Building a Data Warehouse: DIY Approach to Getting All Your Data in One Place

Author: Stephen M. Yoss

Users and organizations are generating new data at an unprecedented level. Many organizations are utilizing a dozen or more different and non-integrated systems across their enterprise. They are using a mixture of both on-premise and cloud platforms. They are storing data in a variety of formats, from a standard spreadsheet to databases to even physical paper. As the amount of data increases exponentially, the amount of meaningful information is not following at the same rate. Data is not useful if it cannot be organized and understood by the target audience. Without processing and standardization, data is just random numbers on a page, sales data without context, and reports without dimensions. Many organizations can greatly benefit from centralizing their data into a data warehouse. This process includes real-time replication of structured data from the various applications to a centralized database for reports.

This course will give the participant the necessary tools to turn data into meaningful information and will examine cutting-edge ways to store, retrieve, report, and analyze data using databases and reporting tools. It will take a particular emphasis on helping organizations build their data warehouse. This course will touch upon some of the most useful reporting functionality inside Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI. It will discuss various techniques to centralize your data using services such as Amazon Web Services or a DIY approach with open-source technologies. It will discuss various opportunities for an organization to turns its raw data into transformative insight into its operations. Financial professionals will walk away from this course with valuable tools and insights into understanding, managing, and utilizing data in an organized and meaningful manner.

Publication Date: December 2021

Topics Covered

• The necessary tools to turn data into meaningful information
• Cutting-edge ways to store, retrieve, report, and analyze data using databases and reporting tools
• Helping organizations build their data warehouse
• Most useful reporting functionality inside Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI
• Various techniques to centralize your data
• Various opportunities for an organization to turns its raw data into transformative insight into its operations

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate between types of structured data and be able to properly determine when to use a spreadsheet, database, or another reporting tool
• Identify opportunities to use major Cloud-based data warehouse providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and other
• Identify the key components that comprise organized data including storage, reporting, and analysis tools
• Recognize unique insight on how to turn raw data into meaningful information that can be used to make organizational data-driven decisions
• Identify the key components that comprise a database and its purpose
• Recognize how business intelligence can easily transform raw data into meaningful dashboards, key performance indicators, and other graphical reports
• Identify some of the most useful reporting tools and components of Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Excel
• Identify characteristics of the primary quality of relevance, regarding decision usefulness
• Identify a central repository of information that can be analyzed to make better informed decisions
• Identify the process of translating data from the way a database stores data to a human friendly format
• Recognize which type of databases is a great personal database, but it should not be used for large datasets or multiple simultaneous users
• Describe what is not included with the free version of Power BI
• Recognize a reason not to use a clouse provider for big data

Level
Basic

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Information Technology (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
None

Advance Preparation
None