From Excel Dashboard to Big Data Analysis

“We wanted faster horses…”

From Excel Dashboard to Big Data Analysis

Optimized processing of marketing data at reduced monthly time spent

siemens.com/lowvoltageInternal © Siemens AG 2016

Internal © Siemens AG 2016

“If I had asked people what they

wanted, they would have said

faster horses.”Henry Ford

19 April 2016 Jochen Weinmüller/EM LP SI MT OGPage 2


Tool Environment of Siemens


…and many other internal and

external tools and download

platforms producing plenty of

data …


Tool Environment of Siemens

Problem:

• No actual reporting, only a monthly data output into an Excel file

• Outputs and reports distributed throughout different filing locations

• Partially no direct data access

• Different file formats

Requirement:

The most important KPIs from different tools and platforms merged into

one view



The Excel Dashboard

• High manual maintenance effort for data

= high error rate

• Highly restricted visualization options

• No sufficient level of detail, only an

overview of general tendencies

• No interactivity

Jochen Weinmüller/EM LP SI MT OG19 April 2016Page 5

Required time per month:

3 - 5 days

Level:

“Rocking Horse”


Tableau Including Access as a Central Database

Advantages of Tableau:

• Integration of databases and

processing of high data volumes

• Full flexibility of the visualization

• High level of detail

• Interactivity

Result:

Monthly reporting with 22 dashboards for

11 different tools and platforms

Jochen Weinmüller/EM LP SI MT OG19 April 2016Page 6


Necessary Work Steps Using “MyPresentationManager”as an Example


File 1 (.csv)

1. Load from SharePoint

2. Open in Excel

3. Add date of the current month as a

new field

4. Import to Access

File 2 (.xml – copy of external DB)

1. Open in Excel

2. Cleanse data

3. Import to Access

In Access

1. Execute table generation query

2. Open table and delete data set of the

oldest month

In Tableau

1. Update extract

Required time per month for all tools:

1 - 2 days

Saved time compared to Excel

Dashboard: 2 - 3 days

Significant improvement of the

presentation and the level of detail

Level:

“Racehorse”


Racehorse on the Leash

With the introduction of Tableau:

• Big data volumes and more complex queries

Documentation of the data preparation required

Necessity to artificially split analysis as processing “at a stretch” is not

possible anymore (Access max. 2GB)

• Ongoing new ideas and requirements of superiors and colleagues

New situation:

With the introduction of Tableau, the amount of work for single analysis

has been reduced but the number of analysis and their complexity has

increased in return.



Why Alteryx?


Cleanse data

Insert date

field

Execute table

generation query

Delete last

month


New workflow:

Save original files in the correct location

Start workflow

Finished!

Required time: 10 minutes

Why Alteryx?



Why Alteryx?

Prerequisites:

• No programming skills required

• Intuitive usage (drag & drop)

• Ease of learning (over lunch)

Simple data processing:

• Different data sources/file formats can be used

directly

• No preparatory processing of data

• Significantly faster processing of data than e.g. for

queries in Access

• No limitations in terms of the data volume to be

processed

• Any output format

Personal benefits:

• Significant reduction of my work load of initial 3 - 5

days using Excel to approx. 2 - 3 hours per month

using Alteryx.

• No documentation of the workflows required

anymore as all individual process steps are

displayed transparently and can be commented.

• New ideas and requirements can be implemented

in no time at all

Finally, I have time to focus on the interpretation

of my data



Many Thanks for Your Attention

Jochen Weinmüller

Online Marketing Manager

Division Energy Management

You


Jochen Weinmüller

EM LP SI MT OG

Siemensstraße 10

93053 Regensburg/Germany

Phone: +49 941 790- 2074

Fax: +49 941 790-2146

Email: [email protected]

www.siemens.com/lowvoltage

mailto:[email protected]

From Excel Dashboard to Big Data Analysis

Data & Analytics