Business Intelligence (BI) tools are the talks of the town!   

With the increasing importance of data in the business world, business intelligence tools had taken a center stage. More so because, they can make the complex task of retrieving, analyzing, transforming, and reporting data simple and less mundane.     

Today, most companies use BI tools to empower their teams with the right data. And, though there are plenty of tools available in the market, Microsoft’s Power BI is the best interactive data visualization and analytics tool for business intelligence (BI).    

The best part about the Power BI is that it offers many advanced functions for data analytics and you don’t have to be an expert to leverage it.    

We are not going to tell you how to do all the things you possibly could with Power BI. But we have touched upon this subject in our previous blog, you can read more about it here.    

In fact, it is very useful, regardless of the knowledge of data analysis. In this blog, we bring to you the top 7 tips on how to make the most of Power BI reports. Let’s get on with it:   

Tip #1. Keep it Simple    

Power BI offers an increasing number of visualizations that are available in the Power BI gallery. With this larger gallery of visualizations, you might feel overwhelmed to use all of them at once.   

But there had been many instances where people try to use multiple features and they often fail. This is mostly because when you put too many things on a dashboard your users will not necessarily find all the little features and click on all the slicers.    

In fact, for many of them, understanding the dashboard can be quite overwhelming. Hence, when you are designing a dashboard for ‘ordinary people,’ make sure it’s simple, easier, and clearer. So, focus on simplicity!   

And, remember, don’t fear the old-school tables as they are still the best way to present raw data. Also, try to avoid pie charts and treemaps for this data as users cannot see the difference between pie fields.   

Let me give you a better idea, below is the report for the sales volume per region. Take a look at it and try to tell which area among red and orange is bigger.   

The report showing sales volume per region in the form of a pie chart which makes it hard to differentiate between sales in Europe (red) and sales in North America (orange)   

On the other hand, look at this report below:   

The report showing sales volume per region in bar graph format which provides simplicity when differentiating between sales in Europe (red) and sales in North America (orange).   

Tip #2. Context    

One of the coolest features that you’ll find on Power BI is the cross-filtering capability. The software allows you to first connect two different charts with data and put them next to each other.   

Now, when you’ll click on an element of one chart, the other one will be automatically filtered based on what you clicked.   

This feature is immensely helpful for data comparison, kind-of-visual drill-downs, and simple analysis. In fact, you can actually use three ways of filtering and connecting data. This will make your analysis experience much better and easier.   

Let’s consider the example of project management: You can see time reported by people (top bar in the below example) and the time reported each month (the bottom bar). Here, you can see the different behaviors the interactions provide.   

Besides, a lot of data elements might greatly influence the ease of use of the report, especially for not advanced users.   

Tip #3: Divide and Conquer   

Filters are the most basic concept of data visualization and yet you will be surprised by finding how many filtering possibilities there are in Power BI. Here, are some of the most obvious ones.   

Basic Report Filters Panel:   

Visual Level Filter filters data only at the selected visual level to have some background data only for filtering.   

Page-level filters are applied to all elements on the page   

Report level filters are applied to all pages to see the data in the same filter.    

You select a filter and then immediately move to the next page. The filter will stay selected which will help you to see data in the same context:   

Report filters panel – for those who are supposed to go through pages to see data in the same filtering context.    

Two In-canvas Filters:   

Slicers (in-canvas filters) – are available as single or multiple selection dropdowns.    

Cross-filtering – can be used instead of slicers to include additional information. For example, you can create a checkbox list from a vertical chart and use it just for filtering by just clicking on the bar to filter out everything else:   

Again, let’s consider the previous example: you have a multiple-page report with pages that gives you an overview of hours or details of time reported under particular tasks.   

So, when using in-canvas filters, you need to select the project on each page individually. However, when using a report level filter, it is still selected when you browse through different pages.    

Tip #4. Create Hierarchies    

If you want to show data analytics on various levels of granularity using the same visualizations, hierarchies are your best bet. For instance, a program manager might be interested in project progress and time reported per month, while a project manager could be interested in a weekly level, in a project management domain.   

