What Is Power BI? Advantages, How to Use It and Where to Learn Power BI


Today, organizations all over the world dedicated to web analytics turn to tools that let them obtain a greater amount of data. For this, Power Business Intelligence, also known as Power Bi, is the best solution. Keep reading to find out what it's about and how to master this tool!


Power Bi has more than 5 million users across some 200 thousand companies that have the possibility of securely and quickly accessing their data. That's why they attest to its effectiveness, and that's also why you have to get to know the platform if you're going to start training fully in the data area.


Do you want to know everything that has to do with this business intelligence software? Keep reading to the end!





What is Power Bi?


Power Bi constitutes a cloud-based business analysis solution, which provides the opportunity to unify different data sources, analyze them and present an analysis of them through reports and dashboards. Thanks to this tool, users have the possibility of easily accessing data both inside and outside the company and from almost any mobile device. 


The analyses can be shared by different users of the same company, so finance, management and sales people have full availability of the information that reflects the situation of the business, in real time. 


Currently, many companies in the marketing industry use data with the idea of improving the user experience, and all digital information takes on more sense and shape with the use of this tool, thanks to which a better analysis is achieved.


The point is that users can connect to said data and visualize it on a unified platform, scalable, self-service and very simple to put into practice. 


One of the most important elements to highlight is that the analysis is carried out through applications that are in the cloud, where all the information is collected and managed in the interface.


Even though everything we're telling you seems complicated, the truth is that this instrument is based on and shares the same learning curve as Microsoft Excel, so it can be used by any member of the organization. 


What is Power Bi for?


As we've already told you, Power Bi lets you connect to hundreds of data origins in the cloud or local environment, forming reports with integrated objects or custom objects.


A point we haven't mentioned to you is that access to the data can be carried out from an Excel table, Dynamic CRM, Google Analytics, Salesforce, to the most complex databases (in the cloud or on-premise), information from azure services, among others. All this lets you have the content visualized from a single angle.


The analysis of all the data provides the possibility of determining a company's weaknesses, strengths and growth, so that decision-making in the short, medium and long term is simpler, with the use of reports, dashboards and interactive charts.


In short, Power Bi facilitates the analysis of data, as well as obtaining patterns that can't be easily seen, with which better decisions can be made in favor of the organization. 


To achieve this objective, you can use grouping, forecasting, quick measures, or also more advanced actions through a powerful DAX formula language, which offers absolute control over the model.





Advantages of Power Bi


After everything we've told you, we're going to pinpoint what the benefits or advantages of having Power Bi are. Pay attention!


It lets you optimize, clean, combine and transform data that comes from countless origins, analyze the data deeply and find patterns; It provides the possibility of personalizing, that is, designing your report through the formatting, layout and theme creation tools; It gives a lot of flexibility, since it lets you extract information intended for a very wide range of scenarios;You'll be able to innovate, since you'll have the possibility of creating amazing reports with interactive data visualizations; It's multiplatform, since it will give you the possibility of creating reports optimized for mobile devices;Its dashboards provide the possibility for a manager to obtain enough information to run the company with autonomy and without human errors;It offers the opportunity to shape and import data according to the users' will;The calculations can be used as many times as needed and with updated information from the source databases;Because it's cloud-based, users have cutting-edge intelligence capability, as well as powerful algorithms;The interface is intuitive, so a better use of the platform is possible, as well as its navigation.


All these advantages make Power Bi a platform of great usefulness, just as we've told you throughout this post, to the point that many business intelligence companies are making use of it, due to its friendly nature and the simple creation of data from any department or area (Finance, marketing, Human Resources, Operations or Sales)


 Let's keep going!


How to use Power Bi?


Now then, one of the questions you're surely asking yourself is: How do you use Power Bi? With the idea of using the tool in depth, you only have to take into account four very simple steps that we mention below. Take note!


Get data: This involves the action of collecting all the data that is part of the organization's operations; Form a chart in a report: This has to do with structuring or organizing all the collected information; Explore with questions and answers: This step has to do with clearing up all the doubts that may arise; Change the position of the icons: This has to do with organization in case it's necessary.





What components does Power Bi have? 


 Power Bi is fundamentally made up of the following components. Pay attention!


Power Pivot: This is a component that is also called data analysis and is an information tool through which data models are created; Power Map: This is a visualization tool and thanks to it immersive 3D images are created;Power Query: Known as data preparation and its purpose is to connect the data that will be transformed, enhanced and combined across various sources, Power View: Also known as data visualization and its function is to generate interactive charts and maps, among other visual elements; Power Q & A: This is a component that represents the questions-and-answers engine around data, in very simple language.


