Power BI is a suite of business analytic tools designed by Microsoft and is used to analyse data and share insights.  It allows the user to monitor their business and get answers quickly with rich dashboards available on every device.  End-Users get instant access to real-time data with Visualisations that can be shared with colleagues.

Power BI enables the user to:

• Create datasets (models) from one or multiple data sources including cloud sources.
• Create reports containing Visualisations of the model such as maps, charts, tables, gauges etc
• Share the reports via Dashboards
• Interact with Reports and Dashboards through phone and tablet apps.

THE PARTS OF POWER BI

Power BI consists of:

• A free Windows desktop application called Power BI Desktop for building data models.
• An online SaaS (Software as a Service) service called the Power BI service for publishing data
• Power BI Mobile Apps for Windows, iOS, and Android devices for viewing Visualisations anywhere.
• Power BI Pro allows collaboration with others and the distribution of content. This requires a licence.

WHO DOES MICROSOFT POWER BI AFFECT?

Anyone in an enterprise who needs to communicate information to their department, managers, vendors, or to the organization in general can use Power BI’s data visualization tools to make it happen.

WHY DOES MICROSOFT POWER BI MATTER?

The ability to transform the huge amount of data generated by business enterprises into some form of actionable information that decision makers can use on a regular basis is critical to the success of the enterprise. Power BI provides tools for transforming raw data into information that can be presented in dashboards, documents, and reports.

COMPARING POWER BI DESKTOP AND THE POWER BI SERVICE

In a Venn diagram comparing Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service, the area in the middle would show how the two overlap. Some tasks you can do in either Power BI Desktop or the service. But on the two sides of the Venn diagram, the application and the service each have unique features.

REPORT EDITING

In both the application and the service, you can build and edit reports. A report can have one or many pages, with visuals and collections of visuals. You can add bookmarks, buttons, filters, and drill through, to enhance navigation in your reports.

POWER BI vs POWER EXCEL

“Power Excel” and Power BI are built on top of the exact same engine!

• Power BI takes the same data shaping, modelling and analytics capabilities and adds new reporting and publishing tools
• Transitioning is easy; you can import an entire data model directly from Excel!