Unleashing the Power of Dashboards: Transforming data into valuable insights

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Description

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In today’s fast moving economy, we receive an overwhelming amount of data every day. Hence, knowing how to build and design dashboard reports is one of the best ways to interpret and communicate large quantities of information. This hands-on workshop will teach you how to synthesise information into a logical framework, summarise it into a meaningful format, and then display the summary into easy-to-read tables and graphs.

This workshop is specifically designed for Managers and Professionals who need to create dashboards and other reports in order to analyse interpret and present information. You will get to build on your existing knowledge of Excel tools and functions and incorporates these into complex and dynamic reports and dashboards.

What you will learn

By the end of the workshop, you will :

• Understand the principles of data analysis
• Learn to synthesise and summarise information into a logical framework.
• Know how to use visual effects to improve your reports and presentations
• Know how to summarise, present and communicate data clearly and concisely
• Learn the principles of good dashboard design and presenting data graphically
• Discover the tools to analyse data & build reports using your existing Excel tools and skills

Programme Outline

Data Analysis Tools

• Tool selection
• Evaluation of Excel vs. other BI alternatives, including Power Pivot in terms of speed, usability and cost
• Technical differences between MS Office versions. Considerations when building data models for users of different versions.
• Shortcuts
• Speeding up your data manipulation in Excel with the use of shortcuts
• Tables & PivotTables
• Analysing data more quickly and efficiently using structured reference table and summarising using PivotTables
• Power Pivot
• Demonstration of the Microsoft add-in to Excel, PowerPivot

Using Excel as a Data Analysis Tool

• Essential Excel tools & functions
• Overview of must-know tools and functions for data analysis such as LOOKUPS, logical and aggregation functions
• Creating a robust formula
• Nest functions together to create succinct and robust formulas
• Working with text
• Using text and concatenation functions to string numbers and text together to show in a dashboard or chart.
• Cleaning your data
• Tools and tricks to clean data before using it to build a report or dashboard

Charting in Excel

• Working with charts in Excel 2013/16
• Overview of new charting features of Excel
• Creating a Combo or Bubble chart
• Showing correlations by charting on different axes and chart types or bubble charts
• Waterfall charts
• Comparison of different methods of waterfall charts, create your own template for future use.
• Charting with dynamic ranges
• Exploring various methods for dealing with varying data ranges in chart data sources

Chart and Table Design

• Tables vs. Charts/Graphs
• Deciding the best method for visual display
• Visual Design
• Designing principles for effective graphic data presentation
• Choice of chart
• Choosing the correct chart to use to display different data and messages from your findings
• Charting dos and don’ts
• Tips and tricks for a quicker chart build and was to making charts more robust and automated

Dashboard Reporting

• What is a dashboard?
• Purpose and benefits of Dashboards
• History and definition of dashboard reports
• Purpose and benefits of Dashboards
• Why dashboards are so popular
• Common mistakes when building a Dashboard
• Creating a Dashboard in Excel
• Critique of poorly built dashboards
• Creating a Dashboard in Excel
• Using provided data, create your own dashboard in Excel

Dashboard Design

• Principles of dashboard design best practice
• Dashboard layout, colour choice and display principles
• Selecting the correct chart to display data
• Getting your message across most effectively by choosing the correct medium of display
• Adding icons and images to dashboards
• Quick and easy ways to add automated colour and icons to your reports
• Effective use of colour and logos
• Ways to make an impact with colour
• Making dashboards dynamic
• Save time by using clever formulas which automatically update information on the dashboard

This is a 2-days intensive programme where participants will get to apply their knowledge with hands-on exercises, guided by the Trainer. Participants are required to bring along their laptops, equipped with Excel 2010 and above with full installation.
The workshop is designed for participants who use Excel on a regular basis, and are comfortable with using its tools and functions. It is assumed that participants will know how to:

• Navigate confidently in Excel
• Use absolute cell references (e.g. =$B$2)
• Create and use advanced Excel tools and functions on a regular basis

Expert Speaker

Dr Lim Thou Tin

Dr. Lim is a business graduate from the NUS. He holds double masters in information systems and knowledge management with further postgraduate qualifications in systems analysis, intelligent systems, marketing, management consulting and training. He has a doctorate in business administration from Southern Cross University with research interests in information systems and business modelling. He is also a certified business intelligence professional with specialisation in business analytics.

Dr Lim’s work experience includes working in large Singapore companies to MNCs in senior corporate, IT and project management positions. As a management consultant and practitioner, he has facilitated organizational initiatives / projects over a span of more than 15 years in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, China, India, Indonesia and Thailand.

Dr Lim continues to be involved in senior management education at local tertiary institutions, teaching information and accounting topics at degree and postgraduate level with research and publishing interests in knowledge management and business intelligence.