51 Analyst courses in London

This course is designed for students who already have foundational knowledge and skills in Excel and who wish to perform robust and advanced data and statistical analysis with Microsoft Excel using PivotTables, use tools such as Power Pivot and the Data Analysis ToolPak to analyze data and visualize data and insights using advanced visualizations in charts and dashboards in Excel.

Businesses that don't control their costs don't stay in business. How well are you doing? Is everyone in your organisation sufficiently aware of costs, managing them effectively and maximising opportunities to reduce them? If there is scope for improvement, this course will help get you back on track. It will demonstrate that cost reduction is so much more than cost control and cost cutting. True cost management is about being aware of costs, seeking to reduce them through good design and efficient operating practices whilst taking continuing action on overspending. This course will develop the participants' skills in: * Being aware of costs at all times * Seeking cost reduction from the start (including life-cycle costing) * Appraising projects / production to identify and take out risk * Understanding real budgeting * Using techniques such as ZBB and ABC where appropriate * Ensuring cost reports lead to action * Managing a cost reduction process that delivers Benefits to the organisation will include: * Identification of cost reduction and business improvement opportunities * Better reporting and ownership of costs * Greater awareness and control of everyday costs 1 INTRODUCTION - THE COST MANAGEMENT PROCESS * The risks of poor cost control * Capital and revenue costs * The importance of cost awareness * The importance of cost reduction * Cost management - the key aspects * How to build a cost management and control process checklist for your areas of responsibility 2 COST REMOVAL - TAKING OUT COSTS * Cost awareness * Costs of poor design / poor processes * Value engineering * Removing redundant costs 3 THE NEED FOR COMMERCIAL, TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL APPRAISALS * Understand the problems before cash is committed and costs incurred * Making the effort to identify commercial and technical risk * The time value of money - DCF techniques for long term projects * Cost models for production processes and projects * Costing models - project appraisals * The use of spreadsheets to identify sensitivity and risk * How to focus on risk management 4 BUDGETING - PROPER BUDGETING CHALLENGES COSTS * The philosophy of the business - are costs an issue? * The importance of having the right culture * The need for detailed business objectives * Budgetary control measures * Designing budget reports - for action 5 ZERO-BASED BUDGETING (ZBB) - THE PRINCIPLES * Much more than starting with a clean sheet of paper * What ZBB can achieve * The concept of decision packages - to challenge business methods and costs * Only necessary costs should be incurred * A review of an operating budget - demonstrating what ZBB challenges and the costs it may lead to being taken out 6 AWARENESS OF OVERHEADS AND OTHER COSTS * Definitions of cost - direct and indirect * Dealing with overheads - what is meant by allocation, absorption or apportionment? * The apparent and real problems with overheads * Different ways of dealing with overheads * Review of overhead allocation methods and accounting and reporting issues 7 OVERHEADS AND PRODUCT COSTING * Activity-based costing (ABC) - the principles * Where and how the ABC approach may be helpful * Know the 'true' cost of a product or a project * Should you be in business? Will you stay in business? * Identifying weaknesses in a traditional overhead allocation * How ABC will help improve product or service costing * Identifying which products and activities should be developed and which abandoned 8 COST REDUCTION CULTURE * The need for cost reports * What measures can be used to identify over-spends as early as possible * Cost control performance measures and ratios 9 DESIGN OF COST CONTROL REPORTS * Reports should lead to action and deliver * Selecting cost control measures which can be acted upon * Practice in designing action reports 10 COURSE SUMMARY - DEVELOPING YOUR OWN COST ACTION PLAN * Group and individual action plans will be prepared with a view to participants identifying their cost risks areas and the techniques which can be immediately applied to improve costing and reduce costs

