What is Power BI?

Power BI is business analytics and reporting service, part of Microsoft’s Power Platform.

First released in 2015, it quickly became a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) Platforms. It consistently scores highest in its completeness of vision and ability to execute.

Previously the domain of big corporates, Power BI now brings Business Intelligence into reach for companies of all sizes.

Some of the key features of Power BI are:

• Interactive charts that allow users to explore the data and reveal their own insights

• Powerful development tools that enable us to measure just about anything

• The ability to connect to a huge range of data sources including Excel and csv, Access, SQL, OneDrive, websites and an ever-increasing number of cloud-based services

• Automatic refresh that ensures your data is always up to date

• Apps for Android, iOS and Windows devices of all kinds

• Sharing via the Power BI Service hosted by Microsoft

• Dashboards that consolidate information from different reports

Getting started with Power BI is free and the cost of rolling it out to your users is minimal. Our aim is to kick start your Power BI project, deliver real benefits to your business, and to guide you through to being able to manage it all for yourself.

The scope for reporting is endless and the benefits for your organisation could be enormous.