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14 Proven Fixes for Slow Power BI Dashboards (By a Developer) 

While Microsoft Power BI is an effective tool for business intelligence and data visualization, it can cause a few concerns. Here, we’ll discuss the reasons for slow Power BI dashboards and proven ways to fix the issues as provided by a certified developer.  Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence and data visualization platform with a global client base. Statistics show that around 54,978 companies use Power BI. It enjoys 13.28% of the global market share in the data visualization market, with Tableau, D3js, and Heap Analytics as its competitors.  Many startups, SMBs, and multinational organizations use Power BI for various purposes. From the sales teams to finance departments, everyone in the enterprise uses the platform to analyze business data and generate reports to make data-driven decisions. The visualizations on the dashboards are attractive, interactive, and informative. However, some businesses have issues with slow Power BI dashboards. The reports are not generated in real-time, or take too many resources to deliver the output.  This leads to questions like, Why is my Power BI dashboard loading so slowly? How can I fix this issue? And so on!  Is there an answer to these questions? Absolutely!  Slow dashboards can be due to various reasons. It can be resolved by identifying the core problem. Sometimes, it’s a combination of reasons. In such instances, you will get better results by hiring a Power BI consulting company to resolve the issue.  Here, we’ll look at the causes of slow Power BI dashboards as well as how to improve report performance in Power BI by making a few strategic and technical changes to the process.  Potential Causes for a Slow Power BI Dashboard  Power BI performance depends on various factors like the existing IT infrastructure, internet network, hardware, third-party software, employee efficiency, and much more. That’s why it’s recommended to work with a Power BI service provider to perform an audit of your systems and create a comprehensive plan to revamp the entire data architecture and infrastructure if required. Even if it sounds like an expensive and complex project, it ensures seamless performance and fast results. It also provides high ROI and makes it a worthy investment.  A few common reasons for slow Power BI dashboards are as follows:  Outdated Architecture  Data architecture refers to the blueprint of how you manage your business data. It includes data collection, cleaning, storing, transformation, etc., as well as how the data is used to derive meaningful insights. Having a robust data architecture will ensure seamless data flow within the organizations. However, when you use outdated department silos and older software with Power BI, the platform cannot work effectively. For example, connecting Power BI with SQL Server databases might be easy but the results will be greater if you connect it to Amazon Redshift or Azure. This requires technical expertise.  Mismatch of Technologies  Though many third-party tools can be integrated using APIs or other means, it is important to choose the ones that are more compatible with each other and don’t cause glitches. Moreover, using older technology with the latest ones can reduce overall efficiency. Power BI can have a few issues working with the distributed nature of the cloud. So, dealing with large datasets can be a concern if the connections are not set up properly. This slows the Power BI dashboard and limits real-time decision-making. You can improve Power BI speed by choosing supporting tools and technologies with care.  Data Complexity and Volume  There’s no lack of data in today’s times. If anything, it’s the opposite. Businesses often have too much data, with more being generated every hour. However, not all of it is useful. Additionally, creating data relationships can be complex and confusing. When such highly complex datasets are connected to Power BI, the tool can take extra time to analyze the data and provide an output. It results in computational overheads while reducing responsiveness. Knowing how to store complex data and use it for analytics can resolve the issue.  Poor Data Modeling and Management  Data modeling is the creation of a visual representation of data and its relationship within the database. It streamlines the ETL (extract, transform, load) process by reducing uncertainties. However, if your data modeling and management processes are not clearly defined or optimized, you will end up with poor data quality and glitches, which ultimately slow down the entire system. Power BI dashboards will be less efficient in analyzing the data to deliver insights. On the other hand, robust data modeling makes it easier to automate the process using AI tools and speeds up the Power BI dashboards.  Excess Visualization in Reports  Data visualization is the graphical representation of data and insights using charts, graphs, diagrams, infographics, and animations. These reports are interactive and unique, and make it easy to understand complex insights. Power BI dashboards are used to create dynamic visualizations. However, you should be careful not to overdo this. Adding multiple visuals to the same page can overload it and slow down the dashboard. This results in lower efficiency and delayed insights. Think about whether you really need a dozen visuals on the same page or if you can use only a few to share the same information. Power BI dashboard optimization includes personalization of the visuals to balance efficiency and speed with user-friendliness.  Overloaded Report Architecture (DAX calculations) DAX stands for Data Analysis Expressions and is used for queries and calculations. It is different from SQL, which works seamlessly with Power BI. Translating DAX to SQL queries can result in slow processing and inefficiencies. When the data operations become more complex, it further affects the platform and causes a lag. Optimizing the report architecture instead of overloading it is a comprehensive solution to overcome the challenge. This can be done by certified Power BI experts. Hire reputed Power BI services to rewrite the formulas, remove unwanted high-cardinality fields, and optimize the process.  14 Proven Fixes for Slow Power BI Dashboards Power BI optimization can speed up slow dashboards. This