An insightful, enjoyable and experiential programme to help you analyse data and information and make a balanced decision based upon sound commercial reasoning. It will enable you to identify options, make decisions and take actions based on a thorough analysis combined with instinct and intuition to make a positive effect on profitability. This programme will help you: * Identify ways to analyse data and sort relevant from irrelevant information * Develop analytical and numerate thinking, and consider the financial implications of a decision * Make decisions based on sound commercial reasoning - a mix of intuition and analysis * Select from a range of tools to analyse a situation and apply these effectively * Understand how costs and profits are calculated * Use tried-and-tested techniques to manage and control your budgets * Appreciate the fundamentals of financial analysis * Focus on the bottom line * Identify the basics of capital investment appraisal for your business * Evaluate results and seek opportunities for improvement to your business 1 THE COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENT * What do shareholders and investors want? * What do managers want? * Profit v non-profit organisations * Investor expectations 2 FINANCIAL AND NON-FINANCIAL INFORMATION * Risk and reward considerations * Drivers of commercial decisions 3 RUNNING A BUSINESS * A practical exercise to bring financial statements to life * Different stakeholder interests in a business * The impact and consequences of decisions on financial statements 4 WHERE DO I MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO THE ORGANISATION? * How can I contribute to an improved business performance? * Key performance indicators - measuring the right things * A 'balanced scorecard' approach - it's not all about money! 5 A 'BALANCED SCORECARD' APPROACH * Analysing and reviewing my contribution to the business direction * What is the current focus of my commercial decisions? * Developing the business in the right way - getting the balance right! * Where should/could it be in the future? * Do my decisions support the overall vision and strategy? 6 MAKING COMMERCIAL DECISIONS * Left-brain and right-brain thinking * Convergent and divergent thinking * Analysis and instinct * Interactive case study exercise - emotional and rational decisions * Reflection - what is my style of making decisions 7 LET'S CONSIDER THE CUSTOMER! * Identifying target markets * Differentiating propositions and products * Customer service considerations * Marketing considerations and initiatives * Pricing strategies and considerations 8 STRATEGIC ANALYSIS * The external environment * The internal environment * LEPEST analysis * SWOT analysis * Forecasting * Group activity - analysing markets and the competition * How do these improve your decisions? 9 COMPARING PERFORMANCE * Analysing key financial ratios * Ways to compare performance and results * Break-even analysis 10 PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNTS AND BUDGETING * Managing income and expenditure * The budgeting process * How does this link to the profit and loss account? * Managing and controlling a cost centre/budget * The role of the finance department * Different ways of budgeting * Incremental budgeting * Zero-based budgeting 11 UNDERSTANDING THE BALANCE SHEET * Purpose of balance sheets * Understanding and navigating the content * What does a balance sheet tell you? * How do you affect your balance sheet? * Links to the profit and loss account * A practical team exercise that brings financial statements to life 12 BUSINESS DECISIONS EXERCISE * How does this improve your decisions? * A practical exercise to apply new knowledge and bring commercial thinking to to life * The impact and consequences of decisions on financial statements 13 WORKING CAPITAL * Why is this important? * The importance of keeping cash flowing * Business decisions that affect cash * Calculating profit 14 CAPITAL INVESTMENT APPRAISAL * Capex v Opex * Payback * Return on investment * The future value of money * The concept of hurdle rate 15 LESSONS LEARNED AND ACTION PLANNING * So what? * Recap and consolidation of learning * The decisions that I need to consider * Actions to achieve my plan

This course was developed for one of the largest investment institutions in the world, a multi-trillion household name. We explain in detail our tips and tricks to build an accurate and rolling enterprise value, and then review different valuation methodologies, from DCF, through the sum of the parts and football field analyses to LTV/CAC based methods. We conclude with a series of case studies examining the valuation of individual stocks.

