brings back new values. This only happens if optimize refresh is set to false optimize refresh is set to true and
cezarovidiu

PowerPivot, Power View and Inquire availability - the definitive Microsoft answer - 0 views

www.ion.icaew.com/...he-definitive-Microsoft-answer

office excel licensing

shared by cezarovidiu on 19 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • With their inclusion in Excel standalone, at a cost of less than £100, any financial barrier to obtaining the benefit of these features is greatly reduced.
  • Excel 2013 Standalone Volume License and Standalone Retail 32-bit and 64-bit.
  • PowerPivot and the two new add-ins - PowerView and Inquire, are only available on certain SKUs (versions). These include:
cezarovidiu

Rittman Mead Consulting - The Changing World of Business Intelligence - 0 views

www.rittmanmead.com/...world-of-business-intelligence

rittmanmead BI oracle

shared by cezarovidiu on 02 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Schema on write This is the traditional approach for Business Intelligence. A model, often dimensional, is built as part of the design process. This model is an abstraction of the complexity of the underlying systems, put in business terms. The purpose of the model is to allow the business users to interrogate the data in a way they understand.
  • The model is instantiated through physical database tables and the date is loaded through an ETL (extract, transform and load) process that takes data from one or more source systems and transforms it to fit the model, then loads it into the model.
  • The key thing is that the model is determined before the data is finally written and the users are very much guided or driven by the model in how they query the data and what results they can get from the system. The designer must anticipate the queries and requests in advance of the user asking the questions.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Schema on read Schema on read works on a different principle and is more common in the Big Data world. The data is not transformed in any way when it is stored, the data store acts as a big bucket. The modelling of the data only occurs when the data is read. Map/Reduce is the clearest example, the mapping is the understanding of the data structure. Hadoop is a large distributed file system, which is very good at storing large volumes of data, this is potential. It is only the mapping of this data that provides value, this is done when the data is read, not written.
  • New World Order So whereas Business Intelligence used to always be driven by the model, the ETL process to populate the model and the reporting tool to query the model, there is now an approach where the data is collected its raw form, and advanced statistical or analytical tools are used to interrogate the data. An example of one such tool is R.
  • The driver for which approach to use is often driven by what the user wants to find out. If the question is clearly formed and the sources of data that are required to answer it well understood, for example how many units of a product have we sold, then the traditional schema on write approach is best.
cezarovidiu

Big Data is a Solution Looking for a Problem: Gartner - CIO India News on | CIO.in - 0 views

www.cio.in/...king-problem-gartner-369832013

gartner BigData

shared by cezarovidiu on 06 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Big Data is forecast to drive $34 billion of IT spending in 2013 and create 4.4 million IT jobs by 2015, but it is currently still a solution looking for a problem, according to analyst firm Gartner.
  • While businesses are keen to start mining their data stores for useful insights, and many are already experimenting with technologies like Hadoop, the biggest challenge is working out what question you are trying to answer
cezarovidiu

You Probably Need Parallel Except When You Don't - 0 views

www.rittmanmead.com/...-parallel-except-when-you-dont

BI performance oracle

shared by cezarovidiu on 17 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • f you are running a large Oracle data warehouse you should be using parallel
  • Like all tools you have to use parallel correctly; no more would we think of using a wrench to hammer a nail then should you think parallel is the answer to all performance problems. Sometimes parallel will make things worse, sometimes parallel will make performance less predictable.
  • Parallel introduces additional work to a query, simplistically we need to: split the query into multiple parallel processes, execute them, wait for the processes to complete and finally coordinate the results. This all takes time to do. Our time saving comes from being able to process multiple smaller chunks of data simultaneously. If the time to execute the step in parallel is not significantly faster than doing it without parallel then the additional overhead may make parallel processing a slower option; this is typically the case with small tables where a full tablescan or an indexed access is fast. Use too few parallel processes and we will not gain much in performance, too many and we risk starving the database of resource for other work or even slow our own process as it waits for resource. If you have implemented some form of CPU resource management on your system you may find that you experience delays as your parallel slaves ‘wait their turn’
cezarovidiu

[Tutorial] VLOOKUP questions and answers (View topic) * OpenOffice.org Community Forum - 0 views

forum.openoffice.org/...viewtopic.php

tutorial openoffice excel

shared by cezarovidiu on 29 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Summary: Check Search whole cells and uncheck Regular expressions
  • cezarovidiu on 29 Jan 13
     
