We are getting quite a few enquiries through about Power BI at the moment so we thought it would be a good idea to put a blog together which covers everything you need to know. Microsoft Power BI (Business Intelligence) is a collection of software services, apps and connectors that work in harmony to give you immersive and interactive insights into your data. It is being launched at the Microsoft Business Applications Event on the 6th of April, but here is some information in advance for you.
The idea behind Power BI is to enable all employees within different departments of your organisation to see real-time data, allowing them to make fully informed decisions. This is going to be an incredibly powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, but particularly those who are looking to scale up and take more control internally.
Rather than having multiple different software solutions, Power BI brings everything together within a user-friendly interface. The best part is that you can even connect Power BI to Sage 200, allowing you to take a deep dive into your financial data, forecasting, reports and more. By creating and sharing interactive data visualisations, the level of intelligence that this software provides is incredible.
Power BI is made from three elements in total:
Now it may seem that Power BI Desktop and Power BI Services are very similar, so let’s explain the two in a little more detail. The desktop part is used to create the reports and dashboard, whereas the service part is where the sharing element comes in. This means that if you have a department within your business that just needs to view the reports, Power BI service is perfect for them.
There are two different license options available for Power BI: Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium, both of which are charged per user (unless you want to spend over £3,700 a month for a per capacity option). The main difference between Pro & Premium is the advanced Artificial Intelligence within the latter option. Allowing you to manage large-scale data and simplify the management of this.
Generally, most business owners will be fine with Power BI Pro which allows you to share content and collaborate with other Pro users. You will also be able to publish and consume data from app workspaces and share dashboards/reports with the Pro subscription.
When it comes to reporting, the possibilities are endless! The most basic report is the Customers report which includes information about customers, sales and aged debt. Once you have downloaded this report and opened it in Power BI Desktop, you can easily connect it to your Sage 200 data to give you an even better insight.
So there you have it, a quick guide all about Power BI and the features which will help your business. We hope we have answered all of your questions, but if not please feel free to give us a call on 01482 828000.
*This article contains general information in order to assist all of our customers and is meant for guidance only – there are no guarantees that the information we provide will be suitable for your particular needs. If you require specific assistance, we recommend that you seek professional guidance on your individual circumstances. Reality Solutions are in no way responsible for any loss or damage arising from any information contained within our articles.