Business Intelligence Archives - Page 3 of 5

Pawan Chabra
January 09, 2023
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Why Business Intelligence Consulting is Essential for Modern Businesses?

With the massive amount of data being generated across organizations, its effective management and processing are no longer a choice for businesses of all sizes. Business intelligence consulting is an effective way to create a robust strategy for data management. A massive 97% of data being generated by organizations stays unused, and around 74% of employees feel unhappy or overwhelmed when working with data. While both these statistics point out the grave problems that need efficient handling for business success, it is equally important to realize that it is mainly because of poor business intelligence frameworks and a lack of structured data management. As business intelligence helps generate actionable data-driven insights, companies need it to drive new changes and achieve sustainable growth. Here is all you need to know about business intelligence consulting: What is Business Intelligence Consulting? Business intelligence consulting is all about helping a business put in place various frameworks and processes to achieve better data management and processing. For any business trying to harness the power of business intelligence, it is important to opt for a business intelligence consultant that can understand the requirements and suggest solutions that will push data transformation in an organization. By opting for a BI consultancy, a business has a better chance to complete the data transformation faster. Business intelligence consultants are specialized professionals that help businesses set the foundation for their business intelligence journey of an organization. At the same time, they help examine the organizational data to improve overall decision-making in the business and optimize business processes. As an organization gets clarity on the best practices in the industry, processing and delivering business intelligence solutions can be done seamlessly. With an increasing number of businesses trying to achieve data-driven decision-making, business intelligence and consulting is becoming a critical aspect of business growth. Why Should You Consider BI Consulting Services? If you are looking at setting up a business intelligence function in your business, it is good to have a reliable BI consulting partner. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider BI consulting services for your business: Expertise A good BI consultant brings along expertise and objectivity to the table that helps to evaluate the specific needs of the business. With the right knowledge of the ecosystem and the industry, the business intelligence consulting firm can help you with the best BI platform as per the needs of the business. Streamlined Approach The right BI consultant can help you with a streamlined approach to integrating a BI system into the business. The structured approach helps provide the right training to your team for the use of the selected BI tools. Better Visibility By opting for business intelligence consulting services, a business can get better visibility into various business functions. At the same time, better visibility helps with optimization, the right method for measuring key performance indicators, and identifying new business opportunities for growth. Value Addition With a business intelligence consulting firm in place, a business is better equipped to ascertain the potential value addition. With the right design and implementation of the pilot project, an organization can measure the success and return on investment in a better manner. Strategic Thinking By opting for a BI consulting firm, a business has a better chance of setting the right direction for growth. Strategic thinking can help you understand the best course forward for business after considering the ecosystem and business. Benefits of Business Intelligence Consulting BI consulting helps a business in a variety of ways. Here are the key benefits: Identification of KPIs for Business Reporting BI consulting companies help take out the hit-and-trial period from the business intelligence strategy. As a BI consulting firm comes with experience and expertise, it becomes easier to identify relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) for various business departments. It can be related to finance, operation, sales, etc. As the initial phase of data transformation can be overwhelming for any business, the presence of a business intelligence consulting company can make way for faster insight generation and its deployment in business. With an experienced BI consulting firm on your side, the business is better equipped to opt for the right software and tools that allow for experimentation with variables for a better understanding of processing and metrics. Helps Stay Ahead of Time The presence of a BI consulting company is critical to ensure that the business stays ahead of time and gauges all changes in KPIs that may impact profitability. As the business intelligence function has data from various sources that are processed and used comprehensively to generate actionable insights, it is possible to have a bird’s eye view of the big picture of the business with an experienced partner. Critical insights about important business areas like employee performance, profitability, revenue performance and return on investment, etc. can be obtained with business intelligence consulting solutions. Keeps a Check on the Competition The use of BI intelligence consulting is not only limited to checking the performance of the business, it is also useful to keep a check on the competition. Apart from the fact that the use of business intelligence consulting can create a competitive edge for the business, it is equally impactful in the assessment of the competition on various parameters. The presence of a professional BI consulting firm helps you identify the relevant tools and mechanisms to use data related to the competition for business growth. It is critical for a business to select a good business intelligence consulting firm to help a business evaluate the competition and prepare its future strategy accordingly. Increased Customer Satisfaction Business intelligence can work in a variety of areas including finance, sales, marketing, logistics etc. It can also play a critical role in tracking consumer behavior and purchase patterns. It can be about the products consumers are buying, which products are performing better than others, factors that are triggering sales, what is the after-sales experience like, etc. With such key information, a business can make relevant changes

Shashank Dharasurkar
November 09, 2022
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A Guide to Outsourcing Power BI Development

