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What is Power BI?

Power BI is Microsoft's answer to business intelligence. It allows you to connect various sources of data from across the business and bring it into one central platform that can be used to create relevant and tailored dashboards and reports that are specific and useful to your organisation.

What can power BI do for my business?

If your business uses data to make decisions (and it absolutely should), then Power BI can help. Whether you’re a small business tracking sales or a large organisation managing complex, multi stage operations, Power BI gives you clear visibility across your numbers.

Feature	Description
Data connectivity	Power BI allows your users to connect to a wide range of data sources, including databases, spreadsheets, cloud based services and online services. This connectivity allows them to retrieve data from multiple sources and then use it for reporting and analysis purposes.
Data transformation and modelling	Your users can format, clean and model their data using Power BI's tools including Power Query and Power Pivot. This ensures that the data is in the most relevant format for analysis and reporting for your business.
Visualisation	One of the most popular features in the Power BI toolset is the dashboards and reporting. They offer a rich set of visualisation options which allows your users to create interactive and informative reports and dashboards. They can choose from a wide range chart/graph types, tables, maps and custom visuals to represent data without the need to build each type from scratch.
Ad hoc reporting	Power BI provides fast reporting capabilities in that it allows users to explore and analyse data in real time providing they have an internet connection so the data can sync. With features inclduing drag and drop visualisations and interactive filtering, your users can quickly generate useful insights without depending on pre built reports.
Scheduled data Refresh	Power BI Service allows for scheduled data refresh, ensuring that your reports and dashboards are updated with the latest data automatically at time intervals that suit your specific business. This feature is crucial for maintaining the relevance and accuracy of reports.
Sharing and collaboration	Because Power BI is a cloud based service, users can publish, share, and collaborate on reports and dashboards. This allows your teams to work together and can help reduce the instances of work duplication.
Integration with other tools	As part of the Microsoft family, Power BI can integrate with other Microsoft products and services, creating a coherent ecosystem for data analysis. It can also be integrated with a wide range of third party applications and services to further enhance it's many capabilities.

Whilst reporting is a significant component of Power BI, it encompasses the entire process of data preparation, modelling and visualisation. This holistic approach makes Power BI a fantastic choice if you're looking for a business intelligence platform that allows your users to make data backed decisions based on well designed and interactive reports and dashboards with real time data. In addition, it is regarded as relatively easy to navigate and use, even for beginners and non technical folk!

Implementing Power BI

Many companies have some type of Business Intelligence (BI) tool(s) already, however, many companies also do not understand how to leverage said tools to their fullest extent rendering them somewhat, or wholly useless.

Challenges can begin as early as implementation, which is already a complex and time consuming process. Without the correct expertise, configuring the platform to pull data from all necessary sources and using that data to create meaningful, easy to understand reports and dashboards can take significantly longer than is necessary at a cost to you. In the absence of in house specialists, it is strongly recommended that you seek support from an individual or company with proven expertise with the Power BI platform to ensure a successful and efficient setup.

What is Power BI best used for?

If your company needs some help turning raw data into clear, interactive reports and dashboards - Power BI might just be the answer. An added bonus if you're already immersed in the Microsoft ecosystem, it integrates easily with Excel, SQL Server, SharePoint and other Microsoft products. Let's take a closer look at some of the best projects for Power BI -

Data consolidation from multiple sources

First and foremost, Power BI is a fantastic tool for projects that involve bringing together data from sources including spreadsheets, databases, cloud apps and APIs all into one central, visual reporting environment.

Automated reporting

Through the use of Power BI, you can replace the need for dull and time consuming manual reports with live dashboards that update automatically.

Ditching Excel

If you've outgrown excel and it's many limitations, Power BI offers a modern and more powerful alternative with MANY more features.

Ad hoc analysis

Power BI is also great for looking at data 'on the fly' and answering specific business questions quickly without needing technical support.

How can we help?

Here at Cool Code Company, we help our clients get the most out of Power BI. Many organisations adopt the platform without a clear plan in terms of how to structure their data, build reports that provide information that is actually useful or integrate it with their existing systems. We will help you do just that.

Our Nottingham based team can connect your data sources, design reports that are useful and utilise automation to save you time and resources. We can also offer tailored training so your team is confident using the platform day to day.

Regardless of whether you’re just getting started or want to explore additional features within Power BI, we’ll ensure your set up is aligned with your business goals and delivers real, tangible value. Let’s have a chat about how we can help!

FAQs

Q) Is Power BI a reporting platform?

A) Yes, Power BI is often described as a reporting platform, but it goes above and beyond traditional reporting to provide a comprehensive business intelligence solution.

Q) Is Power BI free?

A) There is a free version of Power BI (Power BI Desktop) which offers core features including data visualisation and report creation. However, sharing reports and using cloud based features such as collaboration and scheduled refreshes require a paid Power BI Pro or Premium licence.

Q) Is Power BI REALLY better than Excel?

A) Power BI and Excel serve different purposes so one isn’t strictly “better” than the other. Rather, they are both 'good for different' things and can also be used together. Excel is great for ad hoc analysis, quick calculations and working with small datasets. Power BI, on the other hand, is designed for handling larger data sets, creating interactive dashboards, automating data refreshes and sharing data across teams. So, if you need advanced reporting with large sets of data, real time dashboards and better collaboration, Power BI is the stronger choice.

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