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The real challenge for any school that wants to use a tool like Microsoft Power BI to analyse and report on data is how to get at data that is spread across different application databases - you want a solution that doesn’t involve lots of copy and pasting between different spreadsheets.

Why pay a software company to develop a bespoke application when there are so many subscription based online services?

Bespoke or custom software can sometimes be a better choice, but the decision is not always easy. This may help you decide:

Here are some things we think it helps to know if you are about to start your first project with a software development company.

• Ask questions about the technology stack. It’s doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything about software development languages or web technologies, you can still ask about the supplier’s preferred technology choice. Why PHP and not .NET? Why SQL Server instead of PostgreSQL for the database? Are there any licensing implications? How future proofed is the technology? Get answers in plain English.

A customer relationship management (CRM) is then next step on from using MS Excel to keep track of customer interactions. You keep data your in one place - often a database in the cloud - instead of storing it in multiple Excel spreadsheets. Reporting on data then becomes easier and your data quality is better - data validation in web forms means you’ve got more control over what people type in.

How easy it to compare the earnings of graduates from different universities? Does a computer science graduate from Durham University make more money than one from the the University of Sheffield?

The Department for Education’s longitudinal education outcomes dataset is a good place to start. It’s a quick job to convert the data into an Excel table, fix the formatting on some of the columns (whole numbers rather than text) and then import it into Microsoft Power BI Desktop.

I am a student of basic Japanese. I’ve done a year of evening classes here in Sheffield and I can just about remember all the Hiragana and Katakana, build some basic sentences and recognise the occasional word (one or two an episode!) when I’m watching Terrace House on Netflix.

From the start it was obvious that remembering things - and I mean even remembering what I’d done in class the night before - was the challenge. In fact, there were times when I got home and my dear wife (who speaks decent Japanese) asked what I done in the lesson and I’d already forgotten. Short term memory wiped by a 15 minute car journey.

• Digital skills gap - could the new apprenticeships be the solution? We want to create an outstanding alternative to university. With the tech skills gap, which is being exacerbated by Brexit, we need to fill the pipeline of talent.

• Plundering the academic publishing establishment. Sci-Hub and open access to academic research.

Sheaf Digital has completed a consultancy project for Coventry Independent Advice Service (CIAS), a charity that provides free advice and support to residents in Coventry. Residents currently contact CIAS through the website or by phone and can book an appointment for face to face advice.

Sheaf Digital were asked to look at how other social media/communication tools could be added to the CIAS website so that residents have more choice when they want to contact CIAS.

Sheaf Digital has just finished a piece of software/technical consultancy for the Education and Training Foundation. The Foundation is responsible for the annual collection of staff individualised record (SIR) data from English FE colleges. The data - anonymised information about FE staff pay, qualifications and contracted hours - is used by the Foundation and the Department for Education to better understand the FE workforce.

Submission of SIR data by FE colleges is voluntary. Most of the data comes from college HR systems but some of it can be in other IT systems in the college or even on paper in a filing cabinet. There’s a technical data specification document that describes what should be submitted and the format of the SIR upload file.

The Power BI Radar Chart is a nice way to show how a set of values varies across multiple categories. And you can add further sets - so one radar chart shows two or more sets of values against the spokes. You then see at a glance how the different sets of values compare.

I used the radar chart to compare ‘predicted’ and ‘actual’ attainment levels in different subjects for school students. The table of sample data is shown below. The attainment levels are in one column and the type - ‘Predicted’ or ‘Actual’ is in another column. I’m interested in the average predicted and the average actual attainment level for each subject category.