Large corporations like IBM and Oracle are using Excel
dashboards and reports as a Business Intelligence tool, and many other smaller
businesses are looking to these tools in order to cut costs for budgetary
reasons.

An effective analyst not only has to have the technical
skills to use Excel in a productive manner but must be able to synthesize data
into a story, and then present that story in the most impactful way.

Microsoft shows its recognition of this with Excel. In
Excel, there is a major focus on business intelligence and visualization. Data
Visualization with Excel Dashboards and Reports fills the gap between handling
data and synthesizing data into meaningful reports. This title will show
readers how to think about their data in ways other than columns and rows.

Most Excel books do a nice job discussing the individual
functions and tools that can be used to create an “Excel Report”.

Titles on Excel charts, Excel pivot tables, and other books
that focus on “Tips and Tricks” are useful in their own right;
however they don’t hit the mark for most data analysts.

The primary reason these titles miss the mark is they are
too focused on the mechanical aspects of building a chart, creating a pivot
table, or other functionality. They don’t offer these topics in the broader
picture by showing how to present and report data in the most effective way.

What are the most meaningful ways to show trending? How do
you show relationships in data? When is showing variances more valuable than
showing actual data values? How do you deal with outliers? How do you bucket
data in the most meaningful way? How do you show impossible amounts of data
without inundating your audience?

InData Visualization with Excel Reports and
Dashboards, readers will get answers to all of these questions. Part
technical manual, part analytical guidebook; this title will help Excel users
go from reporting data with simple tables full of dull numbers, to creating
hi-impact reports and dashboards that will wow management both visually and
substantively. This book offers a comprehensive review of a wide array of
technical and analytical concepts that will help users create meaningful
reports and dashboards.

After reading this book, the reader will be able to:

• Analyze
  large amounts of data and report their data in a meaningful way

• Get
  better visibility into data from different perspectives

• Quickly
  slice data into various views on the fly

• Automate
  redundant reporting and analyses

• Create
  impressive dashboards and What-If analyses

• Understand
  the fundamentals of effective visualization

• Visualize
  performance comparisons

• Visualize
  changes and trends over time

About the Author

DICK KUSLEIKAis a 12-year
Microsoft Excel MVP and the principal contributor at the Daily Dose of Excel
Blog.