Power BI is a cloud technology by Microsoft which enables user to analyze and visualize data easily. Creating reports is a task anyone can do. You do not have to be a programmer to use this tool. You will need just the basic user skills.

Undeniable advantage is an ever-growing community, meaning that if a problem occurs, you will always find solution online. Plenty of materials can be found here on the website in category Power BI. News from other webs concerning this tool can be accessed via special page I created for this purpose: Power BI News and blogs (ENG).

Power BI Includes Powerful Analytical Tools

This service includes a set of tools that enable users to independently analyze factory data and create reports. The concept on which PBI is based is sometimes called Self-service BI. This concept is based on analytical and reporting tool which can be controlled by anyone. Therefore there is no need to include IT department into the process.

Demonstration of Retail Analysis Sample Dashboard

Now you can take a look at 3 interactive reports. It is a demonstration of retail reporting (Retail analysis sample). Reports are fully interactive, other graphs will be redrawn by clicking on the graph, meaning you can easily analyze your data. You can enlarge your dashboard in a lower right corner.

There are examples of reports in category Sample reports in Power BI, which show you what you can create with Power BI.

If you are interested in what it takes to create one, check out article creating dashboard step by step. It takes some trying, but everyone can do it.

Which Data Can Be Connected With Power BI?

There is available connectivity to a bunch of predefined services. You can obviously connect online to:

• Local MS SQL Server,
• External files such as Excel, csv, txt
• Cloud services such as Azure, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Salesforce, QuickBooks, Google analytics and many more

Data update can be done manually or a time period can be set according to your needs. This way your data will be prepared whenever you need it.

Power BI and Excel tools

If you are a fan of the spreadsheet program Excel you can use PBI add-ons for Excel. I dig into these tools in articles:

• Power Query, PowerPivot and Power BI – what is the difference between them here (link will be added soon)
• Beginning with Powerpivot – tool for data modeling here (link will be added soon)
• Power Query – Heavy weight of self service BI (link will be added soon)