Power BI is a Microsoft-developed analytics tool that enables users to discover, visualise, and analyse data from multiple sources in real time, helping businesses make informed, data-driven decisions.

With Power BI, analysts can turn complex company data into compelling visualisations, allowing stakeholders to focus on key insights and identify trends immediately. This empowers management to monitor performance and allocate resources effectively across projects.

How Microsoft Power BI works

Power BI allows users to create clear, visually engaging reports that can be shared across internal teams or with external stakeholders. The platform integrates seamlessly with established Microsoft technologies, including:

• a powerful query engine to retrieve data,
• data modelling and visualisation tools for interactive reporting, and
• capabilities to publish reports on websites or embed them in custom applications.

Organisations can monitor all aspects of their business from a single dashboard. Power BI’s workflow follows a simple four-step process:

Step 1: Gather your data

Analysts can collect data from a variety of sources, including cloud services, on-premises databases, Excel files, and SQL databases, consolidating it into a central repository for analysis.

Step 2: Shape and combine data

Power BI enables data to be transformed or 'shaped' without altering the original source. Once prepared, different datasets can be merged to generate insights, which can then be visualised using intuitive drag-and-drop tools to create interactive reports.

Step 3: Build interactive reports

After collecting and organising the data, analysts can design interactive reports using Power BI’s tools, saving them as visually rich reports for stakeholders.

Step 4: Share with teams

Completed reports can be shared with internal and external stakeholders, offering a comprehensive view of critical data to support well-informed business decisions.

Benefits of Microsoft Power BI

Power BI enables interactive, user-driven analytics on a collaborative platform. It provides enhanced visibility into business data, simplifying monitoring and analysis to drive data-focused decision-making.

Unlike other reporting systems, Power BI balances high performance with ease of use. Key advantages include:

• Analysts can create and publish reports without IT assistance,
• Geo-map visualisations powered by Bing Maps,
• Centralised access to relevant data for management,
• Supports data-driven decision-making,
• Enables customer segmentation based on business criteria,
• Tracks sales pipelines, identifies opportunities, improves forecasts, and helps close deals,
• Provides a collaborative environment for data analysis, and
• Enables fast responses to trends and changing conditions.

Power BI helps organisations across industries efficiently track and analyse data, reducing risks and unlocking actionable insights. No matter the department, Power BI offers valuable benefits.

Terrance assists businesses with connecting existing systems, implementing Power BI, and setting up analytics solutions. Our experienced consultants work with you to integrate your internal systems, create personalised dashboards, and enable effective data analytics.