Chapter 1: Making Sense of Data

Overview

Data is of no real business use if you don’t use it to improve your or your organization’s business decisions. For example, a business might track its customers’ purchasing behaviors, but if it doesn’t analyze these behaviors to determine which products to stock, discontinue, discount, cross-sell, or up sell, it could miss significant revenue opportunities.

In this chapter, you’ll learn about the types of data you can analyze with Microsoft software applications; you’ll understand how the formats in which an organization stores data can affect its approach to data analysis; and you’ll learn how to use data analysis methodologies. Finally, you’ll read about data analysis tools and applications developed by Microsoft and about the situations in which you should use them.

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should

• Understand what types of data you can analyze by using Microsoft software applications and features.

• Understand the sorts of business decisions data analysis can improve.

• Understand the differences among some common data formats and what effect these differences might have on your organization’s approach to data analysis.

• Know how to troubleshoot data format compatibility issues.

• Understand the differences among Microsoft file-based and server-based data storage software applications.

• Know the key features of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, the Microsoft Office Web Components, Microsoft SQL Server, the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services, and Microsoft Data Analyzer.