Analyze data with Microsoft Power BI
Power BI visualizes and helps analyze business data. It has become an essential tool for every financial. With this powerful tool, you easily turn business data into reports and dashboards. Below, we explain how Microsoft's Analytics solution works and why it is so valuable to your organization.
What is Power BI?
Power BI is Microsoft's analysis tool that lets you visually display and analyze company data. It works simply: you import data from various sources such as Excel, CSV files or SQL Server tables. Power BI then converts this data into clear reports and interactive dashboards. This gives you quick insight into important business results such as sales and annual figures.
The two components of Power BI
Microsoft's Self Service Analytics solution consists of two main components: The Desktop and the Service variant. Which one you use depends on your role and needs within the organization.
Power BI Desktop
This is the foundation of Power BI and usually the starting point. You install this application for free on your computer and use it to develop dashboards. This is done offline, directly on your desktop. This is a free application that you install on your local computer. With this tool, you connect to various data sources, transform them and combine them into a data model. Based on that, you design reports. Sharing these reports with others can be done directly or via publishing to the Power BI service, which requires a Pro license.
Power BI Service
This is a cloud-based service (SaaS) that supports report editing and collaboration for teams and organizations. Although you can also connect to data sources in the service, modeling capabilities are limited. The service is used to create and share dashboards and apps, and to analyze and explore data to gain business insights. A typical workflow begins with building a report in Power BI Desktop, which is then published to the Service for broader distribution and collaboration.
What do you use Power BI for?
Combine data from various sources
With Power BI, you no longer need several applications side by side. You can easily combine data from multiple sources into one overview.
Share information easily
Sharing reports and dashboards is quick and easy through Power BI. You can do this directly from the desktop app or publish online, with the data automatically refreshed.
Create impressive visualizations
Whether you're an experienced graphic designer or not, Power BI lets you create impressive charts, tables and other visualizations within a few clicks.
Ultimate performance
All data is stored in memory, so you don't have to wait for queries. Information is instantly available and always up-to-date.
Power BI & Excel a seamless integration
Power BI works perfectly with Excel, allowing you to easily analyze data without additional export steps.
In addition, the tool has been rated by Gartner as a "Leader" in the Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms for years.
Power BI as an Analytics component of Power Platform
Power BI is an essential part of the Microsoft Power Platform and provides powerful tools for data analysis and visualization. With interactive dashboards and reports, organizations gain valuable insights and make data-driven decisions. The solution integrates effortlessly with other Power Platform solutions, such as Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Pages. For example, data collected through Power Apps can be visualized instantly, while Power Automate automates workflows based on insights from the reports, such as sending notifications when key trends occur. With Power Pages, you easily share these insights through secure portals. Through these integrations, Power BI forms the core of a cohesive ecosystem for optimization and innovation.
How does Power BI work?
Microsoft offers standard links to more than a hundred data sources, including Excel, Google Analytics, MailChimp and Salesforce. At Peacock, we first create a place where all the data comes together. This middle layer is called a Data Warehouse. We can set up this middle layer in several ways. For example, in the case of large amounts of unstructured data, we deploy a Datalake. Which method fits best in a specific situation can be read in this blog. After the data has been structured and modeled in a solid way, we visualize it. Because 'the back end' of the reporting solution is then already prepared in such a way, at the front end it is only a matter of connecting the right data and setting up the visualization. For this, we provide a standard setup that guarantees a flying start to your reporting needs.
This way, your data automatically refreshes and the entire organization looks at up-to-date information in reports in your company's house style.
Getting started yourself?
We offer training courses that teach you how to get the most out of this tool. Our experienced trainers, experts in BI solutions, will be happy to guide you. Contact us for more information or register directly for one of our Power BI training courses.
Power BI Essential
1 day
€595 per participant
Classroom or on location
Power BI Advanced
1 day
€595 per participant
Classroom or on location
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Power BI?
This is Microsoft's reporting solution that lets you visualize and analyze business data. You import data from various sources and create interactive dashboards and reports.
- Is Power BI free?
The Desktop variant is free, but for the Service or a Premium accounts you pay a monthly fee.
- How does Power BI work?
You import data from various sources such as Excel and Google Analytics. You then create reports and dashboards in Power BI Desktop and publish them via the Service environment.
- Why should you use Power BI?
The solution is easy to use, fast and offers impressive visualizations. It helps you bring all business data together in an organized way, increasing efficiency in the workplace.
Discover the benefits for you
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