4 Ways to Merge IBM i Data with Microsoft Excel
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Everyone loves Microsoft Excel. View this slideshow to discover how you can give your users the ability to access, analyze, and report on data in Excel. Watch the on-demand webinar on HelpSystems.com: http://www.helpsystems.com/sequel/events/recorded-webinars/ibm-i-data-in-excel
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4 Ways to Merge IBM i Data with Microsoft Excel
- 1. 4 Ways to Merge IBM i Data with Microsoft Excel
- 2. Mike Stegeman Sr. Data Access Consultant Introductions Heath Kath Sr. Data Access Consultant Today’s speakers:
- 4. Agenda • Excel Usage in Business • The Power of SEQUEL • SEQUEL and Excel • Demonstration
- 5. Excel Usage in Business • Microsoft reported 1.2 billion MS Office users - Most use Excel in some capacity - Accounting and Finance are heaviest users - Most are familiar and comfortable - Most understand basic formulas
- 6. • Simple lists - Sort - Filter • Calculations/Formulas - Simple - Complex • Tables • Graphs Excel Usage in Business
- 7. • Excel Usage in Business • The Power of SEQUEL • SEQUEL and Excel • Demonstration Agenda
- 8. The Power of SEQUEL • Access data from different systems - DB2 data on IBM i or other platform - Microsoft SQL Server - Oracle - MySQL - Microsoft Access/Excel - Security—No ODBC
- 9. The Power of SEQUEL • Create Inquiries (Views) - Create calculated fields - Add subtotals/grand totals - Detail or summary - Conditional highlighting of data - Export data to Excel
- 10. The Power of SEQUEL • Create Scripts or Script Views - Merge data from different sources - Script Views are more flexible - CLP-type functionality
- 11. The Power of SEQUEL • Create graphs over data - Interactive - On dashboard - Saved with shortcut • Create gauges on dashboard
- 12. Agenda • Excel Usage in Business • The Power of SEQUEL • SEQUEL and Excel - 4 ways to Merge IBM i Data with Microsoft Excel • Demonstration
- 13. SEQUEL and Excel 1. Use Toolbar Option on Display Results a. From ViewPoint (PC GUI) b. From SEQUEL Web Interface (browser)
- 14. 2. From Excel, use ViewPoint Add-in a. Multiple SEQUEL objects to one spreadsheet, same or different tabs b. Views can refresh Excel data c. Excel calculations adjust with new data SEQUEL and Excel
- 15. 3. Use Excel file as data source in View a. One ‘Database’ setting for each spreadsheet b. Multiple Tabs as ‘tables’ in VP Design c. SEQUEL options available (calcs, JOINS, create PF (for Script to merge with DB2 data) SEQUEL and Excel New in SEQUEL Version 11.03 (R11M03) ViewPoint 11.15.317 (November 2015)
- 16. 4. Push Excel file out for business users a. Scheduled script or command b. Email file to recipients c. Create file on common folder for users to open SEQUEL and Excel
- 17. Agenda • Excel Usage in Business • The Power of SEQUEL • SEQUEL and Excel • Demonstration
- 18. Demonstration • User downloads results • Excel Plug-In • Excel as data source in SEQUEL • Schedule job pushing Excel file
- 19. Summary • SEQUEL and Excel - Users get file - From Excel Plug-In - Excel as data source - Job pushes data out to Excel • Business User Empowerment
- 20. White space Charts & Graphs Pivot Tables Remote Database Access Custom Reports ScriptingBrowser Access Executive Dashboards Report Distribution Queries & Views Drill-Down Data Analysis Easily Access and Share Data SEQUEL Data Warehouse A Complete Toolset!
- 22. Mike Stegeman Sr. Data Access Consultant mike.stegeman@helpsystems.com Heath Kath Sr. Data Access Consultant heath.kath@helpsystems.com We are ready for your questions! For more information or for a more in-depth one-on-one demonstration, please contact us info.sequel@helpsystems.com 800-328-1000 or 952-933-0609
- 23. Thank You for Joining Us Today! Website: www.helpsystems.com/sequel Phone: 800-328-1000 or 952-933-0609 Email: info.sequel@helpsystems.com mike.stegeman@helpsystems.com heath.kath@helpsystems.com 4 Ways to Merge IBM i Data with Excel
Editor's Notes
- HEATH: Hello everyone. Welcome to today’s presentation 4 Ways to merge IBM i data with Microsoft Excel. Today we will briefly show how SEQUEL and Excel can be used together to enhance your Business Information needs.
