Power BI was introduced in 2011 originally bundled with the SQL Server before it was later released separately in 2015 with added features such as enterprise level data connectivity, enhanced security features. Its is updated by Microsoft monthly and can be downloaded from the windows stores as Power BI Desktop. It possesses “excel” inspired features like Power Query, Power Pivot and Power View.
Power BI was developed by Microsoft as a tool for data analytics and data visualization. It also imposes data management best practices. It is a business intelligence tool which facilitates business decision making by simplifying and automating the visualization of data to show trends and relationships through its interactive dashboards and reports.
Power BI is extremely user friendly and consequently very popular for users and businesses that want data driven intelligence. It has been the leading product in its category in terms of utalistion for the last 14 years. Power BI an manage billions of rows of data and pull data in near real-time while performing analysis to provide insights from the data. There are several testimonials on how this tool has transformed real life businesses’ fortunes by providing a platform for data driven decision making. Microsoft offers a Power BI Certification which helps users gain expertise in its use and concepts.
Power BI has several key components, Power Query for instance, is used to combine and refine data sources. Power Pivot is used for data modeling and calculations while Power View creates interactive visuals and brings the data to life. For 3-D visualization we use Power Map. Power BI Desktop combines these features in one solution driving efficiency while the Power Q&A, is a tool that allows you get answers on the data analysed using natural language queries. Almost any data source can be connected to power BI making it very versatile and new compatibilities are added regularly.
Power BI is a powerful solution for any company regardless of size wishing for analytical capacity beyond excel. The visualization and analysis tools ensure business are able to efficiently mine their data and garner deep insights into their performances and the operational drivers of this performance. It draws on Microsoft AI’s best features to make it easy to prepare data and build machine learning models and gain insights from structures and unstructured data. We can share and analyse very large volumes of data using it with Azure. Power BI has a drag and drop option which is a convenient way of creating personalised and interactive dashboards and reports.
Dashboards created can be updated instantly whenever the database is updated this is important for time sensitive data handling. It integrates seamlessly with excel making it very friendly to most businesses that still use excel extensively.
Power BI is comparatively more affordable especially for SMEs and offers three versions that can be selected based on need. There is the free option Power BI Desktop, The BI Pro and the Power BI Premium and it does not require specialized technical support. It can be accessed by the entire team form anywhere via internet hence driving effective collaboration.
Every business has data, and these can provide valuable insight on operations and performance. Power BI is a powerful, affordable and easy to use tool that every business leader must take advantage of.
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