Not everyone is tech-savvy enough to understand complex statistics and data about their business. With so many KPIs thrown around, it can get really tricky for anyone to get their head around them. That's what Microsoft Power BI promises to resolve. With over 5 million subscribers, it provides laypeople with comprehensive yet simple tools to analyze, visualize, and share their data. If you're wondering what Power BI stands for, it means Business Intelligence.
In this article, we'll discuss everything you should know, including the purpose of Power BI, its features, common uses for digital marketing, and more. Read on.
Before we go any further, it's important to understand what Power BI is and what it intends to achieve.
AI has been creeping into the business landscape faster than ever, with 64% of businesses believing it will boost productivity. Being one of the largest corporations on the planet, Microsoft has also been at the forefront of this transformation with the launch of Power BI.
Businesses have to decide what to focus on when they receive large swathes of data. Seeing the big picture can become nearly impossible in such a scenario, and that's where Power BI comes to the rescue.
It shows you all the important elements in one place, allowing you to see all the relevant data. All team members get access to important data that helps them make critical decisions for the company.
Usually, data analysts and data scientists use AI-based business products, but Power BI is built differently. Due to its user-friendly nature, many people working in a business can use it. How you use it depends upon your role in a particular company since it can generate various dashboards using the relevant data.
Power BI is mainly used by data analysts who generate insightful digital marketing reports and models to share them with the team. However, not all businesses have the financial space to hire a data scientist or analyst. Therefore, they use Power BI as a self-service tool to monitor their digital marketing progress and improve the team's performance.
Power BI serves all kinds of users by offering different versions. Some are for businesses with tight budgets, while others are for those who can spend more. Some have limited features, while others have a fully stacked feature line.
Power BI Desktop is a free desktop application that blends seamlessly with Power BI service to offer advanced data visualizations, data exploration, and report creation. Once you're done, you can save your digital marketing reports and share them with others on the Power BI site.
Also known as Power BI Online, the Power BI Service is the full version that connects to your data and lets you create visualizations from reports. It is available in two formats:
Power BI Pro is similar to Power BI Desktop in many aspects, such as file upload size, storage limits, visualizations, and more. The critical difference between the two is that the Pro version allows you to share your reports privately if the recipient also has a Pro license.
Power BI Premium offers a different way of using Power BI in which you pay for the processing capacity and the amount of space you want instead of paying for individual licenses. With six capacity models of varying space limits, users can select one that meets their needs.
This program is intended for businesses that generate vast amounts of data to get a dedicated capacity to process their Power BI load. It's important to remember here that Premium isn't a license; it's just a payment for processing capabilities.
You must buy the Premium license separately to create reports, share dashboards, and collaborate with other users.
Let's discuss some basic components and reporting tools that help Power BI work seamlessly.
It is an engine that works on different data sources and helps you combine and refine them. You can add it to Excel or use it on Power BI Desktop. With more than 300 AI-powered queries, you can shape your data in whatever way you want with Power Query.
Power Pivot handles the data modeling tasks by creating various data models and helping you make calculations. Its main driver is the Data Analysis Expression (DAX) for modeling simple and complex data.
Although it works perfectly with Excel, it is much more capable, thanks to its features, such as:
Power View is the technology that powers Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and SQL Server. Power View visualizes your data creatively by creating interactive elements like maps, charts, and graphs. It has powerful filtration mechanisms that filter out crucial data for e-commerce visualizations.
Power Map lets you plot over a million data rows on Bing maps by taking data directly from Excel tables or its Data Model. Thanks to its collaboration with Bing maps, Power Map creates maps based on various elements, such as country, city, state, latitude, and longitude.
Despite juggling various complex datasets, Power BI presents a final version that is simple enough for everyone to understand. All the insights are effectively visualized so you can gain the most from them. Moreover, the user interface is simple and generates reports using multiple data sources. Hence, it brings access to digital marketing strategy for everyone instead of relying on a few experts.
BI goes through four stages that combine the company's data and create a decision support tool. Here are the four steps involved in this process:
The best thing about BI is that these four stages are well-integrated. There's no need to trigger each stage once you're inside the app and everything functions smoothly. By assimilating data into an understandable and reliable manner, the decision-making process is much more efficient and accessible. As a result, the company's productivity sees a significant surge.
Power BI saves you precious time by creating various reporting templates within no time. Moreover, everyone in different departments and teams can use these reports to help:
Data is undoubtedly the key to success in the modern business world. However, it's equally important to protect that data from malicious actors ready to pound on any weakness in your data security. Today, 60% of small businesses go bust after experiencing a cyber assault. Power BI has various security features that set it apart from other programs, such as:
Microsoft is committed to providing regular updates for the platform, which it does every month. These updates keep Power BI ahead of the Bruges, with all its features running smoothly. Moreover, Microsoft listens to the feedback and improves its platform by adding new in-demand features and removing bugs/errors from previous versions.
Existing Microsoft Enterprise Agreement customers can use Power BI for zero additional costs. However, those who are new can get it in three different plans:
Power BI integrates perfectly with other apps, such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Dynamics, Power Automate, Power Apps, and more. With this level of integration, BI can process data from various data sources, including Google Analytics. Here's how BI integrates with multiple apps:
No matter where you are, you can easily access Power BI through its app. It makes it an excellent option for businesses operating in multiple locations. You can access the data as an engineer while working on a road.
You can pull up your favorite slides during a meeting if you're a manager. If you're an analyst, you can analyze any PPC data you like. Moreover, it allows multiple teams to work on a file simultaneously without disrupting the platform.
Microsoft's Power BI is great when it comes to getting valuable data about your business. However, it can get tricky for businesses who are not tech-savvy, and that's where Catchr comes in. We offer an exceptional Power BI connection service that connects various data sources to Power BI. With more than 20 connectors and over 10,000 metrics, you won't miss any crucial data points anymore.
From social media platforms to CRM, we ensure seamless data integration so you can benefit from all data types. You don't have to perform any complex steps for data integration; Catcher does that and saves you valuable time and resources that you can invest elsewhere.
So, contact us today and let us integrate important data for a robust digital marketing strategy through Power BI.