This course is very much a discussion, so be prepared to present and critically analyse your own and class mates work. You will also need to bring a few examples of work you have done in the past. Learning and applying best practice visualisation principles will improve effective discussions amongst decision makers throughout your organisation. As a result more end-users of your dashboards will be able to make better decisions, more quickly. This 2 Day training course is aimed at analysts with good working knowledge of BI tools (we use Tableau to present, but attendees can use their own software such as Power BI or Qlik Sense). It is a great preparation for taking advanced certifications, such as Tableau Certified Professional. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact us to discuss the Visual Analytics Best Practice course Email us if you are interested in an on-site course, or would be interested in different dates and locations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Tableau Desktop training intermediate course is designed for the professional who has a solid foundation with Tableau and is looking to take it to the next level. Attendees should have a good understanding of the fundamental concepts of building Tableau worksheets and dashboards typically achieved from having attended our Tableau Desktop Foundation Course. At the end of this course you will be able to communicate insights more effectively, enabling your organisation to make better decisions, quickly. The Tableau Desktop Analyst training course is aimed at people who are used to working with MS Excel or other Business Intelligence tools and who have preferably been using Tableau already for basic reporting. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE COURSE INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TOPICS: WHAT IS VISUAL ANALYSIS? * Visual Analytics * Visual Analytics Process * Advantages of Visual Analysis * Exercise: Interpreting Visualisations HOW DO WE PROCESS VISUAL INFORMATION? * Memory and Processing Types * Exercise: Identifying Types of Processing * Cognitive Load * Exercise: Analysing Cognitive Load * Focus and Guide the Viewer * Remove Visual Distractions * Organise Information into Chunks * Design for Proximity * Exercise: Reducing Cognitive Load SENSORY MEMORY * Pre-attentive Attributes * Quantitatively-Perceived Attributes * Categorically-Perceived Attributes * Exercise: Analysing Pre-attentive Attributes * Form & Attributes * Exercise: Using Form Effectively * Colour & Attributes * Exercise: Using Colour Effectively * Position & Attributes * Exercise: Using Position Effectively ENSURING VISUAL INTEGRITY * Informing without Misleading * Gestalt Principles * Visual Area * Axis & Scale * Colour * Detail * Exercise: Informing without Misleading CHOOSING THE RIGHT VISUALISATION * Comparing and Ranking Categories * Comparing Measures * Comparing Parts to Whole * Viewing Data Over Time * Charts Types for Mapping * Viewing Correlation * Viewing Distributions * Viewing Specific Values DASHBOARDS AND STORIES * Exercise: Picking the Chart Type * Exercise: Brainstorming Visual Best Practice * Development Process for Dashboards and Stories * Plan the Visualisation * Create the Visualisation * Test the Visualisation * Exercise: Designing Dashboards and Stories -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This training course includes over 20 hands-on exercises to help participants “learn by doing” and to assist group discussions around real-life use cases. Each attendee receives an extensive training manual which covers the theory, practical applications and use cases, exercises and solutions together with a USB with all the materials required for the training. The course starts at 09:30 on the first day and ends at 17:00. On the second day the course starts at 09:00 and ends at 17:00. Students must bring their own laptop with an active version of Tableau Desktop 10.5 (or later) pre-installed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS COURSE "Steve was willing to address questions arising from his content in a full and understandable way" Lisa L. "Really enjoyed the course and feel the subject and the way it was taught was very close to my needs" James G. "The course tutor Steve was incredibly helpful and taught the information very well while making the two days very enjoyable." Bradd P. "The host and his courses will give you the tools and confidence that you need to be comfortable with Tableau." Jack S. "Steve was fantastic with his knowledge and knowhow about the product. Where possible he made sure you could put demonstrations in to working practice, to give the audience a clear understanding." Tim H. "This was a very interesting and helpful course, which will definitely help me produce smarter, cleaner visualisations that will deliver more data-driven insights within our business." Richard A. "Steve is very open to questions and will go out of his way to answer any query. Thank you" Wasif N. "Steve was willing to address questions arising from his content in a full and understandable way" Lisa L. "Really enjoyed the course and feel the subject and the way it was taught was very close to my needs" James G.

