About Me

I’m primary a business intelligence and workflow automation programmer, I have over 25 years of professional experience.  I started my career in Finance and Accounting and have held senior-level management positions for some well-known Fortune 100 companies.  As I worked my way up through that career path I gained a great deal of experience managing business processes and ERP systems.  I was also responsible for managing  business intelligence and financial reporting systems.  Around the time the first PC’s came out I realized that if I were acquire some IT skills to go along with my Finance it would greatly enhance my career potential, so I set out to do that.

Since I was already very familiar Excel I thought that it would be a good place to start. It was pretty much trial and error at first, but after a while I was able to write useful VBA code allowing me to automate many of my routine accounting tasks.  I soon found that I was spending fewer and fewer long nights in the office trying to get things done, I knew at that point I was really on to something.  

My next big boost came when I discovered SQL programming.  SQL is the language all database understand, and SQL databases are the heart and soul of every ERP system.  I knew that if I could master SQL I would be able to talk to my ERP and have access to all of its information.  I got some help from Microsoft, because around that time they came out with ODBC.  ODBC is a protocol that enables other applications, such as Excel, to connect to a backend database, pass SQL statements to it and retrieve records from it.  It took me a while to learn SQL how databases are organized and so forth,  but eventually I was able to bring information from my ERP system into Excel and massage it with VBA to create any kind of report, analytical tool or dashboard I needed.  Being one of the principal users of our system was a big advantage because I knew what what corporate managers need to know, how the information was used and how I could  provide it virtually on demand. Not only that,  there was now what could be describe as a multiplier effect, because of my skill level, I was now able to create automation tools for all the other members of my Finance team, thereby raising the productivity of the entire department.  We were soon able to close the books much faster and produce many times the financial reporting and analysis than we could previously.  And because we were spending less time crunching numbers and more time on analysis, we were truly adding value.

The next big break came when Microsoft introduced Excel pivot tables.  Pivot tables are a fabulous ad-hoc analysis tool.  They enable the user to connect to a set of data and look at it from every angle.  Using a pivot table an analyst can go quickly from a summary level down to the lowest level of detail, filter out what he doesn’t need to see and easily flip the data around to see it any way he needs to see it. I learned how to connect a pivot table directly to our ERP and use it to create analytical tools of every type. I was able to use VBA to pass parameters into them and create them on the fly to produce truly dynamic analysis.  Today there is Power Pivot, which is pivot table technology taken to a whole new level.

As the years went by I eventually tired of the corporate world and decided to go out on my own, which is where I am today.  I believe I’ve found a niche for myself in helping companies improve performance and better understand their business environment.   I love what I do and I hope to continue doing it for many more years to come.