    "Very important: Two of the options (OpenOffice.org > Preferences on a Mac, Tools > Options on other platforms) affect several functions, including VLOOKUP. Both of these options are in the Calc > Calculate section: Search criteria = and <> must apply to whole cells - If you uncheck this option text searches in VLOOKUP can match a substring of the values in the table so in the example a search for B will find B+. You almost certainly want to enable this option so that an exact match must occur. Enabling the option also makes your VLOOKUP formulas compatible with Excel. Enable regular expressions in formulas - Unless you understand what "regular expressions" are (see Help) and unless you specifically want to use them in your spreadsheet, you will want to uncheck Enable regular expressions in formulas because this option can make VLOOKUP difficult to use. Unchecking the option also makes your VLOOKUP formulas compatible with Excel. The questions below address what happens if you enable this option. Summary: Check Search whole cells and uncheck Regular expressions"
cezarovidiu

Successful Social Marketing is So Much More Than Social Media | ClickZ - 0 views

www.clickz.com/...so-much-more-than-social-media

social marketing

shared by cezarovidiu on 29 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • In the past, prospects primarily accessed information about a company by interacting directly with a salesperson.
  • As media evolved, mass ads, events, direct mail, and more recently, email, have been the primary tools for engagement.
  • Given the number of consumers posting, blogging, tweeting, liking and sharing, the question for marketers is no longer, Should I use social?&nbsp;It's, How do I use social to its full potential?
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Social channels are inherently built for sharing and engagement, making them the perfect place to cultivate valuable business relationships. Integrating social into every marketing campaign you run can move you from a company-to-buyer marketing model to a peer-to-peer influence model. This not only builds trust and brand loyalty, but also positively impacts ROI.
  • It can be tempting to jump right in to all the social media sites out there and start posting away. However, before you publish that first nugget of social marketing content, you need to develop your plan.
  • goals and metrics
  • Build a team that is willing and able to dedicate adequate time to social media endeavors.
  • Many marketers fall into the trap of thinking that social media campaigns can be dealt with on an ad hoc basis, but this couldn't be further from the truth. You don't want your company's online personality to come across as erratic or disjointed, so create a policy that guides those who are participating in the social marketing effort and be sure those guidelines are enforced.
  • Once everyone is on board, encourage them to create engaging content. A good starting place is to ask your team members to answer some of the most frequently asked questions they receive on the various social channels. If everyone is a content creator, you'll never be short of ideas.
  • Word-of-mouth is incredibly powerful and the "share" button on every social media channel allows you to tap into millions of different networks. One of the best ways to interact with your audience is by giving them content they genuinely want to share with their networks. Peer recommendation is extremely valuable because people believe their friends much more readily than a company or marketer.
  • A "Refer-a-Friend" campaign promotes a compelling offer via email marketing and social networks, then grants access to special offers for both the referrers and those referred. Using these campaigns will allow you to gather important metrics, like tracking who the biggest influencers are.
  • A "Social Sweepstakes" campaign allows your entrants to spread the word on your behalf. Through the sweepstakes entry, you gain important user data like who is sharing and where they are sharing most.
  • Finally, a "Flash Deal" campaign is similar to Groupon. Flash deals offer a limited amount of deals for a specific time period through your social platforms. If you use these campaigns, be sure to let participants track the deal's progress! These campaigns are fun and viral ways to spread brand awareness and boost new customer numbers with sharing.
  • make sure your shares are measurable. Monitoring social share numbers is not only an easy way to tell what's working and what's not, but also allows you to see your ROI by showing how far your social reach is in relation to how much time and resources you've put in.
  • Google Alerts and search functions, or enterprise level software like Viral Heat or Radian6.
  • Once you hear what people are saying, you can engage them with relevant responses.
  • Social has evolved into much more than just a channel or tactic and should be an ever-present strategy in all aspects of your marketing. Ultimately, if you come up with a plan, encourage creative content, incorporate social marketing into every stage of your funnel, and measure your results, you'll start to see your social efforts move the ROI needle in the right direction.
cezarovidiu