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Power BI in Ecommerce – Top 11 Companies Shaping Analytics

The Ecommerce sector can vastly benefit from using business data to derive actionable insights and make data-driven decisions through real-time dashboards. Here, we’ll discuss the top 11 Power BI companies in the Ecommerce industry and their services.  Ecommerce is among the fastest-growing industries in the global market. With millions of people buying products online, there is high demand and supply for a plethora of goods. Be it medicines, apparel, electronics, or groceries, numerous products can be purchased online directly from the manufacturer, distributor, or online retailer.  Statistics show that 2.77 billion people are estimated to shop digitally. This represents 33% of the global population. With over 28 million Ecommerce stores in the market, there is high competition between businesses to capture more customers and retain them. In such instances, data analytics and business intelligence help businesses get a clear understanding of the market trends, sales, customer behavior, competitors, etc. By implementing platforms like Microsoft Power BI, Ecommerce businesses can make quick and effective data-driven decisions to stay ahead of competitors and achieve their targets.  In this blog, we’ll read more about the role of Power BI in Ecommerce and the top eleven companies that offer the required services to benefit from the platform’s solutions. How is Power BI Used in Ecommerce? Power BI is a business intelligence and data visualization platform developed by Microsoft. It can be integrated with diverse data sources to collect business data and analyze it to provide in-depth insights and reports through the dashboards. Employees from different departments use the insights and visualization reports for real-time decision-making. By using Power BI in Ecommerce, a business of any size can streamline its operations and enhance customer experience.  While businesses can implement Power BI on their own, partnering with a service provider will ensure accurate and seamless results. Moreover, the company offers long-term support and maintenance services to troubleshoot and upgrade the platform whenever necessary.  Here are a few ways to use Power BI services to boost Ecommerce business.  Customer Segmentation  Customers are vital in Ecommerce. How a business reaches out to its target audiences, how it promotes the products, customer behavior, purchase patterns, demographics, etc., determines its success. With Power BI, the business can analyze customer data to derive in-depth insights. Based on these, the business can sort and filter customers into different segments and send customized target promotions accordingly.   Inventory Management  How many products should the business stock? Which item is in more demand? When will customers buy a certain product more? Power BI can be used to derive such insights. This helps maintain inventory levels and handle fluctuating demands without worrying about low stock. Similarly, the business can avoid overstocking a product.  Supply Chain Management  After inventory, supply chain management and logistics are other crucial aspects of an Ecommerce business. With help from Power BI companies, businesses can streamline all parts of the supply chain, reduce risk, and make alternate arrangements in advance to prevent delays and disruptions.  Sales and Revenue Analysis  The sales data gives plenty of insights into Ecommerce businesses. It can be used to measure progress, identify weak areas, understand growth opportunities, etc., for different products, regions, durations, and so on. With real-time Power BI dashboards, the sales team can get instant inputs and take corrective steps before it is too late. This also enhances customer experience.  Marketing and Promotions  Power BI can also be used to analyze data from websites, ads, social media platforms, and marketing campaigns to provide a clear picture through the dashboard. With this information at their fingertips, Ecommerce businesses can track metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, acquisition costs, and many more to increase ROI from marketing.  Predictive Analytics  Predictive analytics are a type of advanced analytics that process historical data to predict future trends for the business. By using Power BI to forecast sales and understand market fluctuations, the Ecommerce business can be ready to tackle seasonal fluctuations and changes in customer behavior.  Real-Time Reporting  Ecommerce analytics through Power BI dashboards can be used for real-time reporting. Employees can send a query and get an instant outcome to make a decision or complete the task. Whenever businesses have to make quick decisions, they can use real-time reporting and stay at the top of the game instead of relying on outdated and old reports. Power BI in Ecommerce – Top 11 Industry Players DataToBiz DataToBiz is an end-to-end AI company offering tailored services to implement solutions for Power BI in Ecommerce. As a certified Microsoft Gold Partner and Microsoft Power BI Showcase Partner, the company has the required expertise and experience to build, deploy, integrate, and customize Power BI dashboards as per clients’ requirements. It works with startups, SMBs, MSMEs, and large enterprises from across the globe. The company has in-depth knowledge of various industry standards and knows how to help businesses align their process with their mission and achieve the desired goals. As one of the leading business intelligence companies, DataToBiz has worked on several data visualization Power BI projects. The professionals build custom dashboards and provide the necessary support to ensure seamless integration with third-party tools. Ecommerce businesses can use real-time visualization reports to track their sales, marketing campaigns, customer experience, targets, etc., and make data-driven decisions.  ScienceSoft  ScienceSoft is a global IT consulting and software development company offering retail analytics solutions through Power BI dashboards. The company’s services are customized to meet the varied requirements of clients and help them implement advanced solutions with ease. It assists retail and Ecommerce businesses in converting raw data into valuable insights to make real-time decisions and capture more audiences. The company also works with businesses from several sectors by offering industry-specific services. It has been a Microsoft Solutions Partner for years and has ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications to ensure quality solutions. The company has won The Americas’ Fastest-Growing Companies by the Financial Times thrice in a row. ScienceSoft has experienced Power BI developers who create diverse dashboards for KPIs and set up the

