BA Insights

Many years ago, I was working for a software company and managed a team of developers that customized our product for select customers. As part of our custom solution, we extracted data into a database so that we could run reports. (I had not heard of business intelligence at that time.) While doing some research to train my staff, I discovered a publication that described cubes and I was intrigued.

How did you get involved with financial modelling and analysis?

I travelled a lot when I was younger (as most Aussies do) and found myself in London during the booming 90s. Arriving with a finance degree and not much experience, I worked my way up in investment banking and found that Excel modeling was a critical skill to have as an analyst in that environment (although we didn’t really call it “financial modeling” back then). On my return to Australia I continued on my finance career whilst completing an MBA and eventually founded Plum Solutions to specialize in using Excel for the purpose of modeling and analysis.

We’re happy to have Jordan Goldmeier join us again this year. Jordan will be presenting “Data Disasters: How Data Visualization and Complexity Lead Us Astray”.

A profile of Business Analytics Conference 2016 speaker Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Microsoft’s evolving strategy in BI and analytics has taken some very exciting turns over the past twelve months. What we used to call the Microsoft BI “platform” could now more appropriately be called an “ecosystem”: a suite of products that truly interoperate, are built upon the same core engines, and revolve around the same core languages.

This non-technical, hands-on session will provide the foundation necessary to make your data visualizations more intelligent, actionable, and useful! Whether you are a beginner or a data visualization veteran, this session will guide you on telling more compelling stories with your data, from storyboarding fundamentals to more advanced techniques such as how to add smart context and visual cues. Attendees will learn:

Data is the starting point, predictive analytics is the next step, but prescriptive analytics for decisions is the "top of the analytics food chain." This is where the biggest business payoffs, but also the biggest shortage of skilled analysts, are usually found. Attend this hands-on lab precon to get a thorough understanding of the advanced analytics and what-if modeling capabilities available in Excel.