Finding an experienced business intelligence developer or Power BI expert can be challenging for many business owners. As a result, most companies outsource business intelligence projects rather than developing them in-house. When you choose to outsource BI projects, you can lower the project development cost while reducing administrative expenses and taxes. Business owners of every size wonder whether they should hire more Power BI developers or hire an outside firm for business intelligence. Outsourcing BI projects versus in-house development can affect your organization’s efficiency, costs, and workflow. Now the question is Why should you outsource BI projects over hire Power BI developers in-house? Keep reading to find out! BI Outsourcing: How To Make It Work? The use of outsourcing today is seen as a vital tool that can help organizations become more efficient and successful if used appropriately. Outsourcing, however, has remained a constant in the IT world. In the past, The main goal of IT outsourcing was to reduce costs and standardize processes before outsourcing. As a result, the business became profitable. It is, however, different when it comes to Business Intelligence outsourcing. The aim here is to avoid failures and justify BI investments. To deliver results, BI outsourcing companies use a variety of techniques. The process of acquiring and modeling data gets automated by using offshore resources or software. It can either get replaced with a highly integrated BI stack or cloud-hosted BI solutions or a combination of these solutions. In-House Team Vs. Outsourcing Power BI Developer Outsourcing Power BI project development is typically a more cost-effective option than in-house development because you will get the skills and experience necessary to address your specific, immediate needs. An outsourcing firm with a business intelligence developer has experience in solving different problems while building solutions. So that experience makes them more capable of achieving your goals and objectives. For example, if you want to conduct a huge holiday sale, you can work with an independent marketing organization to plan an excellent strategy and market the product appropriately to the proper people. It will enable your company to take advantage of its limited sales days. It is best to outsource Power BI projects to companies with years of experience. As stated before, outside Power BI developers have encountered various challenges and can bring insights and practices that your team might not be familiar with. Your project will not only get resolved more quickly but also more effectively with their help. An outsourcing company, for example, could advise you on making the most of big data available to you if you hire them to assist with data-driven decision-making. Also, they can provide accurate and comprehensive answers to your questions and concerns about the BI project. How To Choose BI Outsourcing Specialists: Here is the list of things you should consider while choosing a BI Outsourcing firm or hiring power BI developers for your business. The DataToBiz team, for instance, provides business intelligence outsourcing and other data-driven services. The platform offers services including Big Data, Data Science (predictive analytics), and Business Intelligence (gathering and presenting information from diverse sources). Benefits Of Outsourcing Power BI Development Businesses often find it difficult to hire talented business intelligence and Power BI developers. As a result, most companies outsource business intelligence projects instead of choosing in-house development. Following are some of the benefits that most companies leverage when they choose to outsource. Increased Expertise The main reason companies outsource their business intelligence is to acquire increased expertise. Your company benefits from the expertise and knowledge of an employee when a business intelligence system gets implemented. BI companies, on the other hand, provide you with decades of expertise and experience. Thus, implementations, optimizations, and troubleshooting can get completed more quickly. The BI services team is made up of experts who have specialized knowledge about BI. In this way, action items and challenges can get accomplished faster and more effectively than with an in-house team. Data security The benefits of outsourcing business intelligence operations include access to a team that stores and manages important data across multiple platforms, which is a vital aspect of information security. There is a thorough understanding of data regulations and compliance requirements among their staff. Business intelligence is essential for today’s businesses, and outsourcing such a valuable aspect should not be overlooked. Hiring a Business Intelligence Company, like DataToBiz, allows you to concentrate on business development while utilizing BI technology. Flexibility When you outsource software development, you will no longer be responsible for interviewing, recruiting, training, and finding the best match for your projects. In addition, you shouldn’t be concerned about scaling if labor requirements change based on the project. Savings In Both Money And Time To successfully operate internal BI, your staff must be able to figure out what tools and systems your company needs, as well as regularly learn new skills and tools. The result can be costly for your company and a distraction from more productive tasks. Power BI outsourcing saves you money by eliminating the need for data specialists, software engineers, and project managers. You gain access to the best talent by outsourcing Power BI project development over hiring in-house developers. In addition to their proficiency with Power BI, outside developers are more familiar with emerging technologies and trends. As a result of working with an experienced project management team, you can get started sooner. You may also get valuable assistance from them during the process. No matter what you need to change or what concerns you have, they can effectively handle everything for you. Power BI Developers: Roles & ResponsibIlity With Required Skills An organization’s data-driven decision-making depends on the ability of Power BI developers to convert data into stories that enable data-driven decision-making. Required Experience In Data-Specific Roles The minimum experience required to become a Power BI developer is 2 or 3 years of working with BI tools. Besides, they should have a solid understanding of database management, SQL queries, data modeling, data warehousing, business intelligence, and OLAP (Online

Sunaina Agarwal
November 02, 2022
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Business Intelligence Consultant: How to Choose the Right One

