1. Going through the Big “D”
Clay WIlliams

2. Who am I? PestSure’s Safety Specialist
MS in Business Analytics from UT Dallas
5 years in insurance industry

3. What is Business Analytics?
Business analytics (BA) is the practice of iterative, methodical exploration of an organization's data, with an emphasis on statistical analysis. 
Business analytics is used by companies committed to data-driven decision-making. 
Three main parts: descriptive, predictive, prescriptive

4. What is Excel?
Excel is a computer program that is used to create spreadsheets, which are documents in which data is laid out in rows and columns.

5. Why is Excel important for BA?
To analyze data, you have to have a program to do it with.
Python, R, Hadoop, SAP, Excel Plug-Ins
Excel is where everyday analytics starts, but isn’t the most powerful

6. What makes Excel useful for everyday analytics?
Formula and GUI-based (clicks and simple phrases)
Vlookup, Pivot Tables, Conditional Formatting
Excel is really a box of legos, you can make what you want with it.

7. Where should I start? Data cleansing process
Import into Excel, make it usable by Excel, make a back-up, manipulate data for information
Don’t forget what you’re trying to accomplish!

8. Some tools to analyze data
Pivot Table – most intuitive, used to pull from a set of columns and rows and manipulate for comparison
Conditional Formatting – Let Excel do the hard part! Give it rules, it does the work for you.
Vlookup – Used to search for a certain value and return a different value from the row.

9. Other useful formulas If statements (countif, if, iferror, etc.)
Sum and product
Tons of built-in formulas, Excel helps you write them

10. Anatomy of a VLOOKUP formula
VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup)
Lookup_value = Value we’re trying to find
Table_array = Where we’re looking for value
Col_index_num = What value we want to return
Range_lookup = True -> closest match
False -> exact match
(highly suggested you use FALSE)

11. Keyboard Shortcuts Ctrl and Shift keys – move around Excel faster!
Crtl-Shift-L – automatically adds filtering
Ctrl-PgUp/PgDown – move through tabs quickly
Shift-= - Automatically creates Sum formula
Many more, just have to try them out and see what sticks

12. I got my data, how do I present it? Graphs and Charts!
Line Graph – Used to show data changes over time
Bar Chart – Used to compare data side by side quickly
Dual Axis Graph – Used to combine 2 different Graph/Chart formats (bar + line)

13. “What about Pie Charts? They’re my fave!”
They’re not bad, just not really good
Simple by design, but too simple to convey real information
Better options for the space you’re losing by using it. Bar charts are better.

14. Some famous Pie Charts

15. How should I present my data?
Dashboard is the buzz word today
Word documents with graphs and
Better options for the space you’re losing by using it. Bar charts are better.

16. How about some examples!
Pivot Table
Vlookup Formula
Cross Spreadsheet Formulas
Dashboard Example
Occurrence Ratio Report
Simple Updatable Weekly Report