Business Cloud Integration writes:
Power BI is a dynamic reporting tool that transforms your company data into rich visuals that you can collect and organise into custom reports. With Power BI you can see the information you need to see, and drill down into the data, through clear and engaging visual reports.
If you don't have Power BI yet, and you're dreading putting those reports together, don't panic - we've still got a couple of weeks to help put things right, and prepare you for next year.
Let's take a look at how you can leverage Power BI in your business.
That Annual Update...
It is well known that Power BI connects with many online services such as Salesforce, SAP, Xero, Sage etc, but fewer people know that even smaller businesses can leverage Power BI's reporting capabilities even without those services. You can easily use a direct query to a SQL database, or even an Excel spreadsheet hosted in OneDrive, to create dynamic reports.
Power BI is so easy to use, and with the right data model you can easily create meaningful reports in seconds.
If you've got a little of your training budget left for the year end, why not use it to impress your teams with wrap up sales reports, dynamically highlighted key data, clearly mapped real time sales performance, and the ability to drill into marketing results with ease:
(Image removed)Modelling that data ready for the Christmas rush...
If managing teams, shifts and retail stock is key to success in the busy pre-Christmas sales period, then creating a data model to bring that information together could be vital, and preparation is the key.
While the reporting looks impressive, the real skill within Power BI lies in the data modelling. Mixing data sets, and referencing data from local, live feed, and data warehoused storage is all possible with a well structured model.
(Image removed)Take some quite time to update the Azure Data Catalog
What better time to do the filing and update your data catalog than when the office is quiet over the holiday period. If you don't have one yet, the Azure Data Catalog - a free service for all but the biggest data hoarders - is a centralised list of data sources. These can be Excel spreadsheets, SharePoint lists, SQL databases, or any collection of data, and you can create a master list of them all that your team can use. You may even find valuable information that you never knew you had! When you're compiling your reports, why not ask for access to your company's data catalogue? You never know what gems you might find...
Something to play with while the team are on holiday...
While the office is quiet, why not use that time to have a play with your data, familiarise yourself with the charting tools, and find out just how intuitive a report you can create just by mixing data sets.
Have a play and see what insights you can discover, or to learn more about Power BI, get in touch today!
Business Cloud Integration Ltd offer Cloud, SharePoint and Office 365 consultancy in Cambridge, delivering solutions that increase company productivity, streamline and automate business processes, and simplify and enhance collaborative working.