What is Power BI used for & how it impacts your business operations?
If you have heard about Microsoft’s Power BI, but wondering what is power bi used for then this blog is for you. Because this blog will tell you what it can do that your existing Excel cannot!
What is Power BI?
Power BI from the umbrella of Microsoft is a free and self-service business intelligence tool. Using this BI suite, even non-technical business users can collect, analyze, aggregate, visualize and share data. Power BI’s interactive and intriguing visuals impart life to data and makes it easy to understand.
There are multiple products of Power BI for developing and sharing reports. The three most widely used are:
- Desktop
- Pro
- Premium
To understand which version best fits your requirement, read our article Power BI: Free vs. Pro version comparison. The detailed analysis of the products will help you make an informed decision.
Power BI not only helps in accessing crucial data, but it also allows you to understand, implement, and communicate the same. Both small and large organizations prefer its ease-of-use, advanced analytical features, and upgraded visuals.
Even world leaders like Walmart, Toyota, Apple, etc., use Power BI.
What are the major uses of Power BI?
Let us now understand what is Power BI used for and how it can boost your organization’s analytical capabilities and thus ROI.
For real-time data analysis
In business, every second counts.
For instance, in logistics, a single delay can disturb the entire distribution channel and result in heavy losses. And in human resources, if you do not find out the root cause behind your attrition rate, your company will be doomed in no time.
With Power BI, you get real-time data. Thus, no more time is wasted in waiting for information from your other teams. It reduces dependencies & speeds up your report generation process. You have actionable reports accessible from anywhere. In Power BI, you can refresh the data eight times a day!
Moreover, real-time data makes reports more relevant. It keeps you at par with the current business scenario and supports you to make prompt decisions.
For a competitive edge
Losing customers is one of the biggest nightmares of any business. And for small businesses with numerous competitors, this can be critical. The primary reason behind such an issue is a lack of knowledge about your customers and their purchase behavior.
To study past behaviors and foresee future trends, you need to gather data and analyze it. In this digital era, gathering information is easy. But, organizing the same for analysis is intimidating and time-consuming.
However, using Power BI’s visuals, particularly designed for marketing, you can get quick and straightforward outputs. And once you start understanding your customers, it will be easier for you to improvise your business strategy. In turn, you can reduce customer grievances and win their loyalty.
For handling multiple systems in one place
Business decisions are based on various factors. And without a robust BI system in place, you will have to manually collect the data, organize it, and then move to decision-making.
The entire process is cumbersome and ineffective. The time lost in this process is undesirable, mainly when you can afford intuitive BI tools like Power BI at just $9.99 per user.
Using it, you can build centralized data. Thus, saving time on data collection.
For organized & customized reporting
Power BI also helps you compile reports from different sources and highlight the most critical information on your dashboard.
You can share these dashboards with your team and management. Thus helping them monitor KPIs and analyze their teams’ performance. Since these reports are user-friendly, anyone can use them for making relevant business decisions.
Using advanced features like Drillthrough and Visual Zoom Sliders, end-users get in-depth information on relevant data. So, no more time waste surfing through various reports for a comprehensive conclusion.
For beautiful & relevant visualizations
Data varies from department to department and sector to sector. So, using the same visual for all types of data analysis and reporting will not help you.
We had minimal graphic options in traditional reporting, but it’s not the case anymore. Power BI’s marketplace has a plethora of visuals designed for specific service lines. And most of them are free. All you need to do is download the report and start using it.
Related Read: Business Benefits of Power BI
5 reasons why businesses prefer using Power BI
1. Ease of use
Starting from the installation process to viewing your reports and collaborations – none of the activities require technical help.
You can connect the desktop version with more than 70+ data sources (Microsoft keeps updating this list). You can access data from a wide range of databases, cloud services, or flat files and analyze the same in minutes.
Furthermore, with its drag-and-drop features, you can now say goodbye to long lines of coding.
2. Similarity with Microsoft Excel
Advanced Excel users enjoy Power BI because of Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) formula language’s similarity with Excel formula.
Being familiar with features like grouping, filtering, clustering, formatting, forecasting, and quick measures, they can easily dig deeper and analyze data.
3. Data security
Power BI offers you granular control over your data and the accessibility of reports. So, your data is secured, and only those whom you permit can have access to it.
You can also control the type of access granted. And your database remains safe in the backend even after publishing the report on the cloud.
4. Cortana integration
Cortana – Microsoft’s digital assistant, is integrated with Power BI. So, you can ask questions verbally in natural language to get visuals and analysis.
This feature is extremely convenient for mobile users. It helps you generate a basic report and gives you a head-start on your data analysis.
Microsoft is still at a nascent stage with this but surely they will improve it over the years.
5. R integration for advanced users
Though Power BI’s core strength lies in its ease of use, it’s also useful for advanced users. Its integration with open-source programming languages like R and Python supports data scientists.
Hence, it can also be used to present advanced business analytics. Such as smoothing, machine learning, deep learning, and predictive trends.
Want to implement but don’t know where to start?
Read this: The advantages of partnering with a Power BI consulting services company
Final takeaway
Power BI is used as a one-stop solution for all business intelligence needs.
Starting with collecting data and simplifying complex information to solving critical business problems and offering solutions to multiple challenges.
If you too want to improve your strategic analysis, then get in touch with our consultants today!
