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Latest Knowledge

Next Year in Machine Learning, Data Science, AI and BI

ML, BI, DS, and AI Trends that Shaped 2019

The trends that shaped 2019 and predictions for the future of machine learning and analytics. Why you should abandon Hadoop, brush up on statistics and obsess less about technology.

The Future of Power BI

The Future of Power BI by Chris Webb

This video contains some thoughts about what 2019 holds for Power BI, based on various announcements made by Microsoft during 2018, especially its focus on enterprise features.

Presentations (PPTs)

Over 50 of the popular PPTs (not PDFs) on: Artificial Intelligence, Azure ML, Azure AI (incl Cognitive Services and Bots), Data Science, Power BI, Microsoft R and ML Servers, R in general, and advanced analytics. Includes Microsoft Ignite, Data Science Summit and the Advanced Analytics and Data Science Roadshows, as well as various keynotes and roadshows focused on the future of data and databases from global conferences from this and the past years are available here.

How to Succeed with Your First Data Science Projects

I have had my share of successful and failed projects since I have embarked on data science ten years ago. While I am happy to say that the rate with which I now succeed on customer projects is much better than in the past, that is not just because I know my field better. It is because I am better at setting my own and my customer’s expectations, and by being more careful in choosing the projects that I want to dive into. I would like to share some of my observations with those of you who are newer to this field. I would like to save you some frustration and to help you succeed as often as possible. Read on!

What is Advanced Analytics, Data Science, Machine Learning—and What is their Value?

The most common question Rafal gets asked by budding data scientists is: how can I explain the value of data science to my customers?  This article explains the five key reasons for doing advanced analytics in terms of the short-term and strategic value it provides to business customers. Rafal also takes time to explain the terminology, covering the differences between data mining and machine learning, what is data science and advanced analytics, and he also explains the concept of the scientific method of reasoning.

Irish Economic Crisis Visualised in Power BI

Where Did Ireland Get The Money From?

Carmel Gunn and Bob Duffy explore the Irish Economic Crisis using Power Query, Power Map, Power View and Q&A in this 40-min video. Could Power BI prevent a small country run a shocking €200bn debt?

What is Azure ML Classic?

Rafal shows an Azure ML experimental model

Microsoft Azure ML is a cloud-based platform for designing, developing, testing and deploying predictive models. Let Rafal introduce it to you in this 10-minute video, which shows an experiment and a predictive web service in ML Studio.

Data Science Concepts: Machine Learning and Models

Rafal discusses confusion (classification) matrix and prediction thresholds

This 1-hour module, by Rafal, introduces the essence of data science: machine learning and its algorithms, modelling and model validation. Data science differs from traditional, statistics-driven approach to data analysis in that it extensively uses those algorithms for the detection of patterns that help us build predictive models. Make sure to watch this video before you progress to the ones introducing Azure ML.

Data Science for Business

Rafal introduces the process of data science projects

Why should you care about data science? Let Rafal, who specialises in it, explain how it can help you improve your business, understand your customers and products, make your employees happier, and your own job even more satisfying, in his 34-minute video. Data science combines four data handling approaches with the scientific method of reasoning, which can guide the way in which you should run experiments before making business decisions.

Data Science Concepts: Cases and Statistics

Rafal shows density plot using ggplot2 in R

Let Rafal, expert on predictive analytics, data mining, and machine learning introduce the most fundamental data science concepts in this 1-hour video: cases (or observations), with their inputs and predictable outputs, descriptive statistics, and the basic tools, including Azure ML, SQL, Excel, R, RStudio, and Rattle.

What is Power Query?

Chris Webb Introduces Power Query

This short, free, 15-minute video by Chris Webb introduces Microsoft Power Query and its key functionality: data extraction from different sources, cleansing, transformation, aggregation, and loading of the results.

Power Query Fundamentals

Chris Webb explains Power Query query editing steps

Let Chris Webb introduce the fundamentals of Power Query: connecting, transforming, and loading of the results, in this detailed, demo-driven, hands-on 45-minute video, which focuses on the Query Editor in Power Query.

What is Microsoft Power BI?

Rafal shows Power BI Q&A

This short 15-min video shows how Excel and Power BI make advanced analytics fast, visually pleasing—and easy, by understanding human questions about your data. You will even see it work on an iPad!

Introducing Microsoft Power BI

Rafal introduces the components of Power BI and Excel BI

Let Rafal introduce all the key components of Microsoft Power BI in this in-depth, demo-rich 1-hour 15-minute video. You will learn about the key Power BI Sites feature and the amazing Q&A for natural language queries, and also about the cornerstone of this technology: Power Query, Power Pivot, Power View, and Power Map in Excel.

Azure ML: A Brief Introduction

Azure ML tasks

In order to do predictive analytics with Azure Machine Learning, you just upload, or import current or historical data, build and validate a model, and create a web service that uses your models to make fast, live predictions. This article, by Rafal, introduces these concepts, outlines the supported machine learning algorithms, and overviews the key functions of the ML Studio development tool.

