Getting started with Power BI for better business intelligence management
In every industry, in every territory, data has become a valuable asset for organisations. Understanding and leveraging real-time data ensures teams and processes of any size can stay agile, proactive, and competitive. Business intelligence provides a practical solution to the abundance of data points within organisational processes, helping organisations grow and thrive.
Business intelligence is the process of analysing, visualising and harnessing the power of raw data within an organisation and turning this into actionable takeaways that can shape the future roadmap for all sorts of business decisions.
Business intelligence management relies heavily on technology and software to turn data into meaningful, thoughtful, and inspiring organisational insights. Collecting data is only part of the puzzle – being able to interpret key insights from the data is where organisations can truly gain a competitive edge.
Microsoft Power BI is a popular choice and something many organisations can benefit from.
In this article, we delve into Power BI and tips for getting the most out of it. If you’re looking for help with data visualisation or BI, get in touch with our expert team here at Sustainit. We have a wealth of experience and knowledge in all kinds of data management software and systems, helping our clients gain meaningful conclusions using technology that suits them (and their budget).
Read Time
3 mins
Author
Oliver Boulton
Business intelligence & goals
Business intelligence can reveal all sorts of insights for an organisation, so it becomes important to understand what it is you are looking for. Here at Sustainit, our approach to data always starts with our clients’ goals, challenges and aspirations, helping us create data collection points, visualisation and storytelling that achieves clear goals and objectives.
Creating visual charts and graphs for random data points won’t provide actionable insights team leaders are looking for. Instead, these visual aids should help translate and communicate real-time results about specific processes or systems.
Getting started with Power BI
Microsoft describes Power BI as a desktop application that lets you “connect to, transform and visualise your data”. This foundation lays the path to create advanced predictive modelling, spot trends, identify outliers and create visual reports that summarise deeply complex processes into single charts or graphics.
Some popular features and uses include:
Data visualisation
At its core, Power BI is a data visualisation tool, helping to translate and communicate all sorts of data into bite-size takeaways. For organisations, this presents them with an opportunity to better leverage the data they are collecting and use it to persuade and influence. Read more about the power of data visualisation for businesses.
Sharing
Power BI makes sharing data easy. This is extremely important when trying to create change within an organisation as it helps create synergy and encourages collaboration. Employees and teams can quickly share graphs and reports with one another, helping to create real-time transparency and openness between teams, departments and offices.
Power BI also ensures data is secure so sharing such reports or graphics can be done so with confidence.
Intuitive interface
Most companies are familiar with spreadsheets and using Excel for all sorts of internal processes. Power BI has a natural integration with Excel, making data entry and connections seamless. Instead of just trying to use Excel, Power BI helps add a layer of data visualisation and built-in AI capabilities to find and share meaningful insights with ease.
Interactive
Data visualisation goes beyond just inserting some graphs within a report. BI software helps create interactive content that adapts to real-time inputs. This means users can see how things change depending on what information you feed the system. In organisational terms, this can help benefit from data when trying to predict future outcomes or challenges, and identify how potential actions could impact other processes.
This sort of visualisation avoids stakeholders or employees needing to trawl through vast amounts of data, and instead benefit from a single graphic that can shed light on all sorts of processes within an organisation.
Learn more about Sustainit
Here at Sustainit, we are focused on helping organisations get more from their data.
We have all the tools you need to transform your data into formats (such as infographics) that are easy to understand, insightful and inspiring, and give key stakeholders across your business the means to understand the data in an easy to digest and informative way. If Power BI is the right tool for your business, get in touch with our data team. If you’d love more bespoke data visualisations and infographics, we also offer creative services for custom work.
Want to find out more about Power BI and data visualisation?
