Customer Reviews

Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007: Data Analysis and Business Modeling (Bpg -- Other)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007: Data Analysis and Business Modeling (Bpg -- Other)

This book should be on the desk of anyone analyzing data. It IS NOT for someone who doesn't know Excel 2007 and the basics of analyzing or working with data.

However, I've gone through Chapter 39 and have found this book is filled with all kinds of errors. I couldn't find any place on the internet that addresses these errors. Files missing or wrong (ie. Chapter 9 solution file problem numbers are incorrect), examples not matching my Office, Home, Student 2007 version (ie. pg. 43 references a DATEIF function that doesn't exist), plus many more.

The author or Microsoft needs to do a better job of proofreading or at least have a website where readers can post the errors they find so everybody using this book doesn't spend their time refinding the same errors.

Must read for anyone who models business problems or does statistical analysis.

If you haven't been to one of his seminars, you should check out his online course, Spreadsheet Modeling, developed by Harvard Business School (http://hbdm.harvardbusiness.org/courses).

The course shows you how to create spreadsheet models to analyze both simple and complex problems. It's practical and painless. Includes lots of great videos and is very interactive.

When I just started my career as a financial analyst, a project manager gave me a pile of condensed training materials which included the excel functions that I would be using most frequently. I bought this Data Analysis & Modeling book 2-3 weeks after my first day of work and I found many of those taught in the book aligned with those on the training materials from my manager. The book has been very useful to me as it has a lot of cases to demonstrate how those functions can be applied.

This book is a book teaching MS Excel, but shaped in a way that focuses more on functions that are useful to financial analysis. It won't make you a financial expert after reading the book -- you need to know the financial concepts like fixed / variable cost, NPV & IRR, stocks & options first, then the tools introduced in the book will help you organize, calculate or present your data.

Pros:
- Clear step by step explanation
- Lots of examples & Exercises included in CD.

I'll start by saying I'm biased: I believe Excel 2007 is awesome. So, this book is a great reference for how to get more out of a great tool. I've been to Wayne's seminars, adn his book is a great substitute for his classroom knowledge and experience. THe examples are highly practical, and his data samples on the included CD make learning how to use the functions a lot easier. Love the basketball and baseball stat examples!

Having studied Wayne Wilson's OR materials, I was hoping this book would be a bit more technical and in-depth. Basically, I was hoping for a "how to do OR type problems with Excel". This book didn't quite meet those expectations.

For example, the forecasting portion talks only about Winter's method, which is great, but often that is too much for a simple forecast. And the LP approach doesn't really talk about Linear Programming...it only casually mentions the "Simplex" algorithm, and nothing about sensitivity tables.

So Dr. Wilson, if you're reading -- could you write a real OR book that uses the Excel 2007 tools? for real OR people?

Winston is a guru in his field and it shows in this book, which tackles all the necessary tools you will need "on the job" and does so in a rich, but easy to understand language.

At times, you will feel that the author is coaching you all along, right over your shoulder.

an amzing book that I reference at least once a week, this book is must-own for anyone who wants to model business decisions & stand out among your peers

Overall this is a great buy, it is a comprehensive read which breaks the information down into manageable sections. The only thing i think could be improved upon are the practice files which i could use a little more organization. I assume they are great in a classroom setting but are sometimes hard to immediately follow for the independent reader.

Good guide for more advanced business models. Not for a novice in Excel or Statistics. There were some errors in the book and the file didn't always agree with the example in the book, but overall it was helpful.

This book is exactly what I needed to understand the more advanced functions in Excel. I am a VBA programmer and used the information to construct applications to automate the process of forecasting sales orders for a major automotive manufacturer.

Excellent Book if you are interested in learning all about Excel. The CD has examples and solutions for all the chapters. For some functions, I did not think the author provided enough explanation on how the function worked. Otherwise a very good value.