What is Power BI? | Data Visualization

Data is now at the core of business and organizations need powerful tools to analyze and extract value from it. Power BI is Microsoft’s business solution that converts data into insights quicker and easier. If your business works with Excel spreadsheets or you want to start extracting business data and using it to make informed decisions, you might want to take power BI for a spin. The goal of this article is to introduce Power BI and show how it can help improve data visualization and analytics for businesses.

What is Power BI

Data visualization is a powerful data model tool for communicating insights. But getting started with the many data visualization tools out there can be challenging. Power BI is one of the best options for business users who want to tell their stories.

Power BI is a cloud-based business analytics suite that allows you to turn your raw data into beautiful charts, graphs, reports, and visualizations. It can be used to query data and create interactive reports, dashboards, and visualizations for the Web, mobile devices, and tablets. You can embed dashboards on your own website or social media pages so that anyone in your organization can view them.

In addition, it has a rich extensibility model that allows developers to integrate Power BI with other applications or build new ones using its APIs and reference architecture. Power BI also integrates with other Microsoft applications such as Excel and Dynamics 365.

VIDEO: What is PowerBI?

Power BI is available in two forms: as a free service offering and as a paid service. The free service offers limited features but also includes some limitations on sharing reports, creating workspaces, or using APIs and controls. The paid service removes these limitations, offering larger storage, larger datasets, and several other features.

Benefits of Power BI Skills

Power BI provides several advantages for businesses who want to make the most of their data and get insight into the future of their company to make well-informed choices.

One of the biggest benefits of Power BI is that it allows businesses to combine data from multiple sources into one platform to create reports. This means the organization can analyze its entire business picture in one place. Businesses no longer need to jump between different software programs, which can save time and money in training new employees on how to use each program.

Another benefit is that Power BI provides an easy way to build reports and visualizations that help users understand data better. Numbers can mean a lot, but using Power BI visualization software allows you to look at data such as sales trends, year-over-year growth, and KPIs and not only make sense of it but tell a story with it.

Insights from Power BI Data Visualization

When it comes to leveraging data to drive organizational growth, one of the biggest challenges is assembling disparate parts into a cohesive whole. But with Power BI, you can easily connect to data, clean it up, model it, and display it in a way that makes sense. Then, you can share your reports and visualizations and even embed them in an app or website. With this powerful tool, you can transform raw data into actionable insights and confidently drive your business forward.

For example, by using Power Bi to analyze COVID-19 infections according to population, age, gender, vaccination rate, and economic status, a company could gain valuable insights into the location of COVID-19 clusters, enabling them to strategically position vaccination sites for maximum impact.

In the world of sales, having a clear visualization of the products that are hitting the bullseye with customers, the ones that are lagging, and the ones that are generating the most significant profit margins can lead to game-changing decisions that propel the business towards success. Armed with this knowledge, sales organizations can take calculated risks and steer their focus in the right direction, maximizing their potential for growth and profitability.

VIDEO: Power BI: Turn Data Into Action

Microsoft provides an extensive list of case studies and success stories of how companies have used Power BI to interpret data and make positive changes to their organization based on their findings.

Future of Power BI in the Workforce

As organizations seek to stay ahead in an ever-evolving market, they're investing in analysis tools at a breakneck pace. Among these tools, Power BI is a standout performer. As part of the Microsoft Office 365 and Azure Suite, it boasts a shorter learning curve and is more affordable compared to other analysis tools. In fact, with a 36% market share in 2021, Microsoft Power BI was and continues to be the leading desktop business intelligence (BI) solution.

In today's turbulent economic climate, businesses need rapid insight into their performance across all levels of the organization. Power BI service provides just that, helping businesses stay agile and competitive in a rapidly changing landscape.

VIDEO: Exploring Power BI as Your Business Intelligence Solution

Power BI Resources

Microsoft offers a free download of Power BI Desktop, which is the primary tool for creating Power BI reports. There are also numerous public databases available online, providing an opportunity to sharpen your analysis skills. If you're ready to take things to the next level, you can even sign up for a free trial of the Power BI service, where you can publish your Power BI reports and create dashboards, all with ease and efficiency.

If you're new to the Power BI service, there are lots of free resources available to help you get started. Here are some of our favorite places to start:

• Microsoft Power BI Community: Backed by the Microsoft community, you’ll find tons of information, tutorials, and tips from the official Power BI Community
• Microsoft Power BI Documentation: Microsoft provides extensive documentation and guides for learning about and using the Power BI service.
• Youtube: There are hundreds of videos on YouTube about Power BI and data visualization techniques in general. Some are even hosted by Microsoft employees!
• Twitter: Follow @MSPowerBI on Twitter for updates from the team behind this product! They often share links to blog posts, reports, and other resources relating to Power BI.

Summary

Whether you are looking to improve your current analytics solution or explore the possibilities of new innovations, Power BI could be worth trying out. No matter how experienced you are with business data visualizations, Power BI offers countless opportunities to bring together all the information needed to make better decisions and make your company more profitable in the process.