In such a case, creating a separate report is not an option as you will then end up managing a large number of cases. The solution to this problem is to design a report in such a way that it can be used by both. Here, the hierarchies can come in really handy.   

You can use hierarchies in three ways:   

It can be based on the data source, basically present in the data model   

It can be based on date and time data, basically, present any time data as a Year/Quarter/Month/Day hierarchy.   

Or, it can be based on more than one dimension. It will not make them visible but allow them to drill from one another.   

Once done, the small arrows in the corner of the chart can go up and down the hierarchy levels. With the help of this, you will be able to achieve different perspective views from the same visualization and report.   

Tip #5. Focus on Quality, not Quantity   

Power BI offers so many features that some people could easily end up making a Picasso-like analytical painting. Just remember, you can add as many effects and colors as you want but that doesn’t mean it will hold much value.    

With Power BI, you will be able to produce any number of beautiful charts in a matter of seconds with any number of data pieces.   

Yet, it is more important than the time you spend on the tool should be spent on trying to visualize crucial information in that space. Your ultimate goal should be to present clear and easy-to-digest information to potential users at a first sight.   

Conclusion:  

The tips and tricks we have shared in this blog are the very basic concept that can help you create powerful reports. They should be simple and easily understood by regular users to create an impact.    

These tips can be easily incorporated by people across project management, finance, and development practices. They all focus on the users’ needs due to their simplicity and spend more effort on the most efficient way to tackle the particular piece of data. 

Author Bio:

Shreeya Chourasia is an experienced B2B marketing/tech content writer, who is diligently committed for growing your online presence. Her writing doesn’t merely direct the audience to take action, rather it explains how to take action for promising outcomes.

The post 5 Power Tips for Microsoft Power BI  appeared first on Tech Research Online.

Imagine a Sunday morning, you wake up and with nothing in your “to-do list,’ you start scrolling through Instagram. After a few minutes, your stomach growls and you realize it’s been 3 hours.  

Well! Don’t worry, we all do!

Fun fact, the human brain is usually attracted to data which is in the form of images, video, and other visuals.

Here are some facts which can help you understand why our brains value visuals over any other type of information.

• 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual  
• The human brain processes an image in just 13 milliseconds 
• 50% of the brain is active in visual processing 
• Human brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text 

So, it’s an absolute no-brainer why you can spend hundreds of hours on the internet without getting tired.  

Today, we are exposed to 5x more information than in 1986. Companies are battling for attention with the rising amount of data and shortening human attention through data visualization.  

Data visualization can make complex data simple. It can take mundane raw data and transform it into actionable business insights. Hence, data visualization is easier to understand and it can provide a compelling argument.  

But, how does this translate into the business landscape? 

• American Management Association says that the study found that the use of data visualizations could shorten business meeting by 24%.
• Tableau says managers with visual data recovery tools are 28% times more likely to find timely information than those relying on reporting and 48% of these managers can find the data. 
• Bain & Company says companies with advanced analytics are 2x more likely to be in the top quartile of financial performance and use data for making decisions, 3x more likely to execute intended decisions, and 5x more likely to make decisions faster.  
• Nucleus Research says that a BI with data visualization capabilities will offer an ROI of $13.01 back on every dollar. 

I hope these stats have made your learning journey more interesting and fun. So, let’s start by understanding a bit about Power BI Dashboards before we dive deeper into its realm. 

What is a Power BI dashboard? 

Power BI dashboard is a page that tells you a story with the help of visualizations. You can also check out some amazing Power BI Dashboard examples. 

What is a Dashboard in the Power BI dashboard? 

The dashboard is a distinguishing feature of Power BI as it monitors your data. It is responsible for providing a consolidating view by combining the on-premises and cloud-born data. 

In this blog, we have created a step-by-step guide to help you create a Power BI Dashboard for your business.  

1. Import your Collected Data 

Launch your Power BI application and give it access to your important data. By clicking on add, you will be able to import all your dataset from an MS Excel Workbook.  