- 2
- HEATH: Before we begin we would like to ask our audience a couple of quick questions. If you can take a moment to respond and remember to press the submit button after you have answered the questions. <Heath can elaborate on the questions – plan for about 1 - 1.5 minutes max>. Mike, the floor is yours.
- MIKE: Thanks Heath. Here is the agenda for today. I’ll begin with the reasons companies use Excel, a brief overview of the power of SEQUEL, then how to harness the combined strength of SEQUEL and Excel and finally a demo of the 4 ways to integrate SEQUEL and Excel.
- Just about everyone uses Excel in some capacity. Whether for simple lists or complex pivot tables. When Excel was released in 1985, it was liked from the beginning. Manual process of the 1980’s that took days or weeks could be done in minutes. You could save the formula and when the data changed, you had your results. It was still manually input for the most part. But reliance on Excel grew. In 2013, PR Newswire reported that 90% of compensation process, i.e., payroll, used Excel in some capacity. Accounting and Finance are heavy users as well for budgets, forecasts and planning. Microsoft reports that 1.2 BILLION people use Office, that’s 1 in 7 people on the planet.
- Most everyone knows of Excel’s listing capabilities, sorting, and simple math like SUM. Most users know that Excel can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, but it can do much more with advanced IF functions when coupled with VLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH-MATCH, and pivot tables it becomes a powerful tool.
- That was a brief description of Excel. Now for an overview of the power SEQUEL.
- Even though it resides on the IBM i, SEQUEL can access data on systems other than the IBM i. The DB2 database on the i is the most reliable and securable but we provide drivers to other systems. We realize that a lot of organizations have multiple systems to run multiple applications. SEQUEL provides easy access using the same tool you use for data access of IBM i DB2 data;, ViewPoint for design and deployment, browser for deployment only. And recently we added Access and Excel as data source options. And SEQUEL connects to the data bases without an open ODBC connection. For non-IBMi data, we use a JDBC driver. The connection can be secured within SEQUEL.
- There is always a starting point or a basis for everything. For SEQUEL it’s the definition we call a SEQUEL View. It holds the information about the data you need. The system then retrieves the data you’ve asked for in the format you need. Simple things can be added to you view: field conversion: character to numeric or vis-a-versa; convert to date or time; conditional logic and just about any calculation you can think of. Calcs are the under appreciated part of SEQUEL, I believe. Your results can have subtotals, can be in detail or summary. Colors and highlights can be added for affect. And data from SEQUEL results can be pushed to Excel.
- SEQUEL Scripts and Script Views are the way to tie together data from different sources. You have the power of CLP, Do While, Do Loop, If-Then-Else logic, but without the need to compile the source into objects. Script Views offer the same output features as a View so they can be flexible and powerful, like a palm tree. It bends in a hurricane so as not to break remaining tough, strong and fully alive.
- Graphs can be created interactively over displayed data as you need them. Or they can be built into dashboards or shortcuts. Dashboards can also have gauges for more visual display of results.
- Now for the heart of this presentation. SEQUEL and Microsoft Excel – together.
- Pretty much since the beginning, users displaying data in SEQUEL ViewPoint have had the ability to save the results as a PC file including Excel. ViewPoint users can display then save to Excel. They can right click and display results in Excel or they can right click and save results as. An excel file can even be created with a ViewPoint shortcut. A few years ago we enhanced our browser access through SEQUEL Web Interface to include a tool bar where the user can download the results to PC files including Excel, in both the older XLS format and the newer XLSX format.