In recent years, Business intelligence has become an integral part of many businesses. By analyzing data and trends, businesses are able to make more informed decisions that can lead to increased profits and efficiency. Business intelligence can be used to track customer behavior, understand how products are selling, and predict future needs. The Business Intelligence market size globally is expected to grow to USD 33.3 billion by 2025, which is at 7.6% CAGR. Rising investment in analytics, rising demand for dashboards for data visualization increased focus on digital transformation, and growing adoption of cloud and data generation are all reasons that are expected to contribute to the growth of the business intelligence market. So why is BI so important? Because it can give companies a competitive edge. By providing managers and decision-makers with timely, accurate information about their customers, operations, and financial performance, BI can help them make better-informed decisions that improve overall results. How Does BI or Business Intelligence Work? Business intelligence (BI) is a process that uses technology to convert data into actionable insights. These systems are used to identify trends, spot business problems, and track performance. They can also be used to predict future events and trends. BI tools include data visualization, dashboards, and reporting. This method of presentation is usually through simple and easy-to-read reports, as well as pictographs and infographics for understanding in a single glance. It is the easiest way to gain insight into business performance and collect all relevant information quickly regarding any queries or questions. Some BI software also offers the option of a selective display so that the viewer only sees the information pertinent to their needs. Trend analysis becomes a breeze with interactive BI reports. Since these trends become easy to recognize and understand, businesses can focus on increasing revenues and finding more business expansion opportunities. It even assists in making wise business decisions and is an overall sound investment for any business, big or small. Business Intelligence Tools Business intelligence tools are used to collect, store, and analyze data to help businesses make better decisions. These tools can help businesses track and understand their customers, competitors, and markets. BI tools can also help businesses improve their operations and strategies. There are leading BI tools and their benefits that a company can achieve by utilizing the software – Why You Must Consider BI Consultant or Consulting Services If you are considering Business Intelligence (BI) for your company, you should strongly consider using a BI consultant or consulting service. Here are four compelling reasons why: 1. Expertise and Objectivity A good BI consultant will have a deep understanding of the BI landscape and be able to objectively evaluate your company’s specific needs. They can help you select the best BI platform and tools for your business. 2. Streamlined Implementation A consultant can help you plan, implement, and integrate a BI system into your business. A good consultant will also be able to provide training to your IT teams on how to use the BI tools. 3. 360-degree View A consultant can help you get a 360-degree view of your company, including how to optimize business processes, how to measure the efficiency of key business operations, and how to identify new opportunities for growth. 4. Value Add A consultant can help you identify the potential value of BI in your business. They will also help you to design and implement a pilot project, which will help you measure success and ROI. 5. Strategic Thinking A BI consultant will help you to set a strategic direction for your company. This is crucial for success. For example, if you want to grow in the Asian markets, then a BI consultant can help you determine the best way to do so. They will also help you know the feasibility of such markets. 6. Data Quality A BI consultant can help you clean, integrate and analyze data from various sources in your company. What Are the Responsibilities of BI Consultants? BI consultants are responsible for helping businesses to collect, store, and analyze their data. They work with businesses to identify their specific needs and then craft a solution that will help them to achieve their goals. Like, in the case of a novice business that has not yet implemented Business Intelligence, a consultant will help you choose the right BI tools and technology depending on the specific business requirements. They help the company determine a BI roadmap and set some BI goals and work with the management to achieve them. On the other hand, if businesses already have BI software set in place, the work of a BI consultant is to review the current structures and strategies, along with coordinating with the technical team to identify trends and predict significant events for better business decision-making. They set up systems to consistently monitor progress and change parameters, thus helping organizations grow. What Are the Qualities of a BI Consultant? BI Consultants have a set of niche skills that include but are not limited to extraction, analysis, and debate. These consultants are flexible, creative, and detail-oriented while foreseeing the future and overseeing the big picture. What Are the Required Technical Skills for a BI Consultant? They are adept at business strategy and computer technology. They must have an aptitude for Data Analysis, Problem Solving, Communication, Business Intelligence, Basic Knowledge of SQL, and intricate knowledge of the sphere of the business itself, such as healthcare, food industry, etc. The Data Science Skills Required Include There Are Several Business Skills Involved As Well What Are Some of the Responsibilities of a Business Intelligence Consultant? What Are Some Mistakes To Avoid While Partnering With a BI Consultant? Since the job of a BI consultant is critically fundamental, choosing the right company or partner for your requirement is necessary. Before doing so, here are a few factors to keep in mind- Top Business Intelligence Consulting Firms While there are many business intelligence consulting firms, it is better to entrust your company

Mayank Wadhwa
October 04, 2022
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6 Advantages of Power BI Dashboard: Should You Consider It?

If you want to scale your business and make the most of data, Power BI is one of the best business intelligence tools you can bank upon. Why? Well, unlike other Business Intelligence tools, Microsoft’s Power BI has a better GUI, which is easier to understand and requires no coding at all. Just drag and drop some features, and you can create interactive Power BI dashboards within minutes. Also, Power BI is quite affordable, which makes it ideal for small businesses and startups with limited resources. Want to know more about such Power BI advantages that make Power BI a reliable BI tool? Read along. This blog talks about the top advantages of the Power BI dashboard along with its use cases in different business domains. Top 6 Benefits & Advantages of Power BI Dashboard Power BI Dashboard offers numerous benefits and advantages that make visualizing complex data easy. Here are some of them: Easy to Use Power BI offers you a pretty user-friendly interface that makes the entire dashboard creation process easy. So much so that you do not even need to write a single line of code to create them. Just drag and drop the features, and you’re good to go. What’s more, there’s an in-built intelligence in this tool that recommends the right reporting element based on your choices. For instance, after choosing the data source if you opt for sales and location, Power BI will automatically identify the map chart. That’s how smart it is. Low Learning Curve As stated earlier, the Power BI dashboard requires no coding; it’s easy to use and master. Also, Power BI was developed on the foundation of Microsoft Excel, which further lowers the learning curve when it comes to creating Power BI dashboards. If you know EXCEL, you’ll face no issues using the Power BI dashboard. P.S. Power BI offers learning guides if you want better information on how to use it. Customizable Dashboards Power BI offers amazing customization when it comes to creating and sharing dashboards. You can create Power BI HR Analytics Dashboard to simplify the HR process, a Power BI for Banking Dashboard for analyzing finances, or Power BI Marketing Dashboard to determine the success of your campaigns. So, regardless of the business domain, you belong to, you can easily customize the Power BI dashboard as you like. What’s more, you can even integrate the Power BI dashboard into your website or application to offer a better and more unified user experience. Numerous Data Sources Business Intelligence tools help analyze huge amounts of data that come from various data sources. However, most BI tools are limited when it comes to data sources. That means they accept a set number of data sources to pull the data from, which can be a problem. Fortunately, Power BI solves this problem. When you’re creating Power BI dashboards, you can pull data from almost any data source, such as: The above list of data sources is just an example of how extensive Power BI is when it comes to pulling data from data sources. In its true sense, there are even more data sources that you can choose from. Cost-Effective Power BI is quite an affordable Business Intelligence solution. The desktop version of Power BI is free, and you can create immersive dashboards and reports both simple and complex without paying a penny. While you may have to pay for accessing more features like sharing the Power BI dashboards, it’s affordable (around $10 a month). Q&A Function The Q&A function is probably one of the best advantages of the Power BI dashboard. To get actionable information, most BI tools require you to follow a number of complex steps and even coding. However, that’s now how Power BI functions. The Q&A feature Power BI comes with allows you to ask questions using a natural language and get the information you want. For instance, if you want to check the number of shoes sold. You can simply visit the Q&A section and enter “shoes sold by the state as a bar chart” This will display the information you need in the form of a bar chart. How Can You as a Business Benefit from Power BI Dashboard? Imagine you’re selling shoes/t-shirts on your website globally, and receiving thousands of queries and sales each day from customers. Also, you’re running marketing campaigns to improve your sales. Now, how will you answer the following questions: Well, if you have a few hundred customers, maybe you could manually check the data to answer these questions. However, if you have thousands of customers to deal with each day, manually checking the data would be a bad decision as it would be both time-consuming and ineffective. And this is when Power BI comes in. With Power BI Dashboards, no matter how much data you deal with each day, you can easily answer all of the above questions within minutes. You just need to select the data source, select the attributes, do some dragging and dropping, and you’re done. Power BI Dashboard basically helps you structure all types (structured, semi-structured, or unstructured) of data into a visually immersive and easy-to-understand format. And once you can understand the data easily, you can make better, well-informed, and data-driven decisions that benefit your business. What are the Use Cases of Power BI Dashboard? Regardless of which domain you belong to, if you have to deal with lots of structured, semi-structured, or unstructured data, Power BI is for you. So, in this section, we’ll talk about different departments within a company that uses or can use Power BI Dashboard. Here are the top most common use cases of Power BI Dashboard: Management The c-level executives can use the Power BI dashboard to understand operational KPIs such as profit, loss, net revenue, customer retention, etc. Dashboards also give insights into investor summaries and financial overviews. Here’s what a management Power BI Dashboard looks like: Finance The CFO and other folks in the finance department can have an overview of

