<commit_before>---
layout: post
title: "Excel to R, Part 1 - The 10X Productivity Boost"
date:   2019-02-20 08:08:01
excerpt: "The first article in a 3-part series on Excel to R, this article walks the reader through a Marketing Case Study exposing the 10X productivity boost from switching from Excel to R."
author: "<NAME>"
categories: [Business]
tags: [R-Bloggers, Learn-R, Learn-Business, Learn-Marketing, Excel, dplyr, purrr]
image: 2019-02-20-excel-to-r/excel_to_r_pt1.jpg
image_preview: 2019-02-20-excel-to-r/excel_to_r_pt1.jpg
---




Transitioning from `Excel` to `R` is one of the best decisions I have ever made. It accelerated my career and it boosted my productivity 10X - 100X (I show how in a __Time Study__ - keep reading). I used `Excel` primarily for sales and marketing analytics. I was a power-user of `Excel` fully equipped in VBA, Pivot Tables, Conditional Formatting, and all the functions. I was really good. 

___So, why did I make the switch?___


<a href="/business/2019/02/20/excel-to-r-part-1.html">
<img src="/assets/2019-02-20-excel-to-r/excel_to_r_pt1.jpg" class="img-rounded pull-right" alt="Key Strengths, R and Python" style="width:50%;margin-left:20px"/></a>



The short answer is that `Excel` has __painful limitations__. `Excel` grinds to a halt with "large" VLOOKUPS, often sitting idly with the spinning wheel or crashing computers as file sizes approach 50MB. Plus, I didn't know it at the time, but I was __very innefficient__ in my approach to analysis. 


In a world where the data being generated was far exceeding my ability to analyze it in `Excel` (i.e. 50MB), I needed a better tool. The tool I went to was `R` - a free and open source tool that's in high demand for many reasons - [I discuss 6 reasons to use R for business in this article](https://www.business-science.io/business/2017/12/27/six-reasons-to-use-R-for-business.html). 

> The bottom line is that learning `R` was an amazing decision, one that has changed my life. I'd like to share how to use `R` with you. 

I learn best by following ___real-world applications___, so this tutorial will follow a __Marketing Case Study__ first showing the errors, limitations, and inefficiencies of `Excel` (Part 1) and next how to perform the marketing analysis in `R` (Parts 2 and 3). 

If you learn best from real-world applications, then don't miss the [Business Science University Curriculum below](#curriculum) - We have a fully integrated `3-Course R-Track` that will help you ___advance your career___. All of the tools in this article series are taught in the R-Track plus advanced Machine Learning and `Shiny` Web Apps using real-world applications. 


<p class="well"> 
Read this article series, to see how you can gain a <strong>10X productivity boost</strong> by switching from Excel to R!
</p>



## Articles in this Series

- [__Excel to R, Part 1 - The 10X Productivity Boost__](/business/2019/02/20/excel-to-r-part-1.html) __(You're here)__

- Excel to R, Part 2 - The Correlation Funnel (Coming Soon)

- Excel to R, Part 3 - The Business Report (Coming Soon)


<br>

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{% include cta_101.html %}
<commit_msg>update to SUMO 101 CTA<commit_after>---
layout: post
title: "Excel to R, Part 1 - The 10X Productivity Boost"
date:   2019-02-20 08:08:01
excerpt: "The first article in a 3-part series on Excel to R, this article walks the reader through a Marketing Case Study exposing the 10X productivity boost from switching from Excel to R."
author: "<NAME>"
categories: [Business]
tags: [R-Bloggers, Learn-R, Learn-Business, Learn-Marketing, Excel, dplyr, purrr]
image: 2019-02-20-excel-to-r/excel_to_r_pt1.jpg
image_preview: 2019-02-20-excel-to-r/excel_to_r_pt1.jpg
---




Transitioning from `Excel` to `R` is one of the best decisions I have ever made. It accelerated my career and it boosted my productivity 10X - 100X (I show how in a __Time Study__ - keep reading). I used `Excel` primarily for sales and marketing analytics. I was a power-user of `Excel` fully equipped in VBA, Pivot Tables, Conditional Formatting, and all the functions. I was really good. 

___So, why did I make the switch?___


<a href="/business/2019/02/20/excel-to-r-part-1.html">
<img src="/assets/2019-02-20-excel-to-r/excel_to_r_pt1.jpg" class="img-rounded pull-right" alt="Key Strengths, R and Python" style="width:50%;margin-left:20px"/></a>



The short answer is that `Excel` has __painful limitations__. `Excel` grinds to a halt with "large" VLOOKUPS, often sitting idly with the spinning wheel or crashing computers as file sizes approach 50MB. Plus, I didn't know it at the time, but I was __very innefficient__ in my approach to analysis. 


In a world where the data being generated was far exceeding my ability to analyze it in `Excel` (i.e. 50MB), I needed a better tool. The tool I went to was `R` - a free and open source tool that's in high demand for many reasons - [I discuss 6 reasons to use R for business in this article](https://www.business-science.io/business/2017/12/27/six-reasons-to-use-R-for-business.html). 

> The bottom line is that learning `R` was an amazing decision, one that has changed my life. I'd like to share how to use `R` with you. 

I learn best by following ___real-world applications___, so this tutorial will follow a __Marketing Case Study__ first showing the errors, limitations, and inefficiencies of `Excel` (Part 1) and next how to perform the marketing analysis in `R` (Parts 2 and 3). 

If you learn best from real-world applications, then don't miss the [Business Science University Curriculum below](#curriculum) - We have a fully integrated `3-Course R-Track` that will help you ___advance your career___. All of the tools in this article series are taught in the R-Track plus advanced Machine Learning and `Shiny` Web Apps using real-world applications. 


<p class="well"> 
Read this article series, to see how you can gain a <strong>10X productivity boost</strong> by switching from Excel to R!
</p>



## Articles in this Series

- [__Excel to R, Part 1 - The 10X Productivity Boost__](/business/2019/02/20/excel-to-r-part-1.html) __(You're here)__

- Excel to R, Part 2 - The Correlation Funnel (Coming Soon)

- Excel to R, Part 3 - The Business Report (Coming Soon)


<br>

 <span data-sumome-listbuilder-embed-id="5d78359fc7a21b676a198de1dd6fcae148f4c4abfe51faae0c940d74803d06e5"></span>

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{% include cta_101.html %}
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