- In ViewPoint version 11 from 2015, we added an Excel add in. This is for users with ViewPoint installed but we give them an way to run a View, Table or Script View from Excel without having to open ViewPoint. This can be a one off thing or the Excel file can be saved with the View location information and refreshed every time the Excel file is opened. Different tabs can open different SEQUEL Views. Then using Excel calculation, new data can be analyzed. Opening previously unexplored data to new analysis. Excel graphs can be built over the SEQUEL data and those graphs will be adjusted with refreshed data. CHECK FACTS AND ADD A LITTLE MORE.
- The newest way SEQUEL and Excel interact is the ability to use and Excel file as a data source in a View definition. So just like you access data on an SQL Server, you can use an Excel file as a data source. Imagine having a spreadsheet with let’s say budget information. It gets passed around to various managers for input, changes and approval. You can take that spreadsheet and use it in SEQUEL ViewPoint without having to upload the file as an IBMi file. You can make calculations, graphs, share it with others. You can then create an IBMi physical file which can then be linked with IBMi data files for further analysis.
- And the fourth way SEQUEL and Excel interact has been there all along and is pretty widely used. Pushing data from results sets to Excel, like in scheduled jobs where all interested parties get an email of the Excel file. This is used for period end GL information, other accounting or finance related data, sales information, production info. The list goes on. The job can also create an Excel file on a common server like the IFS for business users to grab when they need it.
- That ends the power point presentation. Now for a demo of the 4 topics I just discussed.
- This brief demonstration will cover the four areas I just discussed for using SEQUEL and Excel to discover previously unknown information about your business.
- HEATH: Thanks Mike. This is what we covered in today’s session. The 4 ways you can use SEQUEL to get your data into Excel. <need elaboration> All of this can be empowering to your business user, to give them the data they want, when they want it and how they want it.
- HEATH - SEQUEL is a complete tool set, a solution that will help IT Managers break free from BI struggles -- use a single product like SEQUEL that allows you do to most everything – from creation to the distribution of information. You can easily create the views/queries, do drilldowns, pivot data, build custom reports and dashboards and even see data in charts and more.
- HEATH - SEQUEL is a complete tool set, a solution that will help IT Managers break free from BI struggles -- use a single product like SEQUEL that allows you do to most everything – from creation to the distribution of information. You can easily create the views/queries, do drilldowns, pivot data, build custom reports and dashboards and even see data in charts and more. < Alternate text from original slide> SEQUEL is a complete tool set, use a single BI solution that allows you do to most everything, from the creation to the distribution of information. SEQUEL can provide data to analysts in a variety of forms and formats. You have data coming in from your applications, remote databases like an MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, or from a data warehouse like SEQUEL Data Warehouse. SEQUEL can help distribute the information, whether simply displaying the information, emailing, providing summary data for the user to drill into details on demand. And, for those power users, they can easily build powerful views, custom reports, drill-downs, dashboards, build charts, and more – very quickly with our graphical user interface.
- HEATH - HelpsSystems is a diverse company with solutions for system automation, document management, security and business intelligence. This June in Minneapolis, we are holding our user conference. This will give you the opportunity to meet several Help Systems employees and network with other customers. You can gain more product knowledge through a large selection of sessions.
- HEATH: And now we are ready to address your questions. If you haven’t entered one yet and still have a question or two, please use the CHAT feature and send them to all panelists. Please keep in mind that we only just scratched the surface in showing you some of SEQUEL’s capabilities. HEATH: Mike – do you see any questions? Questions - fillers: Does the data in the dashboards dynamically update? What is needed to use the Dashboard, does that come with SEQUEL? Can data displayed in Dashboards from a browser have the data be automatically refreshed? Yes.. Does the OLAP Tabling features come with SEQUEL? Can you run a full client table options with from SWI? How can I get additional information about SEQUEL? Contact us …. Call / email / web …
- HEATH: We hope that you now have a good feel for how SEQUEL can address your business needs by improving your productivity - allowing users not only to access data when they need it, from where ever they are at, but also, to see information in an easy to read modernized format. If you have any further questions, or would like to see more of SEQUEL, give us a call, or email Mike or I – we would be glad to schedule a demonstration with you or your team. We appreciate your time and look forward to seeing you in futures Webinars. This concludes our session on: Dashboards: The key to effectively sharing data. Thank you, and have a great day! ** STOP RECORDING