Please note that the dashboard will remain empty until you give it data.

Source: Tutorial Getaway

The application will give you an option to navigate through files and you can browse to the location.  

Locate the file and add them to the dashboard. Some files might take a little more time to process depending on the size.

Source: Tutorial Getaway 

After the file is imported, you will see a workspace, there you can choose the imported dataset. Which will change the blank workspace into a visualization creation tool.  

2. Work with Your dashboard 

Once you have added data to your dashboard, it’s time to add tiles. 

A tile is basically a snapshot of your data which is pinned to the dashboard. There are two ways to go about this-  

• You can create tiles on your own directly on the dashboard. 
• You can select and add tile from the menu bar. 

A tile can be created from a dataset, the Q&A box, Excel workbook on OneDrive for Business, SQL Server Reporting Services reports, a dashboard, Quick Insights, Power BI Publisher for Excel, and more.

Source: Tutorial Getaway

Different Power BI application has a different icon. For example, Microsoft Power Bi has icons to represent different visualizations such as bar charts, stacked bars, column charts, pies, line graphs, half donuts, waterfall charts, area charts, among others.

Source: Microsoft Power BI Dashboard 

The fields section allows you to choose and switch between different data fields. For instance, imagine a dataset with a table with several columns containing employee name, age, address, ID, salary range, and hike over the years. 

Depending on what you wish to display first, you need to tick the checkbox and then choose a chart type. For example, if you wish to display the salary range first- you can tick the age checkbox.  

3. Choose the Right Chart 

Now you have created your dashboard and have already added tiles, it’s time to learn which type of chart will be most suitable for which data.  

You should remember that data visualization is an intricate process and if not properly considered, it can become misleading. 

You should know that charts are classified into four general types based on their functionality: 

• Distribution 
• Relationship  
• Comparison 
• Composition  

Source:- Microsoft Build

Below are some things to keep in mind while creating charts:  

• Pie charts:

They are best used to show composition in terms of percentages and while working with them you need to make sure all values add up to a hundred. 

• Bar and column charts:

Both are mostly used for distribution and comparison. For example, you can display the salary range vs the number of employees. Besides, you can also use them to show periodic data. 

• Line and area charts:

They are best used for comparison as they are most suitable for viewing time series. For example, a line chart will give you the best visual representation if you wish to see the salary growth of employees over the years.  

• Scatter plots:

They are the best for showing relationships between different variables. For example, you can see the number of years employees worked varied by salary. 

• Stacked charts:

They are best used when you want to show comparison and composition.  

Lastly, sometimes visuals and other not important data can slow down your Power BI dashboard. Here, are 5 ways you can prevent it from slowing.  

4. Design a great Power BI dashboard 

You have created your dashboard, added appropriate tiles, and added the right charts. Now, you need to start thinking about “how to make your dashboard functional”.  

Remember, you need your dashboard to be beautiful and not just pretty.  

This means that you want to make most of your important information stand by clearing all the clutter.  

Source:- Microsoft Build

For this step, you need to learn more about best practices for the Power BI dashboard. Here is an example of a power bi interactive dashboard: 

5. Save Your dashboard

Your final step is you need to save your already created dashboard. For that click on the “Save button” on the toolbar. 

Once you have completed this process you don’t need to worry about updating your Power BI charts. This is because they are dependent on the Excel data and will keep updating themselves as you update the Excel sheet. 

Source:- Microsoft Build

Power BI dashboard application also gives you the power to publish the dashboard and share it with your colleagues.  

Conclusion: 

In this blog post, we have discussed the step-by-step process to create a Power BI Dashboard with Examples.  

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How do I create a dashboard in Power BI? 

• Import your Collected Data 
• Work with Your dashboard 
• Choose the Right Chart 
• Design a great Power BI dashboard 
• Save Your dashboard 

Author Bio:

The post How to Create a Dashboard in Power BI for Beginner appeared first on Tech Research Online.