Introduction - Power BI

Power BI is an MS365 application that allows users to connect to and visualize any data using the unified, scalable platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence (BI) that is easy to use and helps you gain deeper data insight. Microsoft defines it as a tool to bridge the gap between data and decision making.^[1]

Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. It converts data from different sources to build interactive dashboards and Business Intelligence reports.^[2]

How does Power BI Works

Case study 1 - Example of usage of Power BI

Power BI at work

How you use Power BI may depend on your role in a project or on a team.

For example, you might primarily use the Power BI service to view reports and dashboards. Your coworkers might make extensive use of Power BI Desktop or Power BI Report Builder to create reports, then publish those reports to the Power BI service, where you can view them. Another coworker, in purchases, might mainly use the Power BI phone app to monitor progress on sales quotas, and to drill into new lead details. ^[1]

If you are a developer, you might use Power BI APIs to push data into datasets or to embed dashboards and reports into your own custom applications.^[2]

Main functionality for Power BI

What are the main functionalities of Power BI^[3]

1. Access to Volumes of Data from Multiple Sources

Power BI can access vast volumes of data from multiple sources. It allows you to view, analyze, and visualize vast quantities of data that cannot be opened in Excel. Some of the important data sources available for Power BI are Excel, CSV, XML, JSON, pdf, etc. Power BI uses powerful compression algorithms to import and cache the data within the PBIX file.

2. Interactive UI/UX Features

Power BI makes things visually appealing. It has an easy drag and drops functionality, with features that allow you to copy all formatting across similar visualizations.

3. Exceptional Excel Integration

Power BI helps to gather, analyze, publish, and share Excel business data. Anyone familiar with Office 365 can easily connect Excel queries, data models, and reports to Power BI Dashboards.

4. Accelerate Big Data Preparation with Azure

Using Power BI with Azure allows you to analyze and share massive volumes of data. An azure data lake can reduce the time it takes to get insights and increase collaboration between business analysts, data engineers, and data scientists.

5. Turn Insights into Action

Power BI allows you to gain insights from data and turn those insights into actions to make data-driven business decisions.

6. Real-time Stream Analytics

Power BI will enable you to perform real-time stream analytics. It helps you fetch data from multiple sensors and social media sources to get access to real-time analytics, so you are always ready to make business decisions.

Power BI accessibility across multiple devices

Power BI - Training Materials

Below is a collection of PowerBI training products to support public servants. Click on one of the following resources or feel free to add your own.

Articles and other Documents

Guided Learning

Recorded Webinars

Learning Paths

Get started building with Power BI	Introduction to Power Platform	Explore what Power BI can do for you

Create and use analytics reports	Analyze data with Power BI	Consume data with Power BI