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How to Make Your BI Dashboard Actionable – 8 Insider Tips

BI helps examine large datasets to understand trends, patterns, and correlations. It is useful in deriving accurate insights for various requirements. Here, we’ll discuss the top tips for creating tailored, actionable BI dashboards for data-driven decision-making.  Business intelligence (BI) is a set of tools, technologies, and processes used to collect, clean, and convert raw data into actionable insights. The insights are used to develop business strategies, streamline operations, optimize resources, enhance customer service, and increase profits. The analytics derived by BI help a business unlock its full potential and gain a competitive edge in the global market.  Statistics show that the BI market is estimated to increase by $18.56 billion at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 10.7% between 2024 and 2029. It can be used in any industry and by a business of any size or volume. BI tools like Power BI can be hosted on-premises and on cloud platforms. They can be integrated with data sources, repositories like data warehouses and data lakes, and other third-party software. The dashboards that provide data visualization reports are the core of the Power BI adoption process.  These dashboards enable users (employees, management, stakeholders, etc.) to access data in real-time, derive insights, generate reports, and collaborate with others from the same interface. However, for this to happen seamlessly across the enterprise, the dashboards have to be actionable and optimized.  In this blog, we’ll share insider tips to make your Business Intelligence dashboards actionable and achieve the expected results from your Power BI journey.  What Makes a BI Dashboard Actionable? Actionable BI dashboards are user-centric and provide clear insights relevant to each user/ employee’s job. Business intelligence dashboards can be built using tools like Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, etc. Power BI is among the top three dashboards used by organizations from different industries and regions. It can be personalized to create interactive dashboards that generate meaningful reports for employees in just a few clicks. While many enterprises use business intelligence, not everyone achieves the desired results. That’s because the dashboards have to be optimized to deliver actionable insights, preferably, in real-time.  So what makes a dashboard actionable and efficient?  It is an improved BI dashboard that focuses on finding solutions to the following questions:    In short, an actionable dashboard is fully aligned with the business vision and objectives while providing customized and interactive solutions to employees who use it for daily activities. Integrating the dashboard directly into the workflow also makes it actionable, though the delivered insights have to be useful, meaningful, up-to-date, and accurate for employees to make data-driven decisions.  Though the initial setup is a one-time process, BI dashboard best practices have to be monitored continuously to ensure the process is in sync with your organizational requirements. That’s why most businesses partner with Power BI service providers for integration and maintenance services.  Insider Tips to Make BI Dashboards Actionable  A well-designed dashboard is useful in tracking business intelligence KPIs, generating data visualizations, and sharing the latest insights with team members, stakeholders, and others. However, creating this dashboard requires technical expertise, planning, and a clear understanding of what your business wants.  Clear Purpose and Objectives Be clear about the purpose of creating BI dashboards. Also, understand the difference between a dashboard and a report. A business intelligence dashboard provides a real-time view of critical metrics and KPIs. It allows you to interact with the interface by adjusting the filters or changing the visuals as required. This enables quick and real-time decision-making. A BI report is a document with in-depth analysis of a given situation that often uses historical context and helps identify trends, patterns, etc. It is generated as per a pre-determined schedule or whenever necessary and used for auditing, compliance, and more.  Start by defining the exact purpose of building actionable BI dashboards. What do you want to track, monitor, or measure? What are the benchmarks against which you will measure your performance? What do you intend to achieve and by when? What are your goals and objectives for the short-term and long-term?  Best Practices:  Keep it Simple Power BI dashboard reports and interfaces should not be cluttered or filled with countless visuals. Packing too much information is easy, but it can be overwhelming for users and counterproductive when they have to make data-driven decisions. Cluttered dashboards make it hard to collaborate and communicate with others, as they can increase confusion or misunderstandings. At the same time, a simple dashboard doesn’t have to be static, boring, or unappealing. Achieve the right balance between simplicity and efficiency.  Best Practices: Understand BI Dashboards Dashboard insights can be actionable when you understand what the interface can deliver and how the insights can be used. For example, strategic dashboards are used by C-level executives, analytical dashboards by most employees in the enterprise, tactical dashboards by mid-level managers, and operational dashboards by department heads or team leaders for highly specific data. Each of them serves a different purpose aligned with what the user wants.  Best Practices: Choose the Best Visualizations  Data visualizations come in various types. There are several varieties of charts, graphs, diagrams, maps, etc., like line charts, pie charts, bar graphs, tree graphs, heat maps, and many more. However, not every visual is suitable for every type of data or insight. Similarly, a single type of visualization cannot be used for every purpose or requirement. For example, a pie chart shows the % ratios between different elements, while a line chart can be used to compare the progress of the elements across a timeline or a measurement. The idea behind using visualization instead of text is to present more information in a simpler format.  Best Practices: Web-Based Data Sharing  In today’s world, data and insights should be accessible at the fingertips, no matter where your employees are. No doubt, Power BI Desktop is useful when working on-premises. However, the web version can be used on most devices and from any location as long as there’s an internet connection. Power BI Mobile works

