Microsoft Power BI is a suite of powerful business intelligence, reporting and data visualisation tools designed to help users efficiently make sense of their data analytics through a highly intuitive interface using easy to read dashboards. Power BI immediately enables you to easily create reports, make queries and conduct other analytics based activities: even ‘non tech’ personnel can access meaningful information from data such is Power BI’s intuitive nature. There are, however, certain ways to get the best out of this powerful software to use it like a pro – so read on to find out more.
Choosing your specific version of Power BI
To start with, ensure you’re using the best version and configuration of the suite for your needs. The services of an experienced Power BI expert would help you get set up ready to make the most of the software, so it’s well worth talking to the professionals.
Data available in a few clicks
Once set up and configured, you can access specific data sources in a click or two thanks to the easy to understand data navigation panel. You can choose from certain sources such as files or databases and the source can be from within your business’s data on local drives, in the Cloud, or from an online service such as, for example, your Cloud-based accounting system or Google Analytics.
Create easy to understand dashboards
Power BI, based on the likes of Microsoft Excel, makes it easy for you to create customised dashboards with clear and informative graphics such as pie charts, bar graphs and more. Simply create a new dashboard and connect it to the relevant dataset.
Share dashboards and reports
With the Pro licence model, you can easily share your dashboards with others who also having the Pro licence. And allow them, if you desire, to share it with others licence permitting. You simply invite them via email: when your colleagues receive it and click the link, the dashboard gets added to their own Power BI dashboard. Instead of time-consuming emailing of reports, Power BI allows you to share them as content packs with other users of the Power BI interface. Once received your recipients can then interrogate the data, change visualisations and more.
Access dashboards on the go
There is a Power BI app for iOS, Android and Windows so dashboards can be accessed on the road or on mobile devices generally. You have the ability to share dashboards via mobile with others and annotate them.
Interrogate your data
Querying data is a key analytics method for acquiring information, and Power BI makes this easy. Typing something like “sales by unit volume” or “sales in first quarter of 2022” into the box on the dashboard soon reveals the answer in the best format based on the query type – and this is automatically altered if you change or reword the query if appropriate.
Choose your visualisation
No need to get mired in always using the same one or two visualisations: Power BI gives you plenty to choose from to ensure your data findings are presented in the most effective way.