Chapter 8: Pivot Tables Decisions

What is the data telling me?

Data analytics may appear to be the “next big thing,” but in reality, analyzing data has been something that financial professionals have been doing for a long time. What has changed is that data sets are now larger and more varied. This means that in addition to spreadsheets and documents, a variety of file types can now be accommodated in centralized repositories, referred to as data warehouses (or, data marts); this includes PowerPoint presentations, geographic information system (GIS) files, images (jpeg), pdf formats, flat files (e.g., comma delimited), and audio/video clips. Some of these file formats use large amounts of storage space, which in the past has been quite costly. Nowadays, with cheaper storage media available, capturing data in a variety of forms is relatively easy and inexpensive, and hence the notion of “big data” has become a reality.