Real-World Predictive AnalyticsWith Power BI and Predixion Software

Lynn LangitArchitect

Level: Intermediate

Types of Analytics• Business Analytics - deterministic

– Query – Aggregation

• Predictive Analytics - probabilistic– Machine Learning

• Statistics• Unsupervised Data Mining• Supervised Data Mining• Other

Process1. Select Business Question

2. Find Data

3. Prepare Data

4. Apply Machine Learning

5. Evaluate /Visualize

Results

1. Business Question Example

“What are the factors most closely related to hospital patient re-admissions?”

3a. Preparing the Data• Power BI -- Power Query

3b. Preparing the Data• Predixion Software

– Insight Workbench

Using the Power Query Add-in for Excel

DEMO

3c. Power BI Data GatewayWhat is it? Endpoint hosted via Office 365

• Enables access to corporate OData feeds• Enables discovery of saved, shared queries in PowerQuery• Enables Excel workbook refresh (via SharePoint online)

FREE – Power Query Single User

Office 365

• $$$ - Office 365 gateway• Sharable Queries

Power BI

Using the Power BI Gateway

DEMO

4. Apply Machine Learning

“What are the factors most closely related to hospital patient re-admissions?”

4a. About 3rd party Excel ML Add-ins

What are they? Toolbars in Excel• XLMiner• StatsMiner• XLStat• RExcel

Important: All of these tools assume expert statistical knowledge

An aside…about R Language

4b. About the Data Mining Add-ins For ExcelWhat is it? Free add-ins which add menus to use SSAS Analysis Services Data Mining

• Table Analysis Tools for Excel– Use mining models with Excel data or external data

• Data Mining Client for Excel– Create/test/explore/manage Mining Models

• Data Mining Templates for Visio– Render/share mining models as Visio Drawings

Important: Use requires connection to SQL Server 2012 SSAS

Using the Data Mining Add-ins for Excel

DEMO

Machine Learning (Data Mining) Objects

• Structure or Application• Model(s)• Model Tools

• Processing• Verification• Query• Visualization

4c & 5. About Predixion SoftwareWhat is it? Suite of tools for predictive analytics

• Insight Now– Use mining models with Excel data or external data

• Insight Workbench– Prepare data for model creation

• Insight Analytics– Create/test/explore/manage Mining Models

• Web-based Viewers and Tools

Important: Runs on premise (SSAS local) –OR-- on cloud via Predixion’s cloud-based servers

Using Predixion SoftwareDEMO

19

4d. New - Azure Machine Learning

Understanding options…

Tool Server Required Complexity of Use Other Cost of

Add-in Cost of Solution

Power Query None Easy Sharing queries requires Office 365 licenses

FREE varies

XLMiner none Hard Assumes stats expertise $$ $$

RExcel none Hard Assumes R expertise $ $

Data Mining Add-ins SQL Server SSAS Medium Designed for single user FREE $$$

Predixion on premise SQL Express Medium Requires local R install FREE $$-$$$

Predixion on premise SQL Server SSAS Medium Your data is stored locally FREE $$$$

Predixion cloud none Easy Supports SSAS Data Mining AND R Language

FREE $$-$$$

Azure Machine Learning none Hard Rich set of algorithms and supports R

n/a unknown

Analytics Applied

Business Analyst

Select & Clean

Aggregate

Query

Data Scientist

Selects Libraries

Applies Algorithms

Creates Solutions

ML ResearcherCreates Algorithms

Get Started Evaluate

• Pick one or more solutions

• Gather source data

• Prepare source data

• Try out some data mining algorithms

Learn Cost/Benefits

• tooling costs• learning costs• data gathering

costs• data

preparation costs

• data cleansing costs

• value of results

Start with a business question

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ThankYou

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