From the course: Learning Data Analytics: 1 Foundations

Finding existing data

From the course: Learning Data Analytics: 1 Foundations

Finding existing data

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- [Robin] Our decision makers are starting to realize that they want more access and quicker access to make decisions than how they've done it in the past. Everything we see on reports or Pivots comes from somewhere and without doubt, most of it's in a system or in a database. And that's typically our best starting point. I will say that a fair amount of the reports I've seen through the years that are Pivot-based or have charts, they're often hand-built by the user. Asking questions is such an important part of the process, but not the, "Why are you doing it this way?" question, but more like, "Do you know where this data lives? "How do you get this data? "Are you exporting it? "Or does someone email it to you?" Once you have the answers to these questions, then you can ask additional questions. Like, "Can I export this from the system myself? "Does this system allow us to access "the back end of the tables?" It's also important to know who to ask the questions to. Let's take a look at an example. I might ask Jane, "Can you tell me a little bit "about how you get this data for your Pivot? "I'm building a similar dashboard for another person "but it appears to be the same data that you're using." Jane may respond, "Well, Tim from IT sends it to me "via email every week, and I update the data "and start the process all over again." Now this is something that hurts me in my soul, but data access is often something that depends on a lot of variables. This is one reason why I created the course on Excel and access. This allows users to overcome challenges of having just access to spreadsheets or flat files. Okay, back to real life. I'm going to call up my manager, Daniel, and ask if I can talk to IT about data access. My manager will either give me permission, or they'll call on my behalf. It really could go either way. So let's assume my boss said it's okay. So the first call I'm going to make is to Tim. I'll do something like this. "Hi, Tim, I'm Robin. "Very nice to meet you. "I'm working for Daniel and have been asked "to create a dashboard showing consumer sales. "I talked with Jane in marketing. "They mentioned you send the data. "Can we talk about how you get the data?" Tim says, "Sure, I run this query "and export it each week and send it over to Jane." Then my next question for Tim is, "Well, Tim, your query has some of the data I need, "but not all of it. "Is there a way I can run this query myself? "Is it possible to access the database through a connection? "I only need to read the data in the database." It really could go either way at this point. Let's assume that they say yes, then they will likely help set you up and give you the appropriate permissions. But if you're new and the data is sensitive, it might be no or no for now. You always want to follow the rules of the organization, and the people in technology tend to follow the rules. If they determine that I can have access, they'll give me access and then the process of data mining kicks in. A little later in this course, I'll share with you my tips and tricks on learning new databases and new datasets.

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