Shashank Dharasurkar
September 01, 2022
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Top 5 Power BI Dashboard Examples to Get You Started

When it comes to using data to its fullest, one thing that comes to everyone’s mind is data visualization. After all, data visualization is what helps display and understand the data better and use the same to make informed decisions. That’s where Power BI comes in. Power BI is an impressive tool using which you can create an interactive, visually immersive, and dynamic dashboard and make the most of your data. Want to learn more about what Power BI actually is and how you can use it to unleash the power of data visualization? Read along. This blog discusses what Power BI is and lists Power BI dashboard examples that you can use to visualize data in different domains within your business. Also, you’ll learn some tips to create your custom dashboard using Power BI dashboard examples. What is Power BI? Power BI is a Business Intelligence tool from Microsoft similar to Tableau, using which you can create interactive and actionable reports and dashboards. With Power BI, you can pinpoint issues and tell a story using the dashboards and understand data effectively. Also, Power BI allows you to source data from sources that aren’t a part of the Microsoft ecosystem. That means you can use any data source to input data into Power BI and get a coherent and interactive dashboard ready. What is Power BI Dashboard? You can think of Power BI dashboards as visualizations or templates that update on their own when the data supplied changes/updates. Because of development functionalities, you can drag and drop visualization widgets on the canvas and create a custom dashboard without writing a single line of code. Common Power BI dashboard examples include the finance dashboard, sales dashboard, cost optimization dashboard, and a lot more. More on this later in the blog. What is the Difference Between a Dashboard and a Report? Dashboards help visualize specific aspects of an organization. While you can include any number of data sets, dashboards work best when you focus on a particular area. Also, using dashboards, you can visualize and organize the data in real-time. On the other hand, reports have a broader scope because of which they offer a high-level view of the entire organization. However, reports are static and represent a snapshot of a particular area or the entire organization. What’s Better? Well, dashboards are optimal for BI and analytics needs, especially when you want to focus on different business aspects such as customer segmentation, finance, sales, etc. You can check in real-time how your products are performing and draw an action plan accordingly. Top 5 Power BI Dashboard Examples Here are some of the best power bi dashboard examples: 1. Finance Dashboard Who is the Dashboard For? The finance dashboard is for executive-level employees who want insights into an organization’s financial data/performance. As an executive-level employee, you can find high-level insights that make scanning the entire dashboard pretty easy. What’s more, the finance dashboard allows you to dig deep into granular metrics if you find an insight worth exploring. What’s the Purpose of This Dashboard? The purpose of the finance dashboard is to offer the users a high-level view of your company’s financial performance. Users can check out the financial performance over time by product category and location. What are the Key Insights of This Dashboard? The finance dashboard is one of the best power BI dashboard examples that offers the following key insights: 2. Sales Dashboard Who is the Dashboard For? The sales dashboard is meant for sales managers to help them read sales data in an interactive manner. What’s the Purpose of This Dashboard? The purpose of the sales dashboard is to help sales managers understand how their business is performing. You can get an overview of the sales along with all the granular details corresponding to each opportunity. As a sales manager, you can determine the aspects where you need to focus to meet your sales targets. What are the Key Insights of This Dashboard? 3. HR Dashboard Who is the Dashboard For? As the name tells, the ideal audience for this Power BI dashboard is HR managers who want to keep track of the demographics of the employees. What’s the Purpose of This Dashboard? The HR dashboard offers insights such as average age, duration, and salary. And the purpose is to help HR managers learn more about their employees and understand them better. It’s also meant to assist the entire HR team in ensuring that the company has the employees it needs. What are the Key Insights of This Dashboard? 4. Marketing Campaigns Dashboard Who is the Dashboard For? Yet another important power BI dashboard example is the marketing dashboard. It’s meant for marketing managers who regularly launch campaigns and want to track how the campaign performed. What’s the Purpose of This Dashboard? The purpose of the Marketing campaigns dashboard is to determine the effectiveness of marketing campaigns across different product segments & channels. And using these insights, marketing managers can tweak their campaigns to improve their performance. What are the Key Insights of This Dashboard? 5. Customer Segmentation Dashboard Who is the Dashboard For? The customer Segmentation dashboard is meant for companies dealing in the B2B domain. It’s meant for senior managers who want to analyze the customers closely. What’s the Purpose of This Dashboard? The customer Segmentation dashboard is one of the best Power BI dashboard examples meant for senior managers. It’s because by using this dashboard, senior managers can visualize revenue coming from every individual product. They can also visualize & determine which product is doing the best and which isn’t. What are the Key Insights of This Dashboard? Now that you know about some of the most popular Power BI dashboard examples let’s learn how you can create a similar Power BI dashboard for your business. Tips for Designing a Power BI Dashboard 1. Consider Your Audience Always consider keeping your ideal audience in mind while designing a Power BI dashboard: For instance, if it’s a

