As a data analyst, you are on a journey. Think about all the data that is being generated each day and that is available in an organization, from transactional data in a traditional database, telemetry data from services that you use, to signals that you get from different areas like social media.

For example, today’s retail businesses collect and store massive amounts of data that track the items you browsed and purchased, the pages you’ve visited on their site, the aisles you purchase products from, your spending habits, and much more.

With data and information as the most strategic asset of a business, the underlying challenge that organizations have today is understanding and using their data to positively effect change within the business. Businesses continue to struggle to use their data in a meaningful and productive way, which impacts their ability to act.

The key to unlocking this data is being able to tell a story with it. In today’s highly competitive and fast-paced business world, crafting reports that tell that story is what helps business leaders take action on the data. Business decision makers depend on an accurate story to drive better business decisions. The faster a business can make precise decisions, the more competitive they will be and the better advantage they will have. Without the story, it is difficult to understand what the data is trying to tell you.

However, having data alone is not enough. You need to be able to act on the data to effect change within the business. That action could involve reallocating resources within the business to accommodate a need, or it could be identifying a failing campaign and knowing when to change course. These situations are where telling a story with your data is important.

The underlying challenge that businesses face today is understanding and using their data in such a way that impacts their business and ultimately their bottom line. You need to be able to look at the data and facilitate trusted business decisions. Then, you need the ability to look at metrics and clearly understand the meaning behind those metrics.

Data analysis exists to help overcome these challenges and pain points, ultimately assisting businesses in finding insights and uncovering hidden value in troves of data through storytelling. As you read on, you will learn how to use and apply analytical skills to go beyond a single report and help impact and influence your organization by telling stories with data and driving that data culture.

The Power Query and Power Pivot features in Microsoft Excel can make a powerful combination. Power Query enables you to discover, connect to, and import data, and Power Pivot lets you quickly model that data.  You will learn how to use the DAX formula language to provide lookup abilities.

I will walk you through step-by-step how to use Power Query to select data, prepare a query, cleanse data, and prepare data for Power Pivot. Also i will walks you through the Power Pivot workflow, showing how to create a data model, import additional data if needed, build relationships between data, and create calculations and measures.

You will learn hands on real-world scenarios for working together with Power Query and Power Pivot.