A lot of people out there think that the story of Power BI is too good to be true.
Here is a list of the reasons that wE think you should consider Power BI as a self-service and/or Enterprise Business Intelligence Solution.
Power BI has mobile apps
Microsoft have released mobile applications that are free for Windows, Apple and Android.
You can subscribe via email
Most of us would like a static report to appear in our inbox every morning when we power up. All you need to go is to your report tab, click ‘subscribe via email’ and each day you will receive a nicely formatted PDF ready for printing. However these reports are so much better when you have full interactivity.
Power BI can be embedded into your own custom apps
When working from the ground up, you’ll always have the option of designing your own architecture around it. So if you want to build your own website and set user access via your own logon credentials, then that will not be an issue for Microsoft.
Power BI is extremely competitively priced
It’s free to try for as long as you want, however, If you want to take advantage of all the enterprise features such as automatic refreshes, controlled sharing of data, then all you’ll have to pay is a whole $9.99 per month.
Power BI is easy to use and cheap to train users
It’s intuitive and easy to learn for most users. The training costs are low and learner adoption is rapid making the total cost of ownership quite a compelling case.
Power BI has a modelling engine that power users can learn
Power BI is subsequently enabling a culture of self service which is breeding a new generation of ‘developers’ who use the Vertipaq engine. Power BI uses a language called DAX, this is a functional language that can be learned by excel professionals
Power BI has data loading tools that power users can learn
Power query is so easy to use, it’s almost embarrassing to the skilled developers out there.
Power BI is self-service BI
Power BI is self service BI personified. Any competent excel user can learn and use these tools allowing them to become semi self-sufficient in their analytics and reporting.
Except when it is not self-service BI
Power BI has the foundations strengths of an enterprise strength tool whilst being simultaneously a self-service capable tool all at once.
Power BI has got consolidation dashboards
Power BI is amongst other things a data source aggregator – it doesn’t matter where the data originates from – all you have to do is to click on the link, graph, bar to view the information.
Learn more…
Power BI is an example of one of the many technical and professional development courses we offer at STL – check out our course finder to learn more. Alongside the technical skills needed to produce Power BI reports, you may also consider attending core soft skills like our presentation training, which can help make detailed reports more engaging and interesting to the audience.