Introduction To Power BI And Its Features

Sara Kutty
St Joseph’s University
BI

“BI is about providing the right data at the right time to the right
people so that they can take the right decisions”
– Nic Smith with Microsoft BI Solutions Marketing

• BI refers to taking raw data from a data source, transforming it

into usable data and utilizing it to make reports and
informative graphics for data analysis.
A new generation of BI
Today, BI extends to everyone
3rd wave
End user BI
Everyone

2nd wave
Self-service BI
Analyst to end user

1st wave
Technical BI
IT to end user
A new generation of BI
Turning data into business insights is challenging

Common BI challenges include…

Data often resides in disparate locations, making it difficult

End-to-end view to see a complete picture of your business

Data residing in SaaS solutions, and other external

Multiple data sources locations, is difficult to access and refresh securely

Right data for the right Different roles have different needs, and business users
users at the right time need the latest operational data
 Introduction to Power BI
Power BI is a business analytics service
provided by Microsoft.

Microsoft Power BI is a tool having

business intelligence and data visualization
capabilities.

It allows users to analyze, visualize, and

share data insights in a simple and intuitive
way.

Power BI helps organizations make data-

driven decisions and gain valuable insights
from their data.
 Introducing Microsoft Power BI

• Experience your data. Any data, any way, anywhere.

• Power BI is a cloud-based business analytics service

that enables:
– Fast and easy access to data
– A live 360º view of the business
– Data discovery and exploration
– Insights from any device
– Collaboration across the organization
– Anyone to visualize and analyze data
What does Power BI do?

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What does Power BI do?
Power BI is a business analytics service that delivers insights to enable fast, informed
decisions.

Transform data into stunning Visually explore and

visuals and share them with analyze data—on-
colleagues on any device. premises and in the
cloud—all in one view.

Scale across your

Collaborate on and share
organization with built-in
customized dashboards
governance and security.
and interactive reports.

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Capabilities of Power BI

• Bing all your data together

• Create datasets from any source and add them to the OneLake data hub to
create a source of truth for your data.
• Turn insights into impact
• Help users make better decisions by infusing insights into the apps you use
every day, like those in Microsoft 365.
• Empower every data team
• Reshape how your organization accesses, manages, and acts on data by
activating Microsoft Fabric in your Power BI experience

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 Why Power BI
• Real-time analysis in Power BI can be done by establishing direct connections to the
data sources. Also, it keeps data updated to the latest second by data refreshing.
• You can use custom visualizations from a custom visuals gallery. Custom visuals are
divided into many options and categories.
• You can quickly search for important insights and datasets within your data by using
the Quick Insights option.
• Establish a live or non-live connection to on-premises data sources like SQL Server, and
use a secure channel to access data through data gateways. This makes Power BI
enterprise-ready as on-premises connections make data transfer secure and the
technology scalable and reliable.
• You can connect to other services through Power BI such as SQL Server Analysis
Services (SSAS), Microsoft Excel, etc.
• Power BI is a new age software using the latest technologies such as HTML 5.0, column
store databases, cloud computing, mobile apps, etc. This helps in keeping Power BI on
the top and popular as it is constantly getting updated with the latest features.
Key benefits and differentiators
Pre-built content packs, consisting of dashboards
and reports, for popular SaaS solutions

Real-time dashboard updates

Secure, live connection to your data sources,

on-premises and in the cloud

Intuitive data exploration by using natural language

query

Integration with familiar Microsoft products, and

commitment for scale and availability in Azure

Fast deployment, hybrid configuration, secure, and

integrated with existing IT systems
Features of Power BI

•Customizable dashboards
•Datasets
•Reports
•Navigation Pane
•Q&A Question Box
•Help & Feedback Buttons
•Ad Hoc Reporting
•Ad Hoc Analysis
•Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
•Trend Indicators
•Interactive Reports Authoring
•Complete Reporting & Data Visualization Tools
 Features of Power BI
• Range of Attractive Visualizations

• It offers a wide range of detailed and

attractive visualizations.