Using Email to Get the Conversion (Without Stalking) | ClickZ - 0 views

www.clickz.com/...he-conversion-without-stalking

crm email-campain

shared by cezarovidiu on 30 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • The reality of the inbox is that people subscribe to a lot more stuff than they are committed to reading. As a result, they sift through the advertising and marketing noise to find the gems--the messages they connect with and that add value to their lives.
  • your email has to add value to your customers' lives
  • From your initial sign up process to the content and frequency of your messaging, your most important job is showing your audience that you respect the privilege of being invited into their inbox.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Rule #1: Don't ask for more information than you'd personally be willing to give. Asking for too much information in an opt-in form can be a major deterrent to visitors who would otherwise be likely to sign up.
  • Make signing up as simple as possible by requiring only the bare minimum. In many cases, this means just the email address. Every field you add to your form beyond that will decrease the chances of someone filling it out.
  • Here's another tip: If you really want to convince a visitor to opt in to your communications, make it clear that the value they'll receive greatly outweighs the hassle of signing up
  • An opt-in form that says something like "Sign up for our newsletter," doesn't offer any benefit to the visitor. Give people a reason to opt-in by offering them something they'll care about, like: "Sign up for our monthly newsletter and gain instant access to our 57-page e-book on X."
  • Offers of buying guides, e-books, case studies, online videos, and instant coupons are all great incentives to test.
  • I recently welcomed two kittens into the family and we buy our supplies from Petco. As soon as I signed up for Petco's Pals Rewards program, the store proceeded to email me every single day with a new coupon offer. Can you guess what I did? Yep, I opted out. I'll still buy pet supplies from Petco, but at some point, the annoyance became greater than the value of the coupons.
  • One of the most critical steps in structuring your e-commerce email campaign is to set the publish frequency to align with the types of products you're selling and who you're selling to. At a bare minimum, segment your audience into two broad categories of current customers and prospects.
  • When you're communicating with prospective customers, offer discounts, promotions and pre-sale notifications and buying tips in your emails, to move them along the conversion path.
  • You can further segment your email list by those you send to frequently, those you send to less frequently and those you send to only sometimes.
  • You'll find your sweet spot by tracking conversions from the list, looking at the opt-out rate and by allowing your audience to manage the frequency of the communications (for example, by giving them the option to change the frequency before they opt out entirely).
  • When most people opt in to receive B2B email communications, they are at the top of the conversion funnel; the "awareness" stage. A smart B2B email campaign will then provide the right content to bring the buyer deeper into the conversion funnel, with content specific for each stage of the buying cycle.
  • Here are some ideas to get you started: Explore learning concepts that get the reader up to speed on the ideas surrounding your services, and that demonstrate your brand's unique perspective.&nbsp; Dive into the ideas behind why a service like yours is so important to customers, what to look for in a company, and how your service or ideas compare to others.&nbsp; Answer common questions your prospective customers have at each stage of the buying cycle and even after the purchase.
  • Don't forget you're not selling to rational people. Most of the buying decisions in a B2B environment are based on what could happen if the choice is wrong. Unlike the consumer market, where an item can be easily returned if it doesn't meet the buyer's needs, making the wrong purchase decision in the B2B arena could be extremely costly.
  • Your goal as the marketer is to arm the potential buyer with content that will reduce any fear and uncertainty about selecting your business over the competition.
  • Think of topics like, "7 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Choosing [insert your service here]" as a basis for building your case. If you have a sales team, ask them for the most common objections they hear from prospects, and create your content around the specific concerns known to be top-of-mind for many buyers.
cezarovidiu

Why BI projects fail -- and how to succeed instead | InfoWorld - 0 views

www.infoworld.com/...-fail-and-how-to-fix-that.html

bi implementare projects

shared by cezarovidiu on 28 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • A successful initiative starts with a good strategy, and a good strategy starts with identifying the business need.
  • The balanced scorecard is one popular methodology for linking strategy, technology, and performance management. Other methodologies, such as&nbsp;applied information economics, combine statistical analysis, portfolio theory, and decision science in order to help firms calculate the economic value of better information. Whether you use a published methodology or develop your own approach in-house, the important point is to make sure your BI activities are keyed to generating real business value, not merely creating pretty, but useless, dashboards and reports.
  • Next, ask: What data do we wish we had and how would that lead to different decisions? The answers to these questions form top-level requirements for any BI project.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Instead a team of data experts, data analysts, and business experts must come together with the right technical expertise. This usually means bringing in outside help, though that help needs to be able to talk to management and talk tech.
  • Nothing makes an IT department more nervous than asking for a feed to a key operational system. Moreover, a lot of BI tools are resource hungry. Your requirements should dictate what, how much, and how often (that is, how “real time” you need it to be) data must be fed into your data warehousing technology.
  • In other words, you need one big feed to serve all instead of hundreds of operational, system-killing little feeds that can’t be controlled easily.
  • You'll probably need more than one tool to suit all of your use cases.
  • You did your homework, identified the use cases, picked a good team, started a data integration project, and chose the right tools.
  • Now comes the hard part: changing your business and your decisions based on the data and the reports. Managers, like other human beings, resist change.
  • oreover, BI projects shouldn't have a fixed beginning and end -- this isn't a sprint to become “data driven.”
  • A process is needed
  • and find new opportunities in the data.
  • Here's the bottom line, in a handy do's-and-don'ts format: Don’t simply run a tool-choice project Do cherry-pick the right team Do integrate the data so that it can be queried performance-wise without bringing down the house Don’t merely pick a tool -- pick the right tools for all your requirements and use cases Do let the data change your decision making and the structure of your organization itself if necessary Do have a process to weed out useless analytics and find new ones
1 - 13 of 13
Showing 20▼ items per page