Nandeesh Reddy
August 24, 2022
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How to Export Power BI Dashboards using Power Automate in 7 Steps

Microsoft Power Automate formerly Microsoft Flow, is a tool for automating processes and tasks by connecting different applications and platforms. It is a low code or no-code application where flows can be built quickly and easily from scratch or pre-built templates. Power Automate integration with Power BI will allow exporting the dashboards or reports in various formats (PDF, PowerPoint, Excel) with ease. In the organization Power BI reports are shared by the Power BI service (Cloud environment) to various users in the organization and it is mandatory that everyone should hold the license of service to view the content published and shared with them. Using Power Automate the exported reports can be shared with both internal and external users on a set schedule time in a certain format. What is Power BI Power BI helps to create real-time high-level analytical dashboards when compared with excel in terms of easy data modeling, handling huge data sets, ETL, logical functions, and a wide range of visuals with better UI/UX. Power BI uses powerful compression algorithms to import and store the data, which permits you to analyze, and visualize large datasets that can’t be viewed in Microsoft Excel. Excel is not designed to work with big data and has a more adjusted amount of data. We don’t have to reduce or downsize the size of the dataset to perform the analysis, the entire detailed report and summarisation can exist in a single file. Integration with multiple data sources is one of the key features of Power BI. Data can be imported from multiple sources to power BI and all the ETL operations, data modeling can be performed in Power BI itself using Power Query. This will reduce the pain to create any kind of model in the native systems before the integration is made. What is Power Automate You might be wondering what is Power Automate and who can use it. Let me put it in simple terms with certain examples to make it better. Power Automate is an automation tool developed by Microsoft with the intention to allow citizen developers to access the capability of automation in day-to-day tasks. Whether you are an IT, Marketing, Finance, or HR professional, you will be able to use Power Automate. It Empowers everyone to build automated processes with flows in Power Automate. Use low-code, drag-and-drop tools and hundreds of pre-built connectors that automate repetitive, mundane tasks with ease. It boosts efficiency by recording and visualizing your end-to-end processes with a process advisor, providing guided recommendations for creating flows and deep insights that take the guesswork out of what to automate. Ex: With the help of Power Automate one can create a flow to send an alert email whenever a new row is created in a SharePoint list (a SharePoint list is connected to any ticketing tool and it creates a new row whenever a new ticket is raised). Save all your mail attachments into a drive-by using Power Automate and the list of capabilities are endless. Power Automate Connectors It has hundreds of pre-built connectors and it’s updated very frequently with more and more connectors. Features of Power Automate · No Code or low code automation tool · Save and secure Cloud-based tool · Pre-built connectors · Readily use Template flows · Peek Code feature · Dynamic content expression · RPA (UI Flows) · AI Builder Now it’s time to see some action points. Let’s hit the example to export the BI reports to various users through email How to Export Power BI Dashboards using Power Automate Step 1: Create your report on the Power BI desktop and import Power Automate visual onto the page Step 2: Click on the Power Automate visual ellipses to edit the visual Step 3: Click on New (left top corner) to create an instant cloud flow Step 4: Search for Power BI connector and then choose trigger as Power BI button clicked Step 5: Click on New Step and search for Power BI as a connector and Export to file for Power BI reports as an action Step 6: Fill in the details in the actions Workspace – where the report will be hosted in service Report – Report Name Export Format – PDF Step 7: Create a new step and search for Gmail or Outlook and select Send email as an action Fill TO Subject Body Click on Advanced options and fill the attachments using dynamic content Save the flow and Test it. Place the visual according to your choice and run the flow to trigger the action and send a mail to defined users. Licenses required This will work on Power BI PPU Conclusion We have demonstrated how to export and share Power BI reports with internal and external users (which does not require Active Directory accounts) using Power Automate inside Power BI using a button to trigger the flow, the same can be automated using Power Automate by scheduling the flow. By adding more steps you can create a better creative flow to meet your business needs as we discussed formerly in the article.

Aditya Kumar
August 10, 2022
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7 Simple Steps To Develop a BI Strategy