No-one in business will succeed if they are not financially literate - and no business will succeed without financially-literate people. This is the ideal programme for managers and others who don't have a financial qualification or background but who nonetheless need a greater understanding of the financial management disciplines essential to your organisation. This course will give the participants a sound understanding of financial reports, measures and techniques to make them even more effective in their roles. It will enable participants to: * Overcome the barrier of the accountants' strange language * Deal confidently with financial colleagues * Improve their understanding of your organisation's finance function * Radically improve their planning and budgeting skills * Be much more aware of the impact of their decisions on the profitability of your organisation * Enhance their role in the organisation * Boost their confidence and career development 1 REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS * What each statement contains * Outline * Detail * Not just what the statements contain but what they mean * Balance sheets and P&L accounts (income statements) * Cash flow statements * Detailed terminology and interpretation * Types of fixed asset - tangible, etc. * Working capital, equity, gearing 2 THE 'RULES' - ACCOUNTING STANDARDS, CONCEPTS AND CONVENTIONS * Fundamental or 'bedrock' accounting concepts * Detailed accounting concepts and conventions * What depreciation means * The importance of stock, inventory and work in progress values * Accounting policies that most affect reporting and results * The importance of accounting standards and IFRS 3 WHERE THE FIGURES COME FROM * Accounting records * Assets / liabilities, Income / expenditure * General / nominal ledgers * Need for internal controls * 'Sarbox' and related issues 4 MANAGING THE BUDGET PROCESS * Have clear objectives, remit, responsibilities and time schedule * The business plan * Links with corporate strategy * The budget cycle * Links with company culture * Budgeting methods * 'New' budgeting * Zero-based budgets * Reviewing budgets * Responding to the figures * The need for appropriate accounting and reporting systems 5 WHAT ARE COSTS? HOW TO ACCOUNT FOR THEM * Cost definitions * Full / absorption costing * Overheads - overhead allocation or absorption * Activity based costing * Marginal costing / break-even - use in planning 6 WHO DOES WHAT? A REVIEW OF WHAT DIFFERENT TYPES OF ACCOUNTANT DO * Financial accounting * Management accounting * Treasury function * Activities and terms 7 HOW THE STATEMENTS CAN BE INTERPRETED * What published accounts contain * Analytical review (ratio analysis) * Return on capital employed, margins and profitability * Making assets work - asset turnover * Fixed assets, debtor, stock turnover * Responding to figures * EBIT, EBITEDIA, eps and other analysts' measure 8 OTHER KEY ISSUES * Creative accounting * Accounting for groups * Intangible assets - brand names * Company valuations * Fixed assets / leased assets / off-balance sheet finance

This Tableau Desktop Training course is a jumpstart to getting report writers and analysts with little or no previous knowledge to being productive. It covers everything from connecting to data, through to creating interactive dashboards with a range of visualisations in two days of your time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Private options, online or in-person, please send us details of your requirements: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Tableau Desktop Training course is a jumpstart to getting report writers and analysts with little or no previous knowledge to being productive. It covers everything from connecting to data, through to creating interactive dashboards with a range of visualisations in two days of your time. Having a quick turnaround from starting to use Tableau, to getting real, actionable insights means that you get a swift return on your investment of time and money. This accelerated approach is key to getting engagement from within your organisation so everyone can immediately see and feel the impact of the data and insights you create. This course is aimed at someone who has not used Tableau in earnest and may be in a functional role, eg. in sales, marketing, finance, operations, business intelligence etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE COURSE IS SPLIT INTO 3 PHASES AND 9 MODULES: PHASE 1: GET READY MODULE 1: LAUNCH TABLEAU * Check Install & Setup * Why is Visual Analytics Important MODULE 2: GET FAMILIAR * What is possible * How does