In a world where industries have huge amounts of datasets, demand for turning this information into valuable insights is increasing. Microsoft Power BI is one such robust tool that helps you with data visualization and actionable insights. Organizations can perform data analysis and develop dashboards through Power BI within minutes.
Power BI dashboards and reports
The Power BI solution has two main components- dashboards and reports. They look similar, but they are both different canvas visualizations. Dashboards are a one-page canvas where multiple reports or datasets can be compiled together for effortless visualization. On the contrary, Reports are one or more pages and include a single dataset. Dashboards are unavailable on the Power BI desktop, but you can build and view Reports.
Comparing Power BI desktop and Power BI service
Power BI desktop is a tool to create complete data analysis and reports that connect, visualize, and analyze data on a system. At the same time, Power BI service is a SaaS or cloud-based software that supports editing and collaboration for teams and organizations.
There are some tasks that you can do either in Power BI desktop or service whereas some others you can do in both as shown below:
Interactive Dashboards with Microsoft Power BI use-cases
With Power BI, you can connect all your organization’s data and view it together in the form of interactive reports and dashboards. Here are the top 5 Power BI use-cases.
#1.Transform, shape, and model data using query in Power BI :
Power Query is a vital Power BI use case that enables data shaping and transformation. It shapes the data by renaming columns, editing columns, merging data, and replacing values. Moreover, it extracts, transforms, and loads (ETL) datasets and uploads it to Azure SQL database without further optimization or coding, hence improving the data acquisition process.
#2.DAX (Data analysis expressions) :
DAX is a resources library that eases the workload of Power BI users. It enables users to build expressions, measures, and calculate columns. DAX includes date and time, filter, financial, information, logical, math and trig, parent and child, and relationship functions. When implemented, these functions make Power BI dashboards smarter and enhance data visualization.
#3.Power view :
Power View is a tool for data visualization that allows the creation of intuitive charts, graphs, maps, and other visuals, turning raw data into actionable insights. The migration of Power View to Power BI Desktop, facilitating a deeper analysis of the available data and better visualization of reports.
#4.Embedded analytics :
A significant use-case of Power BI is embedded analytics, which allows embedding reports, dashboards, and tiles in web applications or websites. These embedded URLs provide view permissions, filters, bookmarks, and slicers, improving the overall performance of reports.
#5.RLS (Row-level security) :
Power BI is designed to provide security in a controlled manner. Row-Level Security (RLS) filters data-sensitive information and provides data access to only authorized users. The main feature of RLS is it does not restrict data; however, users are responsible for sharing data. Some Power BI use cases for RLS are based on location, business, job, time, etc.
Benefits of Power BI in business
#1. Approach for self-service and business data analytics on Power BI – Through Power BI, you can unify self-service and enterprise data analytics on a single platform. The built-in smart tools and layouts like fixed layout, paginated reports, semantic model, and an application lifecycle management (ALM) tool kit reduces costs and enables higher data security.
#2. More compelling insights – Power BI provides IT professionals collaboration tools to seamlessly turn data into actionable insights. Power BI visualizes details easily, delivers with right insights to ensure the smooth running of your business. The datasets designed with a Power BI algorithm deliver visually appealing insights.
#3. Save time – The combination of Excel and Power BI becomes a powerful combination for enterprises to gather, shape, analyze, and explore critical business insights. You can connect Excel and Power BI to data models and leverage advanced visualizations, modeling, and predictive capabilities all with a single click. This saves a lot of man hours for organizations.
#4. Data security – Microsoft Power BI data loss prevention (DLP) policies helps businesses detect and protect sensitive data. Power BI keeps data accessible to everyone and avoids misuse of important information of a business.
Practical application of Power BI in various industry domains
Industries use Power BI to filter data, analyze, and create impactful visualizations to attain actionable information for their business. Power BI facilitates an excellent dashboard with improved real-time visibility into business performance.
Here are some of the industry domains in which Power BI is helping with its Dashboard examples:
#1.eCommerce : eCommerce is widely using Power BI for its business operations and improving efficiencies by acting on critical insights. Power BI streamlines data management and consolidates for effective presentation, from supplier data and inventory details to customer behavior, relations, and employee performance.
#2.Healthcare: Power BI helps the health workers by keeping track of patients’ testing demands and gathering and storing health records of every patient. Tracking of patients’ journey, case types, and treatment administered helps in preventing future ailments. Healthcare can improve patient treatment, optimize test pricing, enhance marketing, and boost health team collaboration through analytical insights.
#3. Banking and insurance: Tracking claims, business processes, transactions, premiums, policy costs, etc., by incorporating Power BI in data management is a huge success in the finance industry. With Power BI led visualizations and predictive analytics, professionals can easily identify frauds and understand their customers better.
#4. Manufacturing: Power BI use cases help manufacturers monitor production, defective items, consumption rate, labor hours, etc., to minimize costs, increase efficiency, and resource optimization. Management of operations helps business owners to make better decisions.
Final Take
Competitive times like today demand powerful tools like Power BI that can make work easier while boosting workforce productivity and efficiency. Power BI Dashboards help track business operations in the form of highly interactive visualizations. Connect with our experts to leverage the full potential of Power BI and implement it successfully enterprise-wide.
Ravindra Reddy
Ravindra is a Senior Software Engineer at Ranosys. He has over 3 years of experience in Microsoft SharePoint and Power Platforms. He is very well versed in building Power BI dashboards. He believes in learning new technologies and sharing his knowledge with others. Besides work, he is extremely passionate about traveling and exploring new places.
