Excel 2007 Dashboards & Reports For Dummies
by Michael Alexander
Excel 2007 Dashboards & Reports For Dummies
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008921207
ISBN: 978-0-470-22814-2
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Author
Michael Alexander is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) with over 14 years experience consulting and developing office solutions. He is the author/co-author of several books on business analysis using Microsoft Excel and Access. Michael is one of 96 Microsoft Excel MVPs worldwide who has been recognized for his contributions to the Excel community. He is also the principal player behind DataPigTechnologies.com, a site that offers video tutorials to beginning and intermediate Excel and Access users. He currently lives in Frisco, Texas where he works as a Senior Program Manager for a top technology firm. Michael can be contacted at mike@datapig technologies.com.
Dedication
For my family.
Authors Acknowledgments
My deepest thanks to Greg Croy, Christopher Morris, Loren Abdulezer and all the professionals at Wiley who have helped bring this book to fruition. And a special thank you to my beautiful wife Mary who will open this book long enough to read the dedication and acknowledgments.
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Introduction
T he term business intelligence (BI), coined by Howard Dresner of the Gartner Group, describes the set of concepts and methods to improve business decision-making by using fact-based support systems. Practically speaking, BI is what you get when you analyze raw data and turn that analysis into knowledge. BI can help an organization identify cost-cutting opportunities, uncover new business opportunities, recognize changing business environments, identify data anomalies, and create widely accessible reports, among other things.
Over the last few years, the BI concept has overtaken corporate executives who are eager to turn impossible amounts of data into knowledge. As a result of this trend, whole industries have been created. Software vendors that focus on BI and dashboarding are coming out of the woodwork. New consulting firms touting their BI knowledge are popping up virtually every week. And even the traditional enterprise solution providers, like Business Objects and SAP, are offering new BI capabilities.