Educational walk through of free tools and fundamentals that keep your time as an analyst productive.

1. FROM ONE MAN BAND
TO ROCKSTAR
Tools, Training and Processes for the
Overworked and Understaffed

2. WHOIS IRONEDGE?
IRONEDGEGROUP.COM

3. IronEdgeGroup
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
• Technologyconsulting and delivery
• Based inTexas
• Clients aroundthe U.S. and internationally
• Over 12yearsin business
• Believe in democratizing BI
• Eat what wesell

4. AndrewMoore and SonnyChilds
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
• AndrewMoore
• COO of IronEdgeGroup
• LSSGreen Belt
• Degreein Business Management
• 15yearsof ITand Business Consulting
• Oncea One ManBand
• SonnyChilds
• Degreefrom Texas A&M
• Power BIuser for 2 years
• Certified Microsoft SQL and Analytics
Professional
• Once a One ManBand

5. YouMight Be a One Man Band If….
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
• Youstruggle getting your“real job” done
because of BI
• Youare the onlyperson doing analytics
• No one else inyour department/company
understands BI
• You are the go-to person for reports and visuals

6. 2 Types of One Man Bands….
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
• Accidental Analysts
• Hired to do a different job
• Gravitated toward BI
• Provides value with no staff
• Works on BIover half their time
• Accidental, On Purpose Analyst
• Hiredor Shifted Roles to do BI
• Was promised a team
• Had a Team… once

7. TOOLS AND PROCESSES
IRONEDGEGROUP.COM

8. Power BI– Explore your data
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
TOOLS

9. Power BI– Mash up your data
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
TOOLS

10. Power BI– Visualize your data
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
TOOLS
Thesefour sets all havethesame basic statistical
measurements; averages and variances arenearly
exactly identical, and a simple regression is thesame
to 3decimal places.

11. Power BI– Visualize your data
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
TOOLS
However, whenvisualized, these sets of data tell very
different stories.

12. Power BI– Visualize your data
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
TOOLS

13. File Versioning – Addchange control toyour data
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
Visual Studio Team Services
GitHub
BitBucket
JIRA
Apache Subversion – Git – TFVC– Mercurial
GitLab
TOOLS

14. Processes – DataTypes
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
Therearetwo types of people:
Those who knowhow important data types are…
…and those whoneed to have a conversation with the first group.
PROCESSES

15. Processes – DataTypes
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
PROCESSES
0.0000000000000000000000000000291

16. Processes – DataTypes
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
PROCESSES
(012) 345-6789

17. Processes – Documentation: Define Terms
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
What is “Sales Hit Ratio”?
PROCESSES

18. Processes – Documentation: Location of Data
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
Where the heck is that SQL Server anyway?
PROCESSES

19. Processes – Documentation: Business User Requirements
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
Keep the customer satisfied.
PROCESSES

20. Processes – Documentation: Don’t Over-Document
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
Wrong documentation is worsethan no documentation.
PROCESSES

21. ONLINE TRAINING
IRONEDGEGROUP.COM

22. Main Sources
• Power BI Community Forums
– Superfastresponses,tonsofgreatinformation,many
Microsoftemployees
– http://community.powerbi.com/
• Power BI Official Blog
– LatestupdatestoPowerBIDesktop,Service,and Mobile
– https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/
• Google/Bing/Whatever search engine
– Chancesare,someoneelseintheworldhashadthesame
exactproblemasyou’rehavingrightnow!
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES

23. Podcasts
• The Digital Analytics Power Hour
– Insightsonthebroadspectrumofanalysiswithaslant
towardmarketingandbusinessdevelopmentanalytics
– https://analyticshour.libsyn.com/
• Data Stories
– Focuson visualizationandBI
– http://datastori.es/
• Analytics on Fire
– Focuson businessadoptionofBIwithemphasison
practicalbusinessapplicationofBItoolsandpractices
– http://bibrainz.com/aof/category/podcasts/
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES

24. Vloggers
• Microsoft Power BI –YouTube Channel
– GeneraloverviewofPowerBI, visualstepby step
instructionsonspecifictopicsinbitesizechunks.
– https://www.youtube.com/user/mspowerbi
• Guy in aCube –Adam Saxton
– BusinessIntelligencewithafocuson theentiresuiteof
MicrosoftSuite. Good amountofattentionpaidtodata
andtechnicalservices
– https://guyinacube.com/
– https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFp1vaKzpfvoGa
i0vE5VJ0w/featured
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES

25. Bloggers/Twitter
• Daniel Waisberg
– AnalyticsadvocateatGoogle-Expertiseinmarketing
measurement.Frequentuseofpublic domaindatasourcesand
greatpostson specificusecases.
– @danielwaisberg
– http://online-behavior.com/
• Christopher Webb
– MicrosoftMVPand SQL,analyticsprofessional. Focuson deep
use ofthePowerBIandMicrosoftAnalyticssuite.
– @technitrain
– https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES

26. PARTNER SELECTION
IRONEDGEGROUP.COM

27. Do I Needa Partneror Agency?
• You have morework than time
• You arenot sureof best practices
• Projects never seem toget finished
• New technology is difficult toget in frontof
• You donot know –what you donot know
• Converting from whatever current BIsolution you have
toa new solution like Power BI
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES

28. WhereShould I Look?
• Microsoft’s Solution Showcase
– Manysolutionsarespecialized
• Power BI User’s Group
– Greatplacetofindoutwho isusingaprovidertheylike.
– PUGmay besponsored
– We runandsponsorthePowerBIGreaterHouston
User’sGroup
• ManagedServices Provider
– Doyouhaveacompany youworkwith?
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES

29. What do I Need to Ask?
IRONEDGEGROUP.COMEVERYONE DESERVES GREAT EXPERIENCES
• Howmany dedicatedBI membersdo you haveonstaff?
• IsBI partofyourcoresolutionssetordo your
partner/outsourceyoursolutions?
• Howlong haveyoubeenworkinginBI?
• What projectmethodology do youuse?
• DoyouhaveBAs anddata analysts?
• Areyoucertifiedintheproducts,solutionsand vendortools
weuse?
• Doyouhavelanguageinyourcontractstoaddressdata
usage,storageand access-specifically?
• Areyouinsuredfore/o (professionalindemnity)?
• Doyouhaveany referenceclientsspecificallyinBI?

30. THANKYOU!
Comeseeusandgetashirt!