What is Power BI?

Power BI a user-friendly interface that hosts an assortment of cloud-based business intelligence applications. “Power BI” can refer to either a Windows desktop application called Power BI Desktop, an online SaaS (Software as a Service) called Power BI Service, or mobile Power BI apps available on Windows phones and tablets, as well as iOS and Android devices.

Being built on the foundation of Microsoft Excel, users who are comfortable using Excel will quickly pick up Power BI. However, Power BI is a far more powerful data visualisation tool than Excel.

What is Power BI Used for?

Power BI can be used for multiple different purposes. It can help organisations to collate, manage, and analyse data from a variety of sources, via a user-friendly interface.

Power BI’s primary function is to pull data together and process it according to the user’s requirements. The results of this include intelligible insights, using visually compelling and easy-to-process charts and graphs. The reports and visuals generated from this data can then be shared with other users.

Power BI “Learning”

Power BI was designed with machine learning capabilities, and it can interpret the past and present to predict the future from the data collected.  These estimates allow users to generate forecasts, and prepare themselves to meet future demand and other key metrics.

Some Benefits of Using Power BI

Power BI software works very well for multiple departments including finance, marketing, sales, human resources, IT, and operations.

  • Businesses can input huge quantities of data into Power BI that most other platforms would struggle to process
  • The information on Power BI is updated regularly as it is cloud-based. This also means that it can be accessed from anywhere using any device that has an internet connection.
  • The software is extremely customisable, making it malleable to fit into any business or department.
  • Alerts can be set up on KPIs to keep users up to date with important significant changes metrics and measurements.

Is Power BI Free?

With B2IT, you may try Power BI for free for a trial period, but to get the maximum benefits of the intelligent software, a subscription is recommended. Contact us for more information on this and our other business intelligence software options!