If you are an entrepreneur or someone who runs or administers a business, there are two things that you should keep in mind – systems and processes. One must test different strategies and solutions repeatedly and establish a sweet relationship with cold, hard numbers. This is where numbers tell data-driven stories, and business intelligence strategy comes into the picture. Business intelligence is the science of using numbers from varied resources to make critical business decisions. With a nicely chartered business intelligence strategy, one gets to sync these systems and processes with multiple goals. On the other hand, business intelligence consulting firms poke in the right direction, pointing to the right tools and training an organization needs to conduct as a part of the strategy. Additionally, one gets a business intelligence strategy that not only helps the key stakeholders think across the business components but also coordinates plans, objectives, personnel, and more to ensure that implementing the recently developed strategy is a success. 7 Simple Steps To Develop a BI Strategy But how does one develop a BI strategy all in-house or outsourced? Here are seven simple steps to develop a BI strategy: 1. Assemble a Leadership Team and Executive Sponsor To begin with, it is advisory to select individuals who understand the business and can also work in teams to pull levers when needed. This will have a company-wide impact, so choose your leadership and executive sponsor carefully. Eventually, some of the traits that play a major role in defining what sort of leader and team to choose from include: If you are looking at an organizational level of change, these are the characteristics to look out for. Next, it is time to build out a tech team. This team will work on the technology aspect of the BI team. To simplify it, the executive part of the business intelligence strategy team determines, “How will we infuse BI into our business, and how will BI affect it?”.” In contrast, the technical team will decide the specific technical requirements that get business intelligence up and running. 2. Establish KPIs with Key Stakeholders One of the biggest mistakes most companies make at this stage is not having a solid plan. Business intelligence consulting firms suggest you have the data to take your business to the next stage. This solid infrastructure captures all the necessary information at the right time. However, despite the theories, several companies struggle to deliver the expected results. At this point, the focus of the BI team should be to arm every employee with better information for improved productivity and for stakeholders to solve overarching business problems. Some of the key business problems that you need to ask about at this stage are: 3. Audit Current Data Infrastructure and Availability Now that you know the key parameters and factors determining your company’s growth, it is essential to have all the key stakeholders audit the current data infrastructure and derive meaningful inferences from the pile of data. At this stage, the discussions primarily revolve around your BI setup’s technical specifications and whether additional data needs to be captured in the process. Some of the critical questions one needs to ask in the following stage are as follows: 4. Choose The Right Set of Tools Once you have understood the ins and outs of your requirements, it is time to boil it down to real-life implementation. Following are the items to look out for while setting up your data infrastructure or interviewing a business intelligence consulting firm: Data Collection and Management The basic step to begin your data collection practices is to answer the following questions. These are: Storage and Capacity One must decide what kind of setup it needs when dealing with storage. Is it a cloud-based solution or data servers established on-premises? The security of these devices could not be ignored, and hence the technical team should be sound enough to carry out the task effectively. Data Visualization Tools and Dashboards Delivering insights through data visualization and visual analytics dashboards tools like Tableau or Microsoft Power BI is essential to the success of any BI strategy. However, one must consider the employees’ data literacy while crafting the visualizations. Do they need an extremely interactive tool or something that can be drilled down to explore the nitty-gritty of the problems, or is it a simpler dashboard with graphs? The choice is yours. Data Access and Governance When it comes to data access at various levels in the office, not everyone should know everything about the strategy. This is where data governance comes into the picture. Further, experts suggest measures against data theft (both internal and external); hence, priority should be given to security. Choosing the Right BI Consultant/Vendor Devising and implementing a BI strategy is a resource-intensive process; hence, outsourcing to a BI consultant or vendor sounds like a sound strategy. These individuals have years of experience with different vertical expertise in business intelligence consulting. Figure out the budget permissions and connect with a consultant or vendor per the requirements. 5. Executing BI Strategies Once you have crafted the strategy, it becomes crucial to point to the right timelines. When will all the components of the strategy be executed? Will the components be executed in one phase or all at once? And so on. This will add clarity to timelines and help you succeed in executing the strategy. Your strategy should delineate timelines and communication methods around the rollout of: And so on. 6. Training When implementing business intelligence problems, most employees (irrespective of level) fail to use such tools. Hence, it becomes critical for the entire company to organize training or boot camps or face a major haul. On the other hand, using BI solutions should not feel like a hassle; hence, with the training and ease, it should come naturally. 7. Launching Your Plan and Measuring Success Now that you have finally made it, all you need to do is now measure the success of the strategy

Yashica Chopra
July 11, 2022
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9 Advantages of Partnering with a Power BI Consultant

With organizations investing in business intelligence, there is an increase in demand of Power BI experts. Partnering with a consultant is a popular choice in the global market. We’ll discuss the advantages of hiring a Power BI implementation partner for a business. Data is a vital part of the current global industry. So much that 2.5 quintillion bytes are generated every day by internet users. A research study says that daily data generation will reach 165 zettabytes per year by 2025. Statista shows that the global big data market will reach $103 billion by 2027. Data delivers valuable insights and predictions to an organization to make decisions faster and better. The insights are derived through data analytics and business intelligence technologies. A majority of businesses around the world are adopting data analytics and advanced analytics to make the most of the available data. Facts and Factors has reported that the global predictive analytics market will reach $22.1 billion by 2026. On-premises, cloud and self-servicing analytical and business intelligence tools like Power BI have a crucial role in collecting, cleaning, processing, and analyzing data to deliver actionable insights. But how do organizations integrate and use BI tools? There are two ways to do so. One is to build an in-house team with data scientists and Power BI experts. Another method (the most preferred) is to hire offshore Power BI consultants to take care of the process. Various BI consulting companies offer services to help small, medium, and large enterprises adopt the data-driven model and make use of the insights derived by Power BI. Let’s read to find out how Power BI can help your business and why partnering with a consultant is a worthy choice. What are the Benefits of Microsoft Power BI? Power BI is a suite of business intelligence applications and services offered by Microsoft. It comes in various versions (desktop, web, & mobile) and can be used by any business organization. It is a data analytics and visualization/ reporting tool that shares micro and macro insights in real time. Power BI is an internationally famous BI tool for the range of features and services it offers. Here are some benefits of using Microsoft Power BI in your enterprise. Connect Data Sources Data is indeed found in abundance. But how do we collect this data from different sources? You can use Power BI to set up a data processing model where data from multiple sources is collected at a central location. This central database can be a data warehouse or data lake (on-premises or cloud). Power BI is connected to the central database, which has access to data from several sources. Data Integration Data integration is the next step after data collection. It’s where data from different sources is cleaned and transformed to provide a unified view. Power BI is known for its data integration abilities that allow a user to create a common data model after aggregating data from a range of sources. The sources can be online and offline. Power Bi’s ETL (Extract, Transform, & Load) tool is known as Power Query Editor. Turning Data to Insights The biggest advantage of Power BI is to turn raw data into actionable insights. The insights make it easy to understand the patterns, trends, etc., in large datasets. Power BI works with historical and real-time data to deliver insights for decision-making. Employees at different levels in the enterprise can use the insights to complete day-to-day work. Data Security Microsoft has built Power BI to ensure adequate data security and protection. Sensitivity labels, data compliance, defending cloud apps, Microsoft 365 data loss prevention, etc., are some examples of the data security methods adopted by Microsoft to keep your business data safe from unauthorized access and cyber-attacks. Data Visualization Power BI is also called a data visualization tool because of its ease to create reports and view them in real-time. Data visualization is a way of visualizing data insights in easy-to-understand formats. Line and bar graphs, pie charts, heat maps, tree maps, etc., are a few ways to represent data in graphical/ pictorial format. This allows users to understand patterns easily and quickly. User-Friendly Dashboard Power BI offers a customizable and interactive dashboard with a drag-and-drop feature. Users can add filters, KPIs, identifiers, etc., to the dashboard to analyze the same datasets based on various factors. The necessary information can be directly accessed from the dashboard with a couple of clicks. Since the Power BI dashboard is connected to the central system within the business, the data will be up to date at all times. Multi-Platform Usage Power BI comes in different versions. It can be used as a desktop app, web service from the cloud, and mobile app. It can be used as a free or paid service. Microsoft currently offers three versions of Power BI- Free, Pro, and Premium. The consultant will help you choose the right version for your organization based on the volume of business. You can upgrade or downgrade the plans as required. What Does a Power BI Consultant do? A Power BI consultant has an extensive role to play in an organization. The consultant has to provide end-to-end services: The consultant will be responsible for Power BI development, implementation, management, and maintenance in an enterprise. The expert can work with a business from any industry and with varied business requirements. The Power BI consultant will provide tailor-made solutions for each enterprise based on the niche, business volume, market conditions, and long-term goals. Advantages of Partnering with a Power BI Consultant Why do more than half the enterprises adopting the data-driven model hire offshore consultants? There are several advantages of partnering with a Power BI consultant than building an in-house team from scratch and having employees on the payroll. 1. Bridge Talent Gap You need employees with Power BI certification and expertise to build an in-house team. You either have to hire experts or train your existing employees. Recruitment and training are expensive and time-consuming for any business. An easier solution