All these components we've mentioned to you work in an interlinked way, even though there are some that require more concentration than others, due to their complexity.


Examples of dashboards in Power BI


The examples of dashboards in Power Bi can be many, in various areas. Below we present some in important sectors: 


In a company The finance department of an organization can use the platform's potential to carry out the strategic analysis of both its income and its expenses, in order to reach the detail of the level of its accounts.


The analysis wouldn't be by month, but also in charts that show the history of the last few years, which would help detect possible cost increases and low profitability in the future.


In the case of the department in charge of sales, it will have the possibility of studying the behavior trends for each customer, geographic zone, as well as the moments of greater or lesser sales flow, in order to make decisions and rethink strategy.


And in the Human Resources area, it's possible to carry out a study of all the staff's behavior, with the objective of studying their professional growth and the flow of them into or out of the company.


In healthcareIn a hospital, for example, the tool will allow studies of trends of the most frequent diseases, according to age ranges.


The combined data from various health centers could allow measures to be taken regarding the specialties that collapse most in certain zones and when to increase care in others. 


Power BI vs. Tableau: which is better?


Nevertheless, both Power Bi and Tableau are two applications that have the same purpose and similar functions. However, they have some qualitative differences that could lead you to opt for one or the other. 


Let's see what they are!


1. Data visualization and type of analysis


On this point, both applications provide the possibility of creating report dashboards that are very attractive from a visual point of view, as well as understandable for those who don't have programming knowledge.


In this sense, Tableau is designed for large companies, because it stands out for its ability to work with a large amount of data, while Power bi has a more flexible design, thanks to which the user will be able to operate with different amounts of data in a similar way.


2. Integration with other applications 


In this aspect, experts consider that Power Bi is better because, being a Microsoft application, it has the ability to integrate with any application from the same company.


3. Support and user experience


Tableau is conceived to be used by experts in data analysis handling, so a user who has little knowledge in Big Data and Business Intelligence will have a bit of difficulty handling it.


Thus, based on these four elements, you'll be able to determine which of the two applications is the one that suits you most for your business.


4. Price and licensing


Nevertheless, on this aspect it's fair to acknowledge that Power Bi is seven times cheaper than its competitor. According to experts, a professional Tableau license for desktop is priced at about 70 dollars per user/month, while its rival is valued at 9.99 dollars per user/month.


After all the aspects previously presented, you'll be able to make a safer decision on which of the two tools to use for your organization's operations. 





Where to download Power BI?


If you've reached this point of our post, it's time to know where you can download Power Bi. One of the addresses where you'll be able to download Power Bi Desktop is the following:  Downloads | Microsoft Power BI


Among the advantages of this portal, it stands out that it takes very little time to do the installation, which saves users time.


Likewise, it lets you access your data very simply, so you'll get your  first charts in record time.


Job field of Power Bi


One of the most important aspects is knowing what the job field is for anyone who is an expert in Power Bi. This is very broad.


Those who have knowledge about this tool and the advantages of its implementation within companies have the possibility of getting work in areas of the economic and finance field, healthcare, industry, IT and communications. 


Across the web there are many tutorials related to how to use this tool, so learning won't be a  complicated task.


Where to learn Power Bi?


Now that you know a little more about Power Bi you're one step away from professionalizing your knowledge and providing this service, one of the most in-demand in the market.


For this, we recommend taking the online and live Power Bi course at Coderhouse where you'll learn to generate interactive and updated reports that can be viewed on a website, a smartphone or a tablet, and with charts that have all the necessary information for strategic decision-making in plain sight! 


Is it a recommended training? Of course it is! According to Gartner, Power Bi is the best tool for Business Intelligence. 


And as if that weren't enough, all industries today are focused on the proper use of data. Why would you pass up the opportunity to take on this great knowledge? The next step is yours; click to become part of the Coderhouse community today.

If you'd like to keep exploring this topic, you can also read prompt engineering for data analysts: the skill few master.

Recommended Coderhouse courses

If you want to go deeper into data analysis and applied artificial intelligence, Coderhouse has programs for all levels:

• Data Analytics Course: to learn to analyze data, build dashboards and make decisions based on real information.

• AI Engineering Course: to incorporate AI and machine learning models into your data projects.

• Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Course: to understand the AI ecosystem and complement your data profile with knowledge about language models.