Training Archives | Blue Raster

Data visualization provides a powerful way to communicate data-driven findings, motivate analyses, and aid in decision-making. As organizations further prioritize the need to develop data-driven solutions into workspaces, it becomes important to develop skills and workflows through professional development. International Business and Technical Consultants Inc. (IBTCI), an international development consulting company, needed a program to deliver data visualization training to some of its Monitoring & Evaluation professionals around the world. Using our industry expertise, Blue Raster developed a comprehensive, live virtual data visualization training package to meet the needs of IBTCI.

The IBTCI Monitoring and Evaluation professionals each averaged 10+ years working with data in the fields of global health, education, land management, and other international development fields. Conducted via Microsoft Teams video conferencing, Blue Raster prioritized collaboration and inquiry, which built a gregarious and interactive training for the 20 participants located throughout Kenya, Malawi, and the United States.

Particpants from Kenya, Malawi, and the US created a virtual community

Data Visualization Training Program

Broken into three 2-hour sessions, we developed a structured and comprehensive approach to virtual data visualization training. Blue Raster Power BI Developer Shannon Lindsay guided participants through discussions and demonstrations on how to visually optimize data for storytelling and decision making.

Session 1

In the first session, participants reviewed and discussed the building blocks of high-impact data visualization. How do you visualize and analyze data so you can extract insights and actionable information? Shannon introduced examples of catering data visualizations to your audience, how to best use your visuals, and developing dashboards.

Session 2

The second session focused on integrating dashboards with Microsoft Excel and Power BI. Power BI allows users to develop a single hub that tracks and manages assets for an organization or project. Additionally, the participants discussed integrating multiple datasets from different sources in order to make captivating and detailed dashboards.

Session 3

The third session provided a chance for the participants to make their own dashboards in Power BI or another program of their choice. Each participant shared their work and received feedback and tips. Additionally, the class discussed using some basic location data in both Microsoft Excel and Power BI.

By the end of the training, participants learned to improve upon their current data visualizations and to consider other applications like Power BI for future projects. Positive feedback from participants concluded that the data visualization training provided necessary and useful skills in data design and visualization techniques for future projects.

As organizations further prioritize the need to develop data-driven solutions into workspaces, it becomes important to develop skills and workflows towards becoming a data-driven organization through professional development programs. Blue Raster can assist organizations by developing customized fully interactive virtual trainings to build solutions and further the goals of your organization.

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Posted in
Power BI
Training

Implementing a new platform can be challenging and multi-faceted, and Blue Raster’s experience has helped us pinpoint keys to success in the development, deployment, and maintenance of tailored Power BI solutions. We’ll help you focus on the process and the people needed to implement a new platform (change is hard!), and we’ve got the technical chops and training skills to ensure that this becomes a sustainable, self-service solution. We want to help you get started with Power BI today!

Blue Raster can help you get started with Power BI

3 Steps for Getting Started

1) Think about what you are trying to solve:

Are your business processes creating bottlenecks? Do you see areas with room for improvement in terms of efficiency?
How are you measuring the relative success/failure of business processes?
Are there areas of your business you would like to track more closely?
Do you need up-to-date data at your fingertips about a process/product/topic area?

2) Think about your data:

That’s a big ask – but think about the questions you want to answer and then try to think about whether you have existing data that can answer those questions.
Now think about where the data resides and in what format –
Is your data in Excel? SharePoint? SQL server? MySQL? DHIS2?

3) Put it all together.

Does the data you identified in step 2 answer any of the problems/questions identified in step 1? If you do not have the data to answer your questions, are you able to start collecting it?

Business intelligence is about the generation of actionable insights – and having a clear understanding of the problems you are facing and the data you have to help you solve those problems will help you on your way!

What can Blue Raster do for you?

The Blue Raster team will help you think through the questions above (which are harder than they may appear) and will guide you through our tested deployment process. Regardless of which deployment type and strategy your organization takes on, the process remains the same. Note that the process documented below is intended to help organizations get started with Power BI, but that BI implementation is not linear. The process of feedback and learning is continuous, and any report developer will tell you that reports are never done!

1. Requirements Gathering 2. Determine Architecture and Licensing 3. Training 4. Establish Content Organization and Governance Strategy 5. Set Adoption Targets 6. Build and Deploy

1. Requirements Gathering

Prior to the implementation of Power BI, Blue Raster will guide your team through key questions that will help inform deployment, architecture, and licensing decisions.

Key questions to ask when planning your deployment:

Where is source data stored?
Who are your report developers, end-users/consumers, and system admins?
How do end-users want to consume this data?
How frequently will data be updated (in the source)?
What is the existing IT infrastructure?
Are there security standards requiring data to remain on premises?
What is the complexity of the solution? (model size/complexity, query complexity, row level security needs)

2. Determine Architecture and Licensing

3. Training

Training is an essential component of a strong deployment strategy. Users of all types and levels need both introductory and ongoing training opportunities. Training content differs based upon the type of Power BI user; end-users/consumers vs. developers vs. administrators.

Blue Raster’s introductory training focuses on:

End-users/consumers: shaping research questions, communicating with developers, navigating around Power BI in the service
Developers: report development, collaboration, and sharing in the service (or report server)

Administrators: management and set up of users, shared workspaces and apps, determination of shared storage for desktop files, reporting standards

4. Establish Content Organization and Governance Strategy

The establishment of core workspaces for collaboration and sharing is essential prior to building any Power BI reports. Blue Raster will guide administrators and developers through discussions on how content will be stored and distributed. This critical step will ensure that deployment is well managed and organized, and that more complex issues are considered (such as access and row-level security).

5. Set Adoption Targets

Setting adoption targets helps Power BI administrators set a measurable goal and helps monitor the success of deployment. Adoption targets and the monitoring of usage metrics help IT/Informatics staff understand if reports are helping end-users make decisions. There are several issues that may influence adoption, and Blue Raster will help you lay out a monitoring plan to get to the bottom of why reports are (or are not) a hit within your organization. The goal of any Power BI deployment is that decision makers have the data they need when they need it, and user adoption is a good start to understanding if you are reaching that goal.

6. Build and Deploy

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Posted in
Power BI

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Data Visualization Training