Power BI – Rise of Microsoft Power BI as a Data Analytics powerhouse

Today’s analytics and machine learning both greatly benefit from data science, which deals with data. Finding patterns and interesting findings is made easier with the use of data science and exploratory data analysis. Through data exploration, EDA enables us to learn about entirely new facets of data. Maximizing earnings while also boosting organizational effectiveness is the main equation in business. Business intelligence is the process of analyzing data and extracting insightful managerial knowledge.

A software program for business intelligence and analytics is called Microsoft Power BI. Users may collect and share data using the platform’s reports, visualizations, and other analytics tools. With features that are simple to use, Microsoft Power BI is accessible to users of all technical backgrounds. Microsoft Excel and other Microsoft suite products are integrated with it. Microsoft Power BI is frequently used by businesses to collect and analyze their company data in order to find insights that support data-driven decision-making. This could entail looking at measurements to gauge business objective progress, generating projections, and looking at potential situations to develop business strategy. Users can integrate data sets from many sources using Microsoft Power BI and carry out sophisticated data analysis.

Basic Fundamentals and Structure of Power BI

Late in 2010, the initial concept for Power BI was created, and “Project Crescent” was published the following year. The platform’s moniker was modified to “Power BI” in 2013. (where “BI” stands for “Business Intelligence”). Initially, the Power Query, Power Pivot, and Power View add-ins for Excel served as the foundation for the product. 

We use the superstore sample dataset for Data Analysis using Power BI, below is the screenshot of the data.

These first three principles interact with Power BI in the following ways:

• Power BI Desktop: Data modeling, dashboard development, report creation, and data extraction are all possible with Power BI Desktop, a desktop program. Power BI Desktop is the desktop software for Windows.

• Power BI service: The Power BI service is an online SaaS (Software as a Service) solution.
• Power BI mobile apps: Users can interact with Power BI dashboards and reports via Power BI’s mobile apps, which are available for Android, iOS, and Windows.

With the help of these three components: Power BI Desktop, the service, and the mobile apps—you can create, distribute, and use business insights in the way that is most helpful for you and your job. Power BI Gateway, Power BI Embedded, and Power BI API are a few other parts that address particular requirements. In addition to those three, Power BI additionally includes the following two components:

• Power BI Report Server: When businesses want to publish internal dashboards and analytics yet keep this data behind a corporate firewall, they can use the Power BI Report Server. Paginated reports can be made using the Power BI Report Builder and shared using the Power BI service.
• Power BI Market Place: It is a platform where third parties can develop visualizations that customers can use for certain purposes and sporadically pay for.

The fundamental components of Power BI are decomposed into the entire Power BI framework. The following are the fundamental parts that make up Power BI’s overall operation: 

1. Visualizations
2. Datasets
3. Reports
4. Dashboard
5. Tiles

While connecting to Data Sources, we can choose from Excel files, Power BI datasets or dataflows, SQL servers, Web Data, csv files, and many more. We can also use Power Query to transform data in Power BI. Data from various sources can also be combined. We can also clean and transpose data in Power BI.

Business Intelligence and Role of Power BI

Microsoft Power BI for business intelligence is a collection of software services, apps, and links that combine to transform various data sources into comprehensible, informative, and interactive reports. Without any prior technical experience, you may use this user-friendly tool to construct customized dashboards that will help you get the information you require. Following are the processes involved in solving the issue utilizing BI software:

1. Data Collection
2. Data Storage
3. Data Cleaning
4. Data Analysis
5. Visualization
6. Decision

All of these stages may be easily accomplished in Power BI, making using it very simple. Power Bi will make it simple for us to connect to our data sources, and view, analyze, and comprehend our data: whether it’s a straightforward Excel file or a sophisticated Cloud data warehouse. Power BI is capable of both small-scale real-time analytics on modest amounts of data as well as large-scale real-time analytics on vast volumes of data. Therefore, Power BI can assist with data analytics demands for both major enterprises and small businesses that deal with enormous amounts of data.

Data Collection in Power BI

To develop collections of dashboards, reports, datasets, and paginated reports, colleagues can work together in workspaces. 

• Desktop Datasets for Power BI or Excel: You can move these datasets by switching from your Archived Workspace to My Workspace and tapping the “My Data” catch on the Excel or Power BI Desktop record. You should update the settings in My Workspace for the fresh dataset if you planned an invigorate.

