Power BI is a Microsoft business analytics platform that makes sophisticated reporting possible for end users. It accomplishes this without needing the assistance of IT employees or database administrators to deploy SQL Server business intelligence solutions.
Power BI represents a terrific opportunity for businesses to increase their revenue because corporations can better understand their customers’ needs. Additionally, Power BI is great for assisting with job specialization because increasingly businesses will be leveraging business intelligence to their advantage.
A business analyst in a corporation can take an Excel file that IT gives them and import that file into PowerBI. From there, they can navigate in the My Workspace section to accomplish their goals.
The My Workspace section of Power BI includes the following important components:
- Dashboards – Any dashboard a user creates will be listed in the Dashboards section. Users can share any dashboard they created with other users using Power BI.
- Reports – Any reports created from user imported data will appear under the Reports section.
- Datasets – The Datasets section will include any data source a user connects to Power BI such as an imported Excel workbook.
The workflow for a Power BI user involves taking a dataset, making reports based on that data, and organizing visualizations into dashboards for easy retrieval and sharing. Data visualizations available in Power BI can help marketing department employees spot trends or data scientists visualize insights.
Power BI helps to transform data into rich visuals. Additionally, Power BI Desktop and Power BI are very similar, with the latter being available on the cloud on any device through a web browser. The desktop version is only available locally on your desktop.
Furthermore, Power BI includes the capability of natural-language queries, which allows users to analyze data by asking questions in plain English. They don’t have to learn, understand, or know how to write special code or another syntax.
Power BI and Custom Maps
Power BI users can create their very own custom map visualization, which involves using JavaScript libraries. Users have maximum control over output, but there’s a small learning curve for beginners with understanding how to use JavaScript libraries.
For instance, users can add Shape Map visual to a report in Power BI Desktop. Adding visuals then enables users to add their own custom map. Google Maps allows users to create custom maps. This custom map needs to be exported as a KML file, then converted to a JSON file.
Mapbox is an open source tool that allows users to convert KML to GeoJson. Custom maps allow Power BI users to add a multitude of features and details, although this customization is a more time-consuming option.
Two native map visuals that Power BI includes are referred to as the map and the filled map. The native map visuals are accessible, flexible, easy-to-use, and fully supported by Microsoft Power BI.
Click here to learn about seven custom maps supported by Microsoft Power BI.