Data Mining & Analysis with Access & Access VBA

Synopsis

There are many ways to crunch and present data - from using MS Excel and its host of useful add-ins to MS Access. The belief that Excel is a better tool for data analysis leads to much information paralysis as users are limited to a single tool. MS Access also offer another dimension to analyzing data as it offers users certain advantages such as the ability to deal with larger amounts of data as compared with Excel. This course presents the powerful features of MS Access data analysis supplemented with VBA to make lighter work for the business and financial analyst.

In addition, the course will also be helpful to understand how to query databases to extract needed information. For example, if you retrieve data about height and weight of a population, it may also be useful to know the average height and weight, the spread of heights and weights about this average and the height and weight that represents the upper 5 percent of the population. This data analysis process can also be applied to forecast business activities into the future such as the demand for goods and services, personnel requirements, sales, expenses, profits, market shares and any other aspects of business operations. These types of questions can readily be answered by applying standard statistical techniques using Structured Query Language (SQL).

Course Outline

I. Fundamentals of Data Analysis & Database Basics

• RDBMS & Data Modeling
• The relational database concepts
• Working with external data in Access

II. Basic Analysis Techniques (Access Queries)

• Basic & advanced queries
• Transforming data
• Working with calculations & dates
• Performing conditional analysis
• Running descriptive statistics
• Analysing data with pivot table and chart
• Data visualisation and presentation options (graphs, charts, tables)

III. Advanced Analysis Techniques (SQL & Access VBA)

• Statistical tools and techniques that apply to data mining
• Understanding and using SQL
• SQL procedures for extracting the desired results
• Building user-defined financial and statistical functions
• Leveraging VBA to enhance data analysis

Who Should Attend

Experienced financial users of Excel who now wish to harness the power of SQL, Access and VBA to improve data synthesis and analysis in their organisation.

This course is designed for - Business Analysts - Financial Analysts - Financial Officers - Accountants - Economists - Management Consultants - Risk Analysts - Internal Auditors - Marketers - Engineers - Scientists