• Available in Reports: Reports incorporated in Excel or Power BI Desktop documents, or reports presented as a key component of substance packs will then reproduce when you re-transfer the contrasting Excel or Power BI Desktop record or reconnect to the substance pack. If you used the Power BI functionality to build custom reports, you should duplicate those reports in your My Workspace.

• From Dashboards: Dashboards installed as a feature of substance packs will then replicate when you reconnect to the substance pack in My Workspace. If you used the Power BI functionality to create custom dashboards, you should duplicate those dashboards in your My Workspace.

• Various different Datasets: Switch to My Workspace, select the Get Data option, and then select one of the other datasets you made in your Archived Workspace to reconnect to. You might need to give information about your security or association.

Data Storage in Power BI

Power BI interacts seamlessly with both Microsoft and non-Microsoft products, including Spark, Hadoop, Google Analytics, SAP, Salesforce, Office 365, Dynamics 365, and SharePoint. It can therefore be used widely throughout the sector. We can therefore draw the conclusion that Power BI is a straightforward, user-friendly, cloud-based BI tool that can be utilized to enhance corporate performance. It is particularly well-liked in marketing, sales, analytics, strategy, human resources, operations, and other sectors because it can work with practically all sorts of data.

Data Cleaning in Power BI

It is imperative to Clean, Transform, and Model the data with data aggregation and filtering when the executive creates a visualization from data that comes from various sources and is always growing. Fortunately, Power Query includes a staggering array of functions devoted to aiding you in cleaning and preparing your data for analysis. By choosing the Transform data option on the Home tab of Power BI Desktop, as illustrated in the figure below, you can start Moulding your data and launch Power Query Editor.

Or while loading the dataset, click on Transform Data as shown below:

The Power Query Editor window would be opened as follows,

When you work in Power Query Editor, the query automatically applies your instructions each time it establishes a connection to the data source, ensuring that the data is always shaped in the manner that you indicated. You can be sure that modifications are being made to your original data source since Power Query Editor only alters a specific view of your data.

Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) in Power BI

A collection of functions and operators known as Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) can be combined to create formulae and expressions in Excel data models for Power BI, Analysis Services, and Power Pivot. We can analyze the data with based on the different utilities of the Power BI DAX. It is incorporated with several Data Manipulation Functions like DAX Aggregation Functions, DAX Date and Time Functions, and DAX Math and Trigonometric Functions, etc.

Data Visualizations in Power BI

Different visualizations can be obtained in power BI and their formatting can be done according to preference. Below is the image showing from where we can add visuals to our reports,

Some Common Visualizations in Power BI are,

Basic Maps

To link numerical and categorical data to geographic places, use a simple map.

Card Visualization

• Single Number

A single fact or piece of data is displayed on single number cards. A single statistic, such as total sales, market share year over year, or total opportunities, may occasionally be the most crucial element you want to measure in your Power BI dashboard or report.

• Multi-Row Card

Area charts: Basic (Layered) and Stacked

The area between the axis and line is filled in for the basic area chart, which is based on the line chart. Area charts can be used to attract emphasis to the overall value across a trend and emphasize the size of change over time. To emphasize the overall profit, for instance, data that shows profit over the order date can be represented in an area chart.

Pie Chart

Pie charts depict how several components relate to one another. For example, above shown the relationship between profit and order dates in the figure.

Bar and Column Charts

The industry standard for examining a specific value across various categories is a bar chart. For example, above shows the bar chart of the sum of profits by respective years.

Decision through Dashboards and Reports in Power BI

Like a canvas, a Power BI dashboard can be used to convey a story. It offers the most crucial information in a variety of forms on a single page. Below shown a Super Store Dashboard based on the earlier dataset.

It is a report entry that uses the dataset as a foundation. Only the most significant parts of the data story are included in well-designed dashboards. A specific tile (data snapshot) can be chosen or clicked to see the main report from which it was obtained. Dashboards are useful for quickly tracking the progress of your company’s operations, sales, or other key metrics. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of your company and aids in the development of data-supported action plans.

Power BI’s dashboards can be generated from one, many, or all of the underlying datasets. It displays an integrated picture of significant company KPIs. You can track the most important data in real-time since this single-page visualization in the Power BI dashboard instantly refreshes when the information is changed. An elegant, user-friendly, and simple-to-use Power BI dashboard is available. Excel, Text/CSV, IBM DB2, MySQL, SQL Server database, JSON, Access database, and PDF are just a few of the data sources that are supported. From the Power BI dashboard, you can analyze data, spot trends, and derive insights that assist you in making decisions.