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Excel Training Professional & Management

30 Reasons You Should Be Considering Power BI – Part 2

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.

Strategic decision making
Microsoft Power BI training
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.

Categories
Case Studies Professional & Management Professional Development

Taking Minutes – STL Case Study

Organisational Profiles

As part of our Public Schedule portfolio, STL offers a course on Taking Minutes, delivering high-value content along with a significant amount of practical exercises which allows minute-takers to remember, write and record in meetings without anxiety and tiredness.

Minute taking is required across the spectrum of industry: large organisations government departments, councils, law and administration offices, courts, schools and the NHS; anywhere where reports have to be kept and presented to management across the board and many of which can be held as legal documents.

Purpose of the course

An organisation needs to ensure its staff are made aware of the purpose of minutes, and the value they bring. An effective way of recording and presenting minutes, either formally or informally, is a pre-requisite for the efficiency of the business, particularly if it wants everyone to understand what is happening within it.

The biggest complaints minute-takers have is that they are :

  • Often ignored
  • Secondary to proceedings and
  • Unable to know exactly what to take down
  • Writing as soon as someone speaks and then find they tire quickly, truly missing most of what the speaker has said

Their anxiety levels are increased when:

  • Delegates are unknown to them
  • International meetings often result in listening to different accents, foreign spellings and over-talking which means they must write a lot
  • They look back at their work and can hardly read their own notes

Person on a Taking Minutes Course Using Yellow and Black Pen

Benefits

The course gives them wonderful tools to:

  • Know how to slow down and listen to the words spoken before writing to get the feel of the communication
  • Record the key points and relevant facts
  • Prepare for and lead the Chair and Attendees to advise you when using any acronyms, foreign names or spellings etc.
  • Fashion your report to the intended recipients
  • Know when to use which style of minutes required
  • Design a colour coded way of reading back your reports
  • Summarise and consolidate
  • Reflect and record necessary dialogue accurately
  • Demonstrate the transparency and historic thread of decision making, laws, and motions and provide a snapshot of the course and progress of a meeting/hearing
  • Use keywords which will help you to remember the gist of a communication if there has been a delay in writing up the minutes.
  • Techniques learned lead to an increase in working efficiency which leads to higher productivity

Learning Deliverables

Without actual practise we cannot correct the mistakes we may be making when taking minutes. Naturally therefore, the course will offer several minute-taking exercises to try out the new skills and methods demonstrated. This can be slightly uncomfortable at times, but it can also provide excellent insight into areas of improvement.

The coupling of professional trainers delivering the material and the gleaning of feedback on the day ensures that STL can provide a course that features what the majority of people having to take minutes are looking for: new ideas, useful and effective models and full hints on preparing for sessions which build your confidence.

Key skills such as conducting sessions, listening, critical thinking and organisation are also examined.

Feedback

We have been running this course for many years, and it’s being constantly ‘upgraded’ to reflect the changing needs of the market. Inevitably, our feedback has been excellent across the board with delegates recommendations:

“Remembering techniques highly useful. I now have a way to recall a scenario given to me even after a few days of the meeting.”

“Everyone got involved in the exercises. It showed us all what traps we were falling into and how to prevent common mistakes.”

“As secretaries, we have so much on our plate that the fear and boredom of taking down and writing up minutes adds to the turmoil of our day. This course has helped take away that anxiety and I actually look forward to using the techniques I learnt. The chore has been turned into a challenge”

Finally…

As a trainer I have seen many minute takers undervalue the role they play, that they are just observers. Yet they are second in importance to the chair, if not more so, because it often depends on them to set the agenda, organise and run the meeting as well as to keep everyone abreast of what was said and the motions and tasks put forward.

The course instils in the delegate the confidence to take accurate notes, inform participants of the minute-taker’s requirements and to conduct the meeting in a way helpful to ensuring accurate notes are taken. Dry notetaking becomes a way of telling a story to the reader, even in formal presentation.

There are many training companies offering courses on Taking Minutes. Hopefully this case study illustrates how STL can uniquely improve the productivity and efficiency of taking minutes, without the stress!

Other necessary skills for minute takers are a high proficiency in core Microsoft Office applications, and we can help with our Word, PowerPoint and Excel courses.