Power BI is one of the most commonly used tools by numerous businesses that deal with datasets and different types of statistical analysis. By using Power BI, businesses have the opportunity to better visualize their data and understand the basics of their datasets. However, just like any other software tool, Power BI works in a certain manner that requires some time to learn and become skillful while using it. Even though some users are curious about how much time it takes to learn Power BI fully to be able to use the tool to its full benefits, the tool is also designed to provide as much user-friendliness to the user as possible, making the learning process not long.
So, when working with large datasets with a large number of sample populations, businesses should think about integrating the usage of Power BI into their operations to make the work of their data analysts easier and quicker.
Why is Power BI important for data-based businesses and corporations
As mentioned above, Power BI provides easy access and solution to businesses that deal with datasets that require analysis and statistical calculations.
Nevertheless, the tool is not only beneficial in that regard as it also provides a user to edit and update their datasets easily. In other words, by using Power BI, users will be able to transform their data into any shape and size as it is required from them to derive a conclusion.
On the other hand, Power BI is operated in an online environment – meaning that users will be able to use the tool whenever they work online from wherever they are, without having the need to access the tool from their office computers. The online environment also has made it easier for teams to collaborate on shared projects and share their work with other employees by simply adding them to the worksheet.
Thus, by using Power BI, businesses will be able to reduce a lot of time that they used to spend on solving technical issues, which prevented them from concentrating on the task at hand.
The importance of learning the challenges of Power BI
Before using Power BI, companies should train their employees and conduct short educational seminars to provide users with the basic knowledge and operational methods of the tool to help them overcome the tool’s challenges.
Some managers and executives might think that having training seminars can be a waste of time; however, the seminars will be able to teach employees how to use the numerous features of the tool, which will help them get more efficient results.
In other words, by learning how to operate the tool, users will be able to easily create different types of relationships between the coefficients of a dataset, create better data visualization, be cautious about how to protect their accounts from external access, etc.
To get you started, here are some of the basics that employees need to learn before using Power BI to overcome some of its challenges.
How to overcome the challenges and master Power BI:
1- Learn how to deal with different data formats and sources
Dealing with large datasets requires users to apply different formats to better understand the data. For instance, a dataset has a company’s sales in a certain currency – the U.S. Dollar; however, the company wishes to understand its sales in euros (EUR). By using Power BI, users will be able to easily deal with the data transformation process and get the data in certain formats.
2- Data Analysis Expression (DAX)
Data Analysis Expression (DAX) is a programming language that is most commonly and frequently used in Power BI to come up with different calculations. By learning Power BI, users will overcome most of the challenges and master the tool as they will be able to get different types of data calculations, such as time-based calculations, aggregations, results based on filtering of some of the data, learning curves, and many other advances statistical data which can be used during the decision-making process.
3- Understand how to model different types of data
It is a common occurrence where companies deal with different types of data – such as hierarchical data, time-series data, normalized data, categorical data, etc.
Thus, it is important to understand how to use the different features of the tool to model the different types and get better results.
4- How to integrate different Microsoft products into the tool
Lastly, as Power BI is one of the Microsoft products, it provides users with the opportunity of integrating other Microsoft products into the tool.
For instance, many companies use SharePoint to store files, and by using Power BI, these users will be able to integrate SharePoint into the tool, allowing them to upload the data needed for analysis immediately from the cloud storage.
Conclusion
Power BI provides numerous benefits to those corporations that deal with large datasets and data analysis, allowing them to get better results and make better-informed decisions.