Anshul Grover
June 22, 2022
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Getting Started with Dataflow in Power BI: Creating Your First Dataflow

Dataflow is a comprehensive way to deal with large datasets and reduce the load on data analytical tools/software like Power BI. We’ll discuss the need for dataflows, ways to create them, and the uses of dataflows for a business. Power BI is a popular data analytics and data visualization software developed by Microsoft. It is a collection of apps, software services, and connectors that collect, process, store, and analyze data to deliver reports in real-time. There is much more to Power BI than its definition. That’s because Power BI deals with the continuous inflow of data from multiple sources. The accuracy of the reports generated by the software depends on the quality of the input data. Cleaning, sorting, formatting, and streamlining data within the system is essential to get actionable insights. This gets harder when the business has to deal with large datasets. When you add large volumes of data to a system, you need to take extra care to maintain the overall quality. Setting up dataflow in Power BI is a smart solution to manage input data and ensure accurate reports. In this blog, we’ll read more about the problems caused by large datasets and how dataflow solves the problem. Issues with Large Datasets in Power BI Dirty data or unclean data is a real problem in today’s world. We have access to countless information sources. But how good is the data from each source? Errors, redundancy, unwanted details, etc., need to be identified and cleaned before the data is used for analytics. Big Data Data with greater velocity, variety, volume, etc., that cannot be processed by traditional systems is known as big data. Processing unclean big data requires a higher computing and statistical power that can increase the expenses for a business. Spellings and Missing Values Misspelled words or missing characters/ values can change the context of data and lead to the wrong analysis. Identifying these errors in large datasets is time-consuming and effort-intensive. Lexical Errors The difference in data structure between two or more data sources can create confusion when formatting the data into a single structure. Imagine what would happen if one field was attributed to another. Mismatches and Contradictions Data from two sources might contradict each other based on the parameters used. Common abbreviations have multiple meanings, and each source might refer to a different one. Money could be measured in different currencies. Changing the values and correcting them in a large dataset can be a never-ending task. What is Dataflow? Dataflow is a way to prevent issues with large datasets in Power BI. But what is dataflow? The term dataflow has quite a few meanings. Microsoft defines dataflow as a collection of tables that are created in the Power BI workspace. Any number of tables can be added to the dataflow. The existing ones can be edited to correct and update the information. According to another definition, dataflow is a process running in the cloud and not related to any particular Power BI report. The dataflow can be used for numerous reports simultaneously. That means five or ten employees can send a query to the same dataflow at the same time and get the information they require. Since dataflow runs on the cloud, any changes required will not have to be made to all the reports but only to the data in the dataflow. Another explanation of dataflow is comparing it to a typical river or a water body. Just like a river has different sources and stops but ends at a single destination, data in the system also comes from different sources but gets stored and used in the data warehouse/ data lake for analytics. By releasing data from silos and removing barriers, it will create a seamless data flow within the enterprise. When this data is used for querying in Power BI, it will provide better and more accurate insights. Why are Dataflows Important? We now know what dataflow is. But why is it so important for a business to create dataflow in Power BI? What changes does it bring to the business processes? Let’s take a look. Reusability The biggest advantage of creating dataflows is to reuse them multiple times. You don’t have to create a new dataflow for each report. You also don’t need to remove/ delete old dataflow and create a fresh one because of outdated information. One more advantage is that you don’t have to create new data connections each time (both on the cloud and on-premises). Seamless Integration Dataflows can be integrated with existing systems and tools in the business. Dataflows work seamlessly with Power BI as you only have to set up the connections and run queries. Cost-Effectiveness Your Power BI premium subscription is enough to create and access dataflows in data lakes. If you don’t use Microsoft Azure, there’s no need to start using it only for dataflows. There won’t be any additional expense to pay for licenses. Scheduling Data Updates Keeping data up to date is necessary to generate real-time reports. You can track the updates and changes made to dataflow and schedule the refreshing of the tables. Furthermore, you can build different processes to manage dataflows and save them in different places. Short-Term Data Storage A dataflow also serves as a temporary data storage center. Processing a large data file/ database doesn’t require extra time. The data can be stored in dataflow for the time being to speed up the analytics and deliver timely reports. How to Create Dataflow? Here’s how to create dataflow with new tables that are hosted on OneDrive Business: Results of Using Dataflow in Power BI Dataflow reduces the load on Power BI by taking over the transformation layer. Since the tables in dataflow can be edited and reused multiple times, dataflow can be used with many applications within the enterprise. The dataflows can be connected to other Microsoft Power Platform technologies Power Query, MS Dynamics 365, Power Automate, Power Apps, and so on. What are the Uses