• Users can create interactive reports and

dashboards to present data in a visually
appealing way. In Power BI you can create visualizations such as:
•Stacked bar chart •Ribbon chart
•Stacked column chart •Waterfall chart
• Power BI also supports custom visuals, •Clustered bar chart •Scatter chart
•Clustered column chart •Pie chart
which can be downloaded and imported •100% stacked column/bar chart •Donut chart
•Line chart •Treemap chart
into reports. •Area chart •Map
•Stacked area chart •Filled map
•Funnel chart
•Gauge chart, etc
 Features of Power BI

• Get Data (Data Source)

• Get Data feature lets Power BI users
to select from a range of data
sources.
• The data sources are anywhere in the
spectrum from on-premise to cloud- Some of the available data sources are
based, unstructured to structured. •Excel •MySQL database
• Power BI also supports direct •Power BI datasets •Analysis Services
•Power BI dataflows •Azure
query, where data is accessed in •SQL Server •Text/CSV
real-time from the source system. •Access •Oracle
•XML •PDF
 Features of Power BI
• Datasets Filtration
• Dataset
• is a single set of data created as a result of taking data from multiple data
sources.
• You can use the datasets to create visualizations of different kinds.
• A dataset can be made of data taken from a single source like an Excel
workbook or from more than a data source.
• You can filter the datasets and have smaller subsets containing only the important
data and contextual relevance.
• Power BI provides the users with a wide range of in-built data connectors such
as Excel, SQL database, Oracle, Azure, Facebook, Salesforce, MailChimp, etc.
• Users can easily connect to such data sources and create datasets by importing data
from one or more sources.
Features of Power BI

• Data Transformation and Modeling

• Power BI provides powerful data
transformation capabilities through
its query editor.

• Users can clean, shape, and

transform data before loading it
into Power BI.

• The data modeling capabilities

allow users to create relationships
between tables, define hierarchies,
and create calculated columns and
measures.

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 Features of Power BI

• Customizable Dashboards
• Dashboards
• a collection of visualizations
offering meaningful information
or insights into data.
• Typical dashboards in Power BI
are composed of multiple
visualizations as tiles.
• The dashboards are shareable as
well as printable.
 Features of Power BI
• Flexible Tiles
• Tile
• a single block containing a visualization in a Power BI dashboard.
• Tiles segregate each informative visualization properly to provide a
clearer view.
• These tiles can be adjusted and the size can also be changed.
• Also, they can be placed anywhere on the dashboard as per the users’
convenience.
• Navigation Pane
• The navigation pane has options of datasets, dashboards, and reports.
• Users can conveniently work in Power BI and navigate between datasets,
dashboard they are working on, and reports they are creating.
 Features of Power BI
• Informative Reports
• Reports in Power BI are a combination of
dashboards having a different kind of
visualizations relevant to a particular
business topic.
• A report shows a complete and
structured presentation of data
represented in different ways and
revealing important insights from the
data.
• Users can easily share reports created on
Power BI with other users.
Features of Power BI
• Collaboration and Sharing
• Power BI enables users to
collaborate and share their reports
and dashboards with others.

• Reports can be published to the

Power BI service, allowing users to
access them from anywhere.

• Sharing options include sharing

with individuals, sharing with
groups, and embedding reports in
other applications.

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 Features of Power BI
• Natural Language Q & A Question Box
• The Natural Language Q&A i.e. question and
answer box is a unique feature of Power BI.
• Using the Q&A box, a user can ask questions
in natural language to search for data and
information available in Power BI system.
• The cognitive engines of Power BI will search
for the data or visualization or a part of the
report that is been searched for and return it
to the user.
• The cognitive technology uses rephrasing,
autofill, suggestions and other such
techniques to fulfill the search requirements
of users.
 Features of Power BI

• Data Refresh and Scheduled Refresh

• Power BI allows users to schedule

automatic data refreshes to keep
their reports up to date.

• Users can define refresh schedules

based on their specific needs.

• Power BI supports various data

refresh options, including direct
query, scheduled refresh, and
streaming data.

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 Features of Power BI
• Data Security and Governance
• Power BI provides robust security
and governance features to protect
data.

• Users can define roles and

permissions to control access to
reports and datasets.

• Power BI integrates with Azure

Active Directory for user
authentication and supports data
encryption in transit and at rest.

