 Hello and welcome to this session in which we will discuss database business intelligence tool which is a software application that allows organization to extract, analyze and visualize data from their databases for what purpose to gain insight, to gain more information and to make data-driven decision. So it's making you smarter in terms of using your data. These tools typically connect to various data sources such as relational databases, data warehouses, we spoke about those in the prior session, big data platform and provide users with a range of features and functionalities to manipulate and explore data. Now we're going to look at some tools and techniques. Bear in mind those tools are not comprehensive, in other words I'm not going to list them all there might be other tools but those are the most likely you will see on the CPA, CMA exam and the techniques you will need to be familiar with. Data visualization is one of them, queering and reporting, data modeling, data mining. Once again those are not the only tools but those are the most popular. Before we proceed any further I have a public announcement about my company farhatlectures.com. Farhat accounting lectures is a supplemental educational tool that's going to help you with your CPA exam preparation as well as your accounting courses. My CPA material is aligned with your CPA review course such as Becker, Roger, Wiley, Gleam, Miles. My accounting courses are aligned with your accounting courses broken down by chapter and topics. My resources consist of lectures, multiple choice questions, true false questions as well as exercises. Go ahead start your free trial today, no obligation, no credit card required. Starting with data visualization. What is data visualization? Basically using the eye, visually looking at things. It can help users identify patterns, trends and outliers and data quickly and easily and communicate easily because you're using graphs, their finding, communicate their finding with others in a more efficient way. Now we're going to look at some common types of data visualization. Now bear in mind data visualization for the CPA exam and the CMA exam is very important. Therefore I have a whole session about data visualization. So the tools or the common tools that I will show you here are much more in depth with visual in another session but I'm going to show you what they are. Bar chart. What's a bar chart? Used to compare value of different categories, you know, something like this, you know, bars, bar chart, they can be either horizontally or vertically. We could have line chart use, use to show trends over time by connecting dots over with lines. So basically showing you what's happening over time. We could have scatter plot to show relationship between two variables like X and Y sales and marketing by plotting them on two dimensional grid. We could have heat maps used to show distribution of data across different categories or dimension representing them as colors and grid. For example, we can show red is less sales, green is more sales, so on and so forth. Geographical maps. If you have distribution or sales across the globe, then you can have a geographic maps showing you your sales, maybe in a different color, more sales in a darker color or lighter color on the map itself. Now Tableau is a software that can help you do all of this plus much, much more is a popular database BI tool that allow you to create interactive visualization. It's pretty, it's pretty useful. It has a dashboard and report function. So it provides drag and drop interface that makes it easy to create those charts and graphs without any coding skills. And I strongly encourage you if you have time to learn Tableau, it's very important, querying and reporting typically involved using query language or visual interface to select and filter data from a database, simply put doing searches. Once the data has been retrieved, users can then format it in a report or dashboard, which can be shared to others in the organization. There are some common tools that use this technique, which are something called query builders, tools that allow users to build complex queries without again restoring the programming skills, basically user friendly, user friendly, parameterize report. What are they report that allow users to change the parameters of the report, such as date ranges or filters to get the customized results that you are looking for. Drill down capabilities, basically the ability to click on the data point in a report to see more details. For example, you might be looking at a count receivable, the full account receivable, the general ledger, you can drill down, maybe look at major customers from major customers, you could drill down to major geographical area, so on and so forth, to find more insight about the data, exporting and sharing the ability to export report and dashboards to different formats such as PDF and Excel and to share them with others in the organization. An example of this tool will be Microsoft Power BI, which is similar to visualization, Tableau, but again, different capabilities. Again, if you have time, learn Microsoft Power BI and add it to your resume as a future accountant. Data modeling. Well, what does that involve? It involves using visual interface to create entities, what are entities, tables, customers, order product and defining the relationship between them, such as customer placing an order for a product, so on and so forth. So basically modeling. Once the model has been created, users can then use it to explore the data in a more structured way and to create custom queries and report. Now you're connecting customers to product. Some common feature of data modeling and database BI tools would include entity relationship modeling, which is a technique for representing relationship between entities in a visual way. Entities means tables, like customers. Customers could have a table, orders, product, sales, so on and so forth. Data profiling, the ability to analyze the data to identify patterns, anomalies and other issues, basically profiling, looking at the data and making a judgment, what does it look like overall? Data lineage, the ability to track the origin lineage and movement of the data through different systems. Maybe that's important for you. Reverse engineering, that's very interesting. The ability to create a data model from an existing database or other data source. Basically, look at the data, basically some sort of a prediction, ability to create a data model from an existing database. You're looking at basically a model from the data itself. Basically, it has a prediction value. An example of a data BI tool that can help you with this data modeling is something called ER slash studio data architect. I'm not familiar with it, but it's worth looking at. Data mining is basically an all comprehensive technique. Basically, it's the process of analyzing large data set to discover pattern, trends, relationship that might not be immediately apparent from the data. Everything that we did is a form of data mining, but I'm going to focus here on data mining. The goal is to identify insight and knowledge. This is what we're looking for, that can be used to inform decision making, to improve business processes, or more importantly, gain competitive advantage from the data. The data mining process typically involves several steps, including first data cleaning and preparation, exploratory data analysis, feature selection and model building. So data modeling, data mining would involve many steps. It can be performed using a variety of statistical and machine learning techniques, regression analysis, decision trees, neural network, and clustering algorithm artificial intelligence. You could use so many different technology to do this. Come some examples of it to use, how you can come up with some useful example. If you have a customer relationship management CRM, a company might use data mining to analyze customer purchase pattern and identify which product or services are most popular among customer segment. You want to look at that. Financial institution might use data mining for fraud detection. Those are some examples, some minor examples. For example, sometime you might receive a call from your credit card company saying, you know, are you purchasing this item? And one time, frankly, I received a phone call, someone was using my credit card in London, in London, UK, and it was in New Jersey. So said, no, I'm not. So they automatically rejected the purchase. So financial institution might use data mining to identify unusual transaction pattern, because that's an unusual transaction. How did I appear? And, and like maybe 30 minutes later, I was at a gas station where I stopped, I bought gasoline, and suddenly somebody used my credit card in London. Well, it's unusual from the data mining, you tell the system if, you know, if there's like maybe in a mild, like, you know, how can somebody be transferred from New Jersey to London? So that could be an indication of fraud. Healthcare and healthcare, you can analyze patient data and identify risk factor for diseases or other health conditions. For example, a healthcare provider may use data mining to identify which patients are at high risk for developing diabetes based on the data, based on factors such as age, weight, family history and other medical condition. All in all, data mining is a comprehensive tool, is a powerful tool for discovering insights and knowledge. This is what we're looking for. We're using this business intelligence to do what? Gain insight and knowledge from large data sets, and it's, it has application in a wide range of industries and field. Okay, using statistical analysis, machine learning, data mining can help organization make more informed decision and improve business processes. And I, as we mentioned, the most important gain competitive advantage. What should you do now? Go to Farhat Lectures, look at MCQs, that's going to help you learn about this topic further. Yes, you listen to the lecture, you looked at BI, business intelligence, but what's most important is to test yourself to see how comfortable, how familiar are you with this knowledge. Whether you are a CPA candidate, CMA candidate, they can an accounting information system or studying for your, for your professional certification. Good luck, study hard, it's worth it. And of course, stay safe.