DAX Patterns: Banding, New vs Old, Many-to-many

Alberto Ferrari Explains Many-to-many DAX Pattern

Alberto Ferrari, BI expert from sqlbi.com shows how to solve common business patterns using the DAX language in this 50-minute, demo-focused video. Patterns are useful for two reasons: they let you learn advanced DAX techniques and, by adapting their code to your needs, you can use them as a quick recipe for your own scenarios. This video discusses banding, computing new vs old metrics, and many-to-many relationship patterns.

What is Time Intelligence?

TOTALYTD DAX Time Intelligence Function

Time Intelligence means doing calculations over periods of time or dates. Let Alberto Ferrari show you how to use TOTALYTD to compute Total Sales Year-to-Date in Excel in this 2-min video.

DAX Time Intelligence

Time Intelligence Semi-Additive Measures in DAX

Time Intelligence is a set of techniques for performing time and date-based calculations. It covers a broad set of calculations needed for business reporting. Let Alberto Ferrari, book author and a renowned Data Analysis Expressions expert, show you an in-depth tour of these functions, in this 1-hour video that contains 6 detailed, hi-def demos. You will learn about: calendar tables, time-based role dimensions, TOTALYTD, TOTALQTD, TOTALMTD, and the CALCULATE function used with time-oriented, predefined and custom filters, and dealing with semi-additive measures, including last-day, or last-non-empty aggregations.

Clustering in Depth

Clustering: Cluster Profiles Diagram in SSDT

Microsoft Clustering is a workhorse algorithm of data mining. It is used to explore data, segment and categorise it, and to detect outliers (or exceptions, anomalies). Each cluster represents naturally occuring groupings of your data points, grouped by their similarities, as described by their various attributes. In this in-depth, 1-hour 50-minute video, Rafal explains clustering concepts, the entire process, and all of the algorithm parameters. The detailed 12-part demo, which forms the heart of this tutorial, shows you the iterative process of clustering, explaining how to segment your own data, such as customers, or products.

Why Cluster and Segment Data?

Cluster-based data segmentation

Clustering is a popular data mining technique, often used for segmentation. Rafal introduces it in this short video, focusing on the reasons why it is useful for finding non-traditional segments. In the demo, you will see a clustering model, and we will use it to categorise new data in Excel.

Books about BI

This article lists books about BI, Statistics, Data Warehousing and Management, which we recommend in conjunction with our courses and seminars.

What Are Decision Trees?

What are Decision Trees?

A decision tree is a tree of nodes. Each node represents an input value that makes the most profound difference to an output that you wish to study. This free 10-minute video by Rafal introduces this powerful analytical tool, and explains the concepts while analysing simple retail data in a demo.

Decision Trees in Depth

Microsoft Decision Trees

Decision Trees are the most useful Microsoft data mining technique: they are easy to use, simple to interpret, and they work fast, even on very large data sets. At heart, a decision tree is just a tree of nodes. Each node represents a logical decision, which you can just think of as a choice of a value of one of your inputs that would make the most profound difference to the output that you wish to study. This almost 2-hour, in-depth video by Rafal starts with an explanation of the three key uses of decision trees, which are: data classification, regression, and associative analysis, and then takes you on a comprehensive tour of this data mining algorithm, covering it in slides and detailed, hi-def demos, which you can follow. Once you try a decision tree a few times, you will realise how easy, and useful they are to help you understand any sets of data.

Geospatial Data Exploration with Excel Power View and SharePoint

Bing Map Showing Data from Excel Using Power View

Create zoomable world maps that show your data using Power View in Excel 2013, and Bing! Rafal also shows geospatial aggregations, and a SharePoint dashboard with an animated bubble chart, in this free, 16-minute video.

Microsoft Business Analytics with Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 and SQL Server 2012

Microsoft Business Analytics with Office 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, and SQL Server 2012

Microsoft Business Analytics combines Business Intelligence with Data Warehousing and Big Data Analytics. This 1-hour 20-minute video by Rafal Lukawiecki introduces this concept by showing you how real-world analytics, created by a power user in Excel 2013, can be shared with others in a company, using SharePoint Server 2013, and subsequently scaled-up to the needs of an enterprise, by means of a SQL Server 2012 SP1 Analysis Services Tabular Model. Rafal covers the entire subject broadly, showing you some of the new Excel and SharePoint 2013 BI features, such as: the new Power View, Interactive Geospatial Maps, Data Models, Quick Explore, Timelines, and many more, in an extensive, 9-part, 55-minute, high-def demo, focusing on the enterprise lifecycle of user-created analytics, which forms the core of this video tutorial.

Introduction to Power View in SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services

Introduction to SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Power View

The third module of this course introduces the newest addition to the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform: Power View, which is part of SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services. You will hear explanations of the fundamental concepts of Power View, such as Measures, and you will see all of its key features, including data visualizations, such as the animated Bubble Charts, in 17 hi-def easy-to-follow demos. You will hear how to source data for Power View, and how to share your reports by exporting them to PowerPoint, as a presentation, with slides that literally come alive in front of your audience!

