Create powerful dashboards and metrics with Power BI

Data can be confusing and overwhelming, there’s no two ways about it. All companies strive to ensure that their data is accessible to those who need to understand it and the clearer it is, the better.

Power BI is a great tool for this. Developed by Microsoft, it is part of the Microsoft Power Platform and has a primary focus on business intelligence. It is an interactive data visualisation software, which means that it takes an organisation’s data and presents it visually to make it more accessible.

From there, analysts are able to gather insights from the data and report back to managers who can then take a more strategic approach based on the information they’ve been given. 

Power BI allows you to create dashboards, which are simply visual displays of your data. These will present your company’s metrics - commonly things such as performance, profit levels and any trends that are occurring - in an attractive, easy to understand format. This, in turn, will offer insights that will not only inform you, but also enable you to improve any areas of the business that require improvement.

Quite simply, Power BI can make your data work for you, in a streamlined and agile way, always making sure you can see the whole picture as it is right now. This is what makes it the best tool in Microsoft’s arsenal for data analysis and visualisation today.

What can Power BI do?

Its core purpose is to find insights within an organisation's data. It transforms and cleans data into a data model and creates charts or graphs to provide visuals of the data. It will enable you to mash up data that previously would have been locked away in their own spreadsheets, use programming constructs to develop insights into your data and securely publish it in reports that can be shared with people you choose to share it with. 

Leveraging the security components on Microsoft 365, Power BI lets you define groups to have report access, and lock secure data away under sensitivity labels, making sure that the products that you create are always kept safe from people who should not have access.

Power BI can link natively to multiple data sources, including SalesForce, SharePoint, Excel and multiple database engines to name just a few. It will always ensure that your source data remains as a single source of truth, instead of modifying the dataset as analysis is done. You can schedule data refreshes to happen automatically if you import the data, or link to it if not, making sure your reports are always showing current information. 

Using powerful AI features, Power BI can provide you with highly detailed and highly focused insights, as well as giving you the option to ask questions of your data in normal everyday language, along with the ability to train the model to answer specific questions.

What are the benefits of it?

  • It takes high volume data and transforms it into visual information that is easy to digest and understand.

  • Power BI is much faster than Excel for data visualisation and much more interactive straight away.

  • It makes it possible for less technical members of staff to access the same information as analysts.

  • It presents company data clearly, making it easy to identify key bits of information.

  • It enables managers to access the company’s metrics and use this information to inform their strategic plans and decisions.

  • Once you’ve undertaken training, Power BI is easy to use and makes data tasks much easier.

  • You get all of the benefits of using Power BI, with a relatively shallow learning curve.

Who would find it useful?

It is useful for data analysts and architects who work with data all the time as it will enable them to present information to managers and other members of staff in a much simpler and easy to follow way. It is also good for managers who wish to be more efficient in accessing data for use in meetings and in strategic planning. 

Choose PETA for your Power BI training

Our training is delivered by our team of industry experts, who have used the software themselves and have a deep understanding of it and its application in the workplace. They will guide you through the training step by step, ensuring you understand each aspect as you go. Examples will be given and delegates will have the chance to have a go themselves. Questions are welcomed throughout the training and even in the days and weeks following the course if further queries arise - we’re here to help and ensure you go away confident in the use of Power BI.

Scheduled courses

We offer a one-day Power BI course at our Portsmouth training centre. This will cover the following topics:

  • Data Connections

  • Modelling

  • Calculates Tables

  • Visualisations

  • Power BI Service

  • DAX

We have courses scheduled for Thursday 22 September and Tuesday 29 November and you can book your places online today! 

Bespoke training

We can also offer bespoke or company-sponsored Power BI training, whereby we will work with you to create the exact training package you and your staff need. This will enable your team to learn how to get the best out of data analysis, with your business in mind. This bespoke training can be delivered at our Portsmouth training centre or at your premises - the choice is yours.

What our delegates had to say…

“The course was a great experience due to the tutor’s extensive knowledge and the fact that it was very interactive.”

“It gave me all the tools I needed to start using Power BI back in the office.”

“Live examples were given throughout the course and access was given to more detailed modules to use post-workshop, which was great.”

Get in touch for more information on our scheduled course or bespoke training option.

 

 

 

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