Here’s a challenge we face all the time in Telecoms: we need a list of the most recent months of data in a table.  For example, a Telecoms Dashboard, which might show data for each of the most recent 12 months.  

For example, your Dashboard for May 2018 might show data from May-18, April-18, March-18, etc., all the way back to June of 2017.  Those are the most recent 12 months.

A typical Telecoms Dashboard shows one or more Key Performance Indicators (KPI) by month for each of the last 12 months.  

Using the most recent 12 months is quite common in many industries. So common, in fact, that is has a special name: Trailing Twelve Months, often abbreviated TTM.  Ideally, the Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) are re-calculated as soon as you add data.  That is, if you automate it.

In this article, I’ll show you how to set that up.  Like so many things in Excel, it’s surprisingly simple.  It’s more work to explain it than to actually do it.  But it’s worth figuring it out.  It’s a big part of automating your Dashboards. Continue reading “Automate Telecoms Dashboard Dates”

As a Telecoms Technical manager, your job is often about speed.  Make a report faster. Prepare a presentation faster.  Forecast usage faster.  Analyze a problem faster.  Create a budget faster.  See the pattern?

Youʼll use Excel to create models in all these examples; make assumptions and build them into those models.  Often, there will be several use cases for you to model.

How do you do that?  What’s your style?  Do you work on one case to completion, then copy/ paste to start the next case?

If you want to impress your boss and propel your career, learning how to properly model different use cases is an indispensable technique.  A key trick to effectively modeling different use cases is called Abstraction.  Abstraction is also an important trick for automating your dashboards and recurring reports.

Read on to learn how to add abstraction to your models.  Iʼll show you 3 techniques for using abstraction.  And Iʼll do it by building on another Excel Telecom Trick which I showed you earlier, the 2-Color Chart Series.  Continue reading “What’s Abstract About Excel?”

In Telecoms we deal with data.  Lots of data.  Tasks such as budgeting, analyzing, reporting and forecasting use this data. This data buries your desk.  You yourself might actually be stuffed with data. 

We gorge on data and starve for information.

Amidst all this data is a concerted search for information.  Ferreting out information and deriving insight from all this data is what you must do as a Telecoms Manager.  

In this article, I’ll show you a trick for revealing that information.  Often in Telecoms and in other disciplines, you want to highlight specific values in a chart.  A good example is a chart of Busy Hour Performance.  Continue reading “Excel Telecom Tricks – 2-Color Series”