Apache Hadoop, Big Data, Microsoft

Apache Hadoop technologies integrate with the entire Microsoft Application Platform on many levels. The purpose of this article is to outline some of those integration points, and to outline the possibilities of solutions and applications that this combination enables. Rafal discusses the business potential of this technology in some detail, focussing on both already-tested, and the more future-oriented applications, at all times trying to answer the question "Why should we use Apache Hadoop in conjunction with the Microsoft platform?".

Introduction to BI Semantic Model & SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services

Using SQL Server Data Tools to Create a New Tabular Project

The fourth module of this course focuses on the new BI Semantic Model (BISM), and its implementation as a tabular model hosted by SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (SSAS) Tabular Mode. This 1 hour 20 minute video includes discussions, slides, and diagrams, and an in-depth, 35 minute demo block, showing you the key BISM and SSAS Tabular Mode principles in 13 detailed, hi-resolution demonstrations, which you can select, follow, pause and repeat at any time, by using Jump to a chapter links.

Introduction to PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012

The second module in this online training course, offers a 1 hour introduction to PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012, sometimes referred to as PowerPivot “2”. This module is of importance to those who need to model tabular data for analytics, or who simply want to explore a data set, before making a decision if it is worthwhile analysing it further. Also, if you plan on learning about BI Semantic Model, you need to know about PowerPivot “2”, as Tabular Mode of SSAS, and BI Semantic Model, make extensive use of the new PowerPivot features, extending them to enterprise needs. This module is presented as a series of slides, graphics, discussions, and 15 demos, recorded in high-resolution, so that you can follow the steps yourself.

Introduction to SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence (Video)

Big Data

In this first, 45-minute module of our training course introducing Microsoft Business Intelligence technologies, we focus on Microsoft SQL Server 2012. The main objective of this video is to introduce the big picture of Microsoft’s data platform engine, released in 2012. This module discusses its 10 key BI innovations: BI Semantic Model (BISM), Analysis Services Tabular Mode, PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012, Power View, Self-Service Data Alerts, Big Data and Apache Hadoop integration, Columnstore Indexes (xVelocity for Data Warehousing), Spatial Data, Unstructured Data, and, briefly, Data Quality Services. Through a number of slides, graphics, and a short demo showing Power View in PowerPoint, you will learn how to take advantage of the newest abilities of SQL Server in your own BI projects. If you would like to deepen your skills, make sure you also watch the remaining modules in this series, which focus on: the new release of PowerPivot for SQL Server 2012, Power View, and the BI Semantic Model and Analysis Services Tabular Mode.

Power View and BISM: A Short Introduction

Power View Scatter Plot (Animated Bubble Chart)

Power View, part of SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services, and the BI Semantic Model (BISM) are briefly introduced in this 10-minute video. The demo shows how to create the animated bubble chart (scatter plot) from your data.

PI: Performance Intelligence

What is the purpose of Business Intelligence? Wouldn't the term Performance Intelligence make more sense, especially if we consider that BI is perfectly useful for non-business domains such as: government, education, military, healthcare, and many others? This article discusses Rafal's experience working with BI as a tool for achieving better performance, even if that performance is not directly related to a financial perspective of an organisation.

Spatial Reporting with Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint Server

Spatial Reporting with SQL Server Report Builder and SharePoint Server

Spatial reports can be created using Report Builder, which comes with SQL Server. They execute in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and they can be hosted in SharePoint Server. This video shows the steps you need to take to create a simple bubble report that displays customer numbers, taken from a cube, on a map of the United States. You will also see how to share that report with co-workers using SharePoint.

Multidimensional Analysis with Microsoft Excel and SQL Server

Multidimensional Analysis with Microsoft Excel and SQL Server

For most people, the easiest tool for opening and navigating a multidimensional (OLAP) cube is Microsoft Excel. In this short demo you can also see how to perform basic slice-and-dice analysis, drill into and filter using dimensions, and summarise trends with a sparkline.

Data Warehousing and Integration with Microsoft SQL Server

Data Warehousing and Data Integration with Microsoft SQL Server

This video outlines basic concepts of Data Warehousing and Data Integration using Microsoft SQL Server, focussing on its Integration Services (SSIS) component.

Dashboards and Scorecards with Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint Server

Dashboards and Scorecards Using Microsoft SharePoint Server and SQL Server

From an attractive, composite dashboard consisting of performance management scorecards, and reports, to the highly visual PivotViewer, this video introduces the world of dashboards running on Microsoft BI platform, focussing on SharePoint Server PerformancePoint Services and SQL Server.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence (Article)

SQL Server 2012 Logo

This article, by Rafal, discusses pivotal BI aspects of Microsoft SQL Server 2012: BI Semantic Model (BISM), PowerPivot 2, Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), the future of OLAP Cubes and MDX (Multidimensional Expressions), and, briefly, it touches on the role of the Cloud for analytics.

Self-Service Data Mash-ups with Microsoft PowerPivot and SharePoint Server

Creating a Relationship Using Microsoft PowerPivot

This video shows data being mashed-up from multiple sources using Microsoft PowerPivot and DAX, all by the end user, in a self-service way.

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