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Analyze Data
5 Strategies For Improving Your Analytics
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Despite these issues, many departmentsand entire
businessesrun on Excel, swearing by it one minute
and swearing at it the next.
Be smarter about how
There are better ways, from simple improvements you
you use Excel.
can make yourself to large scale, enterprise-oriented Were all so busy doing the same thing over and over
changes. This paper focuses primarily on improvements that sometimes we forget to stop and ask, Is there a
you can make to improve how you conduct your slightly better way? And, unless youre a super power
analytics without sacrificing the advantages of Excel. user, when it comes to Excel, there probably is.
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Use the online help! Excel has some great
Eliminate non-essential
examples. But dont just read them. Do them.
Evaluate yourself and your team for the Dont overestimate what other people know about using
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pulling fewer than 1 million rows (for Excel 2010.)
So dont expect your analysts to turn into Excel
macro experts or database programmers. If you
Work your internal
need that kind of help, look to add those skills via resources for better data
part-time contractors or developers.
access
3 Be obsessive about the Now is as good a time as any to start talking to your
colleagues about your data needs and what youre doing
details with Excel. By showing and sharing about your current
analytics, youll get good ideas and start setting the
The data challenge today isnt that people dont have the
stage for more sophisticated and systematic
information. Its the way they get at it, cleanse it and
approaches.
ensure its integrity. Because everyone does these tasks
differently, there are often multiple versions of the Make time to start talks with the leaders of your IT
truth. Excel only makes this worse. When you add in department. Although many IT executives are busy with
the logical errors made in spreadsheets, were talking security and governance issues, they too would rather
about a lot of potential incorrect or misleading provide you a more useful, secure approach than
information. In fact, there are industry estimates that running the many report requests which they know will
90% of spreadsheets contain data or logical errors. end up in hundreds of Excel files spread across the
Quality checking and clear communication are crucial. company. (A major concern for some IT groups is the
control and potential elimination of these so-called
Obviously, no ones perfect so never assume you
spreadmarts (a TDWI-coined term describing the
cleansed your data, wrote your formula or sorted your
proliferation of Excel files within an organization).) While
data right every time. Do a lot of quality checking along
it would be nave to say that your team and your IT
the way. You have to provide accurate data, and you
department can easily align goals and resources, you
must go out of your way to explain where you got it, how
can start to talk about ways to improve operations.
it was calculated and why it might differ from the reports
theyve been seeing. Some organizations already have complex and under-
utilized business intelligence platforms available. Much
Be careful and descriptive about naming, including
of the work associated with these BI systems may be
column names, file names and version numbers. Good,
reusable. (The assumption is that your BI systems are
clear documentation would be ideal. More attentiveness
not delivering a high degree of usefulness; otherwise,
to naming and documentation is not going to stop the
youd already be using them and not Excel.)
problems but it may reduce them.
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about Excels limitations. recognize its limitations. If you genuinely seek to reduce
the number of analytic reports, learn some new Excel
Theres an old saying: when all youve got is a hammer, tricks, pay obsessive attention to quality, collaborate
everything looks like a nail. This applies to analytics and with your IT department and seek out more robust new
Excel. Business users often dont have other, more solutions, you will build a stronger, more flexible analytic
appropriate tools and we frequently cant get the environment that will serve your needs well into the
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