Tableau deal with data * Know your way around * How do we format charts * Dashboard Basics – My First Dashboard MODULE 3: DATA DISCOVERY * Connecting to and setting up data in Tableau * How Do I Explore my Data – Filters & Sorting * How Do I Structure my Data – Groups & Hierarchies, Visual Groups * How Tableau Deals with Dates – Using Discrete and Continuous Dates, Custom Dates PHASE 2: GET SET MODULE 4: MAKE CALCULATIONS * How Do I Create Calculated Fields & Why MODULE 5: MAKE CHARTS * Charts that Compare Multiple Measures – Measure Names and Measure Values, Shared Axis Charts, Dual Axis Charts, Scatter Plots * Showing Relational & Proportional Data – Pie Charts, Donut Charts, Tree Maps MODULE 6: MAKE TABLES * Creating Tables – Creating Tables, Highlight Tables, Heat Maps PHASE 3: GO MODULE 7: ADD CONTEXT * Reference Lines and Bands MODULE 8: MAKE MAPS * Answering Spatial Questions – Mapping, Creating a Choropleth (Filled) Map MODULE 9: MAKE DASHBOARDS * Using the Dashboard Interface * Dashboard Actions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This training course includes over 25 hands-on exercises and quizzes to help participants “learn by doing” and to assist group discussions around real-life use cases. Each attendee receives a login to our extensive training portal which covers the theory, practical applications and use cases, exercises, solutions and quizzes in both written and video format. Students must use their own laptop with an active version of Tableau Desktop 2018.2 (or later) pre-installed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS COURSE “Excellent Trainer – knows his stuff, has done it all in the real world, not just the class room.” Richard L., Intelliflo “Tableau is a complicated and powerful tool. After taking this course, I am confident in what I can do, and how it can help improve my work.” Trevor B., Morrison Utility Services “I would highly recommend this course for Tableau beginners, really easy to follow and keep up with as you are hands on during the course. Trainer really helpful too.” Chelsey H., QVC “He is a natural trainer, patient and very good at explaining in simple terms. He has an excellent knowledge base of the system and an obvious enthusiasm for Tableau, data analysis and the best way to convey results. We had been having difficulties in the business in building financial reports from a data cube and he had solutions for these which have proved to be very useful.” Matthew H., ISS Group

Agility has become a prized business attribute. Although Agile methods were once most associated with software development, they are now applied in a host of different areas. Agile continues to find new applications because it is primarily an attitude. This programme delivers a solid grounding in both the Agile mindset and Agile methods. It covers three methods, illustrates the benefits of each and shows how they can be integrated. It includes practical techniques as well as background knowledge. By the end of the session, participants will be able to: * Apply Agile concepts to self-manage their work * Understand the roles people take on in Agile teams * Use a variety of techniques to help deliver customer satisfaction * Focus on delivering against priorities * Employ a range of estimating techniques 1 INTRODUCTION * Overview of the programme * Review of participants' needs and objectives 2 THE BASICS OF AGILE * What makes Agile different * Agile Manifesto and Principles * Using feedback to deliver what is needed 3 AGILE TEAMS * Multi-disciplinary teams * Team size and empowerment * Agile values 4 AGILE AT THE TEAM LEVEL - SCRUM * Scrum roles * Scrum 'events' * Scrum 'artifacts' 5 AGILE FOR TEAMS JUGGLING MULTIPLE DEMANDS - KANBAN * Taking control of the work * Improving throughput * Dealing with bottlenecks 6 AGILE IN PROJECTS - AGILEPM * The phases of an Agile project * Managing change requests * Delivering on time 7 ESTIMATING * T-shirt / Pebble sizing * Yesterday's weather * Planning poker 8 PICK 'N' MIX - SOME USEFUL TECHNIQUES * The daily stand-up * User stories * Retrospectives * Work-in-process limits * Burndown charts * Minimum viable product * A / B testing 9 REVIEW AND ACTION PLANNING * Identify actions to be implemented individually * Conclusion