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 Features of Power BI
• DAX Data Analysis Function
• the Data Analysis Expressions found in Power
BI.
• These analysis functions are predefined codes
to perform analytics specific functionalities on
data.
• There are about 200 functions in the Power
BI function library as of now. The creators
keep on adding new ones.
 Features of Power BI
• Help & Feedback Buttons
• used for multiple setting options such as downloading,
asking for support and assistance, giving feedback to
the Power BI support team, etc.
• Office 365 App Launcher
• Using this option, users can automatically launch
Microsoft Office 365 apps.
• Great Collection in Content Packs
• Power BI offers content packs which
contain dashboards, data models, datasets, embedded
queries, etc. Users can directly use a collection of
elements in content packs instead of looking for
elements separately.
 Power BI platforms

• A Windows desktop application

called Power BI Desktop.
• An online software as a service
(SaaS) service called the Power BI
service.
• Power BI Mobile apps for
Windows, iOS, and Android devices
Power BI Desktop

Power BI Desktop is a Windows application

that enables users to create and publish
reports.

It offers advanced data modeling

capabilities and a rich set of visualizations.

Power BI Desktop is free to download and

use.
Power BI Service

Power BI Service is a cloud-based platform

for sharing and collaborating on reports and
dashboards.

It offers additional features such as data

gateways and content packs.

Power BI Service requires a subscription,

with different pricing tiers available.

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Power BI Mobile

Power BI Mobile allows users to access

reports and dashboards on the go, using
their smartphones or tablets.

It provides a responsive and optimized

viewing experience across different
devices.

Users can interact with the visualizations,

apply filters, and share insights with others.
Also, we can deploy Power BI on both on-premise and
on-cloud platforms.

Beyond those three, Power BI also features other

elements:

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Power BI Report Builder

Power BI Report Builder, for creating

paginated reports to share in the
Power BI service.
Power BI Report Server

Power BI Report Server is an on-premises

solution for hosting Power BI reports.

It allows organizations to deploy and

manage Power BI reports within their own
infrastructure.

Power BI Report Server requires a

separate license and is included with
certain SQL Server editions.

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Power BI Embedded

Power BI Embedded allows developers to

integrate Power BI reports and dashboards
into their own applications.

It provides APIs and SDKs for embedding

Power BI content.

Power BI Embedded requires a separate

licensing and pricing model.

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Power BI Premium

Power BI Premium is a capacity-based

licensing model for organizations with high
data consumption needs.

It offers dedicated resources and enhanced

performance for large-scale deployments.

Power BI Premium provides additional

features and capabilities not available in
the Power BI Pro license.
Power BI and AI

Power BI integrates with Azure AI services

to enable advanced analytics and machine
learning capabilities.

Users can leverage AI features such as

natural language processing, sentiment
analysis, and image recognition.

Power BI also offers AI-powered visuals,

such as key influencers and decomposition
trees.
Power BI and Excel Integration

Power BI and Excel can be used together

to leverage the strengths of both tools.

Users can import Excel workbooks into

Power BI and create interactive reports and
dashboards.

Power BI also supports connecting to Excel

data sources and importing data directly
from Excel files.
Power BI Developer Tools

Power BI provides a range of developer

tools for extending and customizing its
capabilities.

The Power BI REST API allows developers

to programmatically interact with Power BI
resources.

Power BI also offers Power BI Embedded

SDKs, Power BI Visuals SDK, and Power
BI PowerShell cmdlets for development
tasks.

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Power BI Community and Support

Power BI has a vibrant community of users

and experts who share knowledge and best
practices.

The Power BI Community provides forums,

blogs, and resources for learning and
troubleshooting.

Microsoft offers official documentation,

tutorials, and support channels for Power
BI.
Power BI and Data Privacy

Power BI is compliant with various data

privacy regulations, such as GDPR and
HIPAA.

Users can define data classifications and

apply privacy levels to ensure data
confidentiality.

Power BI also provides auditing and

monitoring capabilities for data governance
and compliance.

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Questions

• Define Power BI
• What are the functions and capabilities of Power BI?
• List few benefits of Power BI
• Write a Short note on Power BI Platforms
• Discuss Why Power BI is an important tool in today’s time and why do we
need it.
• Explain the features of Power BI

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References

https://data-flair.training/blogs/power-bi-tutorial/
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/

https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/power-bi-tutorial/what-is-power-bi
https://www.javatpoint.com/power-bi
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/power-bi-tutorial/

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