Power BI, also known as Business Intelligence, is a technology-driven strategy for analyzing data and providing actionable information to help corporate leaders, business managers, and other users make better business decisions.
And there are many different Business Intelligence tools for business leaders to choose from. Today, I will discuss one of the tools DataHyv uses to its help clients.
What is Power BI?
Power BI is a Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tool that transforms data from a variety of sources into interactive dashboards and analysis reports. It provides end-users with an easy interface to construct their reports and dashboards using cloud-based services for interactive visualizations. You may divide your data into little bits using Power BI Desktop. Moreover, similar to other business intelligence tools, it can help make decisions better.
In 2009, Microsoft established Power BI and self-sufficiency is a concept that it appeals to. It brings your business data to life through a complex and concise reporting system.
It has different components namely: data analysis, data preparation, and data visualization.
Data Analysis
Organizations handle data sourced from various origins and stored in diverse file formats. They retrieve the information from alternate sources, such as servers or databases, and integrate it into one standard format within a common staging area.
Data Preparation
At this point, we still need to process the merged data before it’s ready for visualization. We’ve pre-processed this information, removing duplicate values and missing data points from the dataset. Once the data is cleaned, we’ll apply the business rule to it and load it back into the Data Warehouse.
Data Visualization
After loading and analyzing the data, users can leverage Power BI’s numerous visualization tools to enhance visualization. The use of a dashboard and report allows for a more intuitive representation of data. This visual report helps business end-users to make business decisions based on the insights.
To begin with, it might be a bit difficult, so online Power BI tutorials are available to help someone get started. There are several factors to look into, thus, training is more encouraged, to begin with to fully grasp its gist.
Why use Power BI?
You may wonder about the need to learn and use Power BI yourself when you can hire someone to do the job for you. On the contrary, as much as it’s convenient, it is an edge for business owners to know about the its uses. I will not specifically list down the cons of the tool itself since we will have a separate section for that, instead, I’ll show the importance of using it and what you can gain from it.
This powerful tool aids in data discovery, analysis, and presentation clearly and understandably. It provides the following features:
- Built in dashboards and reporting for SaaS solutions
- Real-time dashboard changes are possible
- Provides secure and dependable connectivity to your cloud or on-premises data sources
- Offers Quick deployment, hybrid configuration, and a secure environment
- Allows natural language queries to be used to explore data
- Provides dashboard visualization tools that are continually updated by the community
Pros and Cons
Nothing was ever built to be perfect. Hence, apart from the reasons stated above on why someone should utilize Power BI, we will also show you the advantages and disadvantages in using this tool.
PROS:
- Great for Excel users
- Database connectivity capabilities are extensive, and the Q&A feature allows you to publish to the web
- To use visualizations, users need to interact with both Python and R code
- Many tools for wrangling and cleaning data are available in Power Query
- After uploading the data into the web service, you may schedule a refresh without having to do anything manually
- Empowered by artificial intelligence and machine learning
CONS:
- Users with the same email domains can only access dashboards and reports.
- Does not mix imported data and data accessed through real-time connections.
- Rejects files larger than 250MB or zip files compressed using X-velocity in-memory database data.
- Does not accept files larger than 1 GB in size
- Dashboards never receive or pass parameters from users, accounts, or other entities
- A handful of data sources that allow reports and dashboards to be connected in real-time
Power BI Tools
The following are the different Power BI Tools you can use for your business:
Power BI Desktop
Power BI desktop is the primary authoring and publishing tool for Power BI, allowing developers and users to build brand new models and reports from the ground up. And it’s FREE!
Power BI Service
Power Bl data models, reports, and dashboards are housed on an online Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Cloud-based administration, sharing, and collaboration are all possible. It only costs $10 per user per month.
Power BI Data Gateway
The Power BI Data Gateway connects the Power BI Service to on-premise data sources such as DirectQuery, Import, and Live Query. Bl Admin is the one who installed it.
Power BI Report Server
Paginated reports, KPIs, mobile reports, and Power Bl Desktop reports can all be hosted on it. The IT crew updates it every four months and installs/manage it. Users can make changes to reports prepared by the development team, such as Power Bl reports.
Power BI Mobile Apps
Power BI has a mobile app for iOS, Android, and Windows. Microsoft Intune can be used to manage it. On the Power Bl Service Report Server, you may use this tool to examine reports and dashboards.
Conclusion
BI allows you to evaluate data and give actionable information, allowing corporate executives and business managers to make more educated decisions. Keeping oneself up to date and utilizing a tool with such a wide range of capabilities can only make a business executive’s life easier.
Interested in a powerful tool to help you make more data-driven business decisions? We at Datahyv offer this tool in our suite of data solutions that optimize business operations.