The aim of this course is to provide an overview of Agile approaches to product development. It explains what Agile is and when and why to use it. The scope of the programme includes: The course emphasises the collaborative nature of Agile and the flexibility it offers to customers. The principal training objectives for this programme are to help participants understand: * Why and when to use Agile * How to use Agile * The roles involved in Agile development * The cultural factors to take into account * How to manage Agile developments 1 INTRODUCTION (COURSE SPONSOR AND TRAINER) * Why this programme has been developed * Review of participants' needs and objectives 2 BACKGROUND TO AGILE * Issues with traditional approaches to product development * How Agile helps * Roots of Agile * Agile lifecycles * Product v project 3 HOW AGILE WORKS * The Agile Manifesto * Agile principles * Process control: defined v empirical * Different Agile methods * The Scrum framework * DSDM Atern 4 MANAGING AGILE * When to use Agile * Managing Agile projects * Team organisation 5 AGILE TECHNIQUES * Daily stand-ups * User stories * Estimating * MoSCoW prioritisation 6 COURSE REVIEW AND ACTION PLANNING (COURSE SPONSOR PRESENT) * Are there opportunities to use Agile? * What actions should be implemented to adopt Agile? * Conclusion

Agile project management, already widely used for software development, is increasingly recognised as having much more general application. Continuous improvement programmes, business change projects, new technology development, research and development and a variety of other scenarios characterised by rapid change and high uncertainty can all benefit from an Agile approach. This programme presents the concepts and methods of Agile project management, and shows how to apply them to a range of project and change management situations. Participants will learn: * how Agile project management can help with project and change management * the 4 values and 12 principles of the Agile 'manifesto' and the range of Agile methodologies * how to apply Agile project management methods and techniques in a range of project scenarios * alternative Agile project management methods and how they can be applied and adapted * what makes Agile project teams succeed * the key roles and responsibilities needed to enable Agile project teams to work effectively * how to encourage an Agile mindset within their organisation and how to move toward an Agile approach to managing projects 1 INTRODUCTION TO AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT * Overview of 'classical' project management and methodologies * The link between project success and management performance * Limitations of classical approaches and the need for Agile methods * The 4 values and 12 principles of the Agile manifesto explained * Agile project management values: * Individuals and interactions over processes and tools * Working outputs over comprehensive documentation * Customer collaboration over contract negotiation * Responding to change over following a plan * The cultural challenges of using Agile project management * Choosing when and how to adopt Agile project management 2 INITIATING A PROJECT USING AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT * Some key Agile methodologies explained: SCRUM, XP, Crystal * Identifying and engaging project stakeholders; defining roles and responsibilities * Setting the project vision and goals; defining project scope * The Agile approach to requirements capture and elicitation of needs * Tools and techniques for capturing and characterising requirements * The role of documentation, reporting and process management 3 THE AGILE APPROACH TO DEFINITION AND PLANNING * Understanding Agile planning; the 'planning onion' concept * Developing the culture needed for collaborative involvement and iterative planning * Defining project deliverables; the 'product backlog' concept * Tools and techniques for defining and prioritising requirements in Agile projects * Understanding and applying Agile estimating techniques * Dealing with uncertainty and managing risks 4 THE AGILE APPROACH TO EXECUTION AND DELIVERY * The results orientated, fast adapting culture of Agile teams * The monthly 'Sprint' process for project planning and review * The disciplines needed for effective daily SCRUM meetings * Reviewing progress, managing change and project reporting * Testing, completing and handing over of work packages * Managing the interface between the project team and the business 5 LEADERSHIP AND TEAMWORK IN AGILE PROJECT TEAMS * Why Agile teams are different: the importance of individuals and interactions * The skills and attributes needed to lead an Agile project team * The challenges faced and skills needed by Agile team members * Recognising team development needs; adopting the right leadership style * Making the transition from project manager to Agile coach * Key coaching skills explored: mentoring, facilitating, managing conflict