Yashica Chopra
April 21, 2022
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Business Intelligence in Manufacturing: Transforming the Industry

Data-driven manufacturing is the need of the day. Digital transformation has entered the manufacturing industry and is changing the sector through data analytics. Business intelligence is the key to revamping manufacturing and improving quality, production, and returns. The manufacturing industry has been looking at business intelligence with renewed interest. Data is usually scattered in the factory and manually fed into the system; it’s also offline until it is entered into the database. Business intelligence provides a solution to bring the data together with minimum effort. It promises data collection, cleaning, and analytics to improve the manufacturing processes and increase returns. The manufacturing industry contributed 18% of the GDP in the Middle East in 2018. The countries have marked manufacturing as an integral part of their economic strategies to achieve their 2030 visions. The ME region has the necessary infrastructure and connectivity to boost the manufacturing industry. Oxford Economics said that UAE’s industrial sector grew more than a third during the 2007-17 decade. Innovations and technological adaptations have been game-changers. Artificial intelligence, business intelligence, data analytics, etc., are said to take the manufacturing industry in the Middle East to newer heights. The Gulf countries are using business intelligence services offered by offshore companies to revamp their existing systems and make the necessary changes to stay active in the competitive market. Let’s read in detail about the role of business intelligence in manufacturing and how data analytics can help manufacturing industries fulfill their role in contributing to the 2030 economic vision of the Middle East. Types of Manufacturing Processes In simple terms, manufacturing is the process of producing products/goods using raw materials and tools. Biological or chemical processing may also be used to obtain the final product. Be it the production of a tiny toy, household appliances, or an automobile, converting raw materials into finished goods by following a systematic and pre-defined procedure is known as manufacturing. However, the reality is much more complicated and involves a range of factors such as quality, cost, production cycle, duration, supply chain, and more. The path from acquiring raw materials to supplying finished goods to the market is filled with various elements that are not always under our control. Furthermore, the manufacturing processes are classified into three types: Make to Stock MTS is where the finished goods are made in large numbers and held as stock in stores. These are widely used and always in demand. That said, manufacturing too much in surplus can lead to blocked capital and losses. Make to Order MTO is where the manufacturer waits for an order to start the production process. The clients/ customers have to wait until the production cycle is complete and the end product is handed over to them. Make to Assemble MTA is a combination of MTS and MTO. The manufacturer has a stock of the parts required to assemble the final product. The assembling will be done only when an order is placed. This not only reduces the time to deliver the product to the customers but can leave the manufacturer with excess parts if there are no orders. How a manufacturer manages the processes and stock determines the success of the business. Business intelligence helps manufacturers use historical and real-time data to correctly anticipate the market demands and adjust production accordingly. What is Business Intelligence? Business intelligence is a set of procedures, techniques, and software used to convert raw data into meaningful insights. BI allows manufacturers and enterprises to increase their business efficiency by making required changes to their systems and processes. Every industry requires business intelligence to analyze data and derive actionable insights. These insights help businesses to make better decisions in a quick time and stay relevant in the competitive markets. Business intelligence is the use of data and data analytics to gather valuable information. BI for the manufacturing industry is also called manufacturing intelligence or manufacturing analytics. Business Intelligence in Manufacturing Industry The manufacturing industry needs to streamline and balance machine operations, supply chain, and logistics to get the desired results. The main aim of the manufacturing industry will be to reduce production costs without compromising the quality standards or delaying the production cycle. To achieve the goal of reducing costs and increasing production, the manufacturer needs to rely on the data-driven model to make decisions. This is possible when the data flow is aligned within the manufacturing unit and bridges the gap between data, systems, and employees. BI and data analytics give manufacturers the necessary tools and insights to use data effectively and make the right decisions for the business. How is Business Intelligence Used in Manufacturing? The use of business intelligence in manufacturing can be seen at every stage, from sourcing raw materials to supplying the final goods to end-users. Since most manufacturers already have the ERP system in place, adopting a BI and data-driven model is not too complicated. Hiring the services of a business intelligence developer will help manufacturers understand the ways to implement BI and data analytics to derive accurate insights. Improve Operational Efficiency Operational efficiency is a must for a manufacturer to survive the competition in the markets. However, it is possible only when a business knows what changes to make and which processes to continue. While data is available in abundance, using the data efficiently to gain in-depth insights into the existing operations of the manufacturer can be achieved through business intelligence. BI reduces the time taken to analyze data and derive reports, thus providing the management with the necessary information to make changes on time. Manage and Streamline Supply Chain A manufacturer works with various third-party vendors, suppliers, carriers, distributors, etc. A delay at any point in the supply chain will lead to disruptions, postponements, and losses throughout the production cycle. It could lead to product failure or put the manufacturer at a disadvantage. Business intelligence gives insights into suppliers, transporters, deliveries, expenses incurred during distribution, and so on. The reports can be used to choose reliable suppliers and freight partners and plan the production