Here at PTR we specialise in turning client data into engaging, interactive and powerful dashboards. We will take data in any form and from any source, we will take multiple data sources and figure out how to integrate them for you so that you can build 360 degree views of your business and help drive more informed business decisions.
Human interaction is critical for learning, but this interaction doesn't necessarily need to take place in person.
Microsoft have revamped their certification tracks again, doing away with the MCSA and MCSE certifications that we have become used to and introducing fundamentals, role-based and specialist certifications in their place.
At PTR we believe in collaboration and working closely with our clients to ensure that not only do they get the business intelligence solution they want, but that it is one they can control, manage, support and grow as well. We engage in a partnership with our clients offering a collaborative and mentoring style of consultancy blended with coaching, training and education as required.
Thanks to lockdown, we all got used to working remotely.
Training providers - like us - had to find new ways to teach, and many businesses adjusted to the idea of virtual classes delivered remotely.
So all our courses are now available as remote virtual classes, both as public scheduled and closed and tailored courses. Our instructors had lots of fun playing with new gadgets and getting used to seeing themselves on screen.
I spend the majortiy of my time on consultancy projects these days, but I was delighted to bring my consultancy experience back to the virtual classroom to deliver a remote, two-day training session on Designing a Data Warehouse. Armed with Zoom, a PowerPoint Presentation, an e-book, a webcam, a headset and a document reader (plus the use of Zoom breakout rooms to facilitate group-based lab work) I spent two days enlightening 11 delegates on the Kimball Dimensional Modelling techniques. It's initially a strange experience knowing that attendees can see me and my every move (while I can’t see them when their videos are turned off).
To keep people engaged online, a new way of teaching is needed. So we introduce regular breaks, regular question-and-answer sessions, and a shorter day - because staring at a screen all day is tiring and tough on the eyes. Breakout rooms are great for group labs, enabling time for less formal conversation, interaction, sharing of ideas and a different visual focus. I’m still on hand to help and answer questions throughout, as at any time participants can invite me into their breakout rooms to assist. After some chat time I bring them back to the main class to review solutions and move onwards to more topics.
Without the luxury of a formal training room setting, remote instructors have to adapt to digital whiteboarding - using touchscreen tablets with drawing apps and a stylus. I find a Document Reader enables me to draw with multicoloured pens, just as I might in a classroom setting on paper, to explain something in answer to a question, or to complement a presentation.
This was my view for the two days:
It is a totally different training world, but nevertheless still an enjoyable one - as long as it's structured in a way that's highly interactive, with regular breaks, and a variety of visual aids and teaching methods. It's crucial to keep it all as stimulating and fun as possible. I’m thinking of creating some Kahoot quizzes next time I present a course, as a fun way to carry out knowledge checks (if you haven't heard of Kahoot, ask a school pupil - I'll bet they’ve used it!).
You may think that an Excel Workbook already provides a table of data to you, and in a sense it does, an area consisting of Rows and Columns, with column and row headings and values.
It is, however, possible to create formal Tables from ranges of cells on an Excel worksheet.
Why would we want to do this?
Well, here are a few reasons:
We know that this is a very difficult time for businesses and individuals across the UK. Given the fast changing situation with Coronavirus (COVID-19) we wanted to let you know what we are doing to ensure we maintain business continuity and remain able to deliver our services to you over the coming months.
Having spent over 25 years working with customers on their data warehouses, there are few mistakes that I haven’t seen made during their construction. The reality in fact, is that many organisations underestimate the complexities of building a data warehouse – or at least, building the RIGHT data warehouse for their business needs.
Here are six crucial aspects to building a data warehouse that will help you avoid the many pitfalls along the way of its construction.