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How to Hire BI Consultants in Australia

Business intelligence helps organizations make the best of their data and use visualization reports for effective decision-making. Hiring the right consulting company can boost your business in several ways. Here, we’ll discuss how to hire BI consultants in Australia. Business intelligence is a suite of applications, processes, and technologies to collect, store, and analyze data to derive actionable insights for decision-making. BI helps organizations use historical and real-time data to make effective decisions quickly and gain a competitive edge in the market. Statistics show that the global BI market will touch $33.3 billion by 2025.  Enterprises around the world are adopting business intelligence tools to make fact-based decisions. In fact, according to a report, 70% of organizations think that data discovery and data visualizations are crucial to detecting trends and patterns when making important business decisions. Establishments from the government, public, and private sectors in Australia are eagerly investing in data analytics and business intelligence to increase profits and become industry leaders.  However, many aspects should be considered when hiring BI experts to work with your business. In this blog, we’ll read more about what business intelligence consultants do and how to hire the best BI consulting company to help you achieve your goals.  What Does a BI Consultant Do? The BI consultant has many responsibilities in an organization. They help streamline internal processes to increase efficiency and optimize the use of resources. BI experts also help understand customer behavior, market trends, competitors’ moves, etc., for a business to make proactive decisions and stay one step ahead.  A BI consultant is responsible for collecting data analytical reports, managing data storage, documenting the process, and tracking the outcomes of various analytics. Other roles include:   Business intelligence consultants handle multiple tasks and systems simultaneously to ensure that real-time analytics are accessible. They use tools like Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, etc., to set up analytics and customized dashboards for data visualizations.  It’s vital to hire experienced BI consultants to ensure seamless data flow and accurate analytics in the enterprise. That’s why many businesses in Australia (and around the world) prefer to hire BI consulting companies instead of building an internal team from scratch.  How to Hire BI Consultants in Australia Identify Business Needs When hiring a BI consultant for your business, you should start by identifying your organization’s needs. Do you want to adopt data analytics across all departments? Will you start small with a pilot project and scale it over time? What are your priorities? How do your existing legacy systems work? Which areas do you want to improve by using BI?  The top management and C-level executives should have a clear picture of the organization’s past and present. Understand your business goals to know what to expect by adopting the data-driven model in the enterprise.  Prepare a Budget Do you have the budget to make the necessary changes in your business processes? Paying BI consultants is just one aspect of the project. Consider the bigger picture. The BI specialist will recommend changes to the systems and processes. This costs money and can go out of control if you don’t have a definite budget and funds allocated to it.  This point is crucial for SMBs and emerging businesses with limited finances. Discuss your budget with the BI consultant. Select the processes you want to revamp using BI. Customer service, sales, and marketing are the three most common areas where businesses adopt analytics.  Freelancer Vs. Company Building an in-house team is very expensive and can easily multiply your costs. However, you can choose between a freelance Power BI consultant and a consulting company. A freelancer usually works alone and has limited resources, while a company has a team of experts and uses its resources to help your business.  Furthermore, partnering with a full-fledged BI company allows you to hand over the entire responsibility to them and focus on your core business. They offer end-to-end solutions and long-term maintenance services to upgrade the systems whenever necessary. Since the company will be familiar with your systems, it becomes easier to detect errors, minimize risks, and increase ROI over time.  Research and Shortlist Consulting Companies Before partnering with a BI consulting company, make sure to read more about the leading service providers and create a shortlist of the ones that suit your business. For example, a small business may not be able to afford the prices of a multinational BI company. In such instances, SMBs can research service providers who specialize in working with growing businesses.  Furthermore, your industry and market are also important. Does the consulting company have experience in the niche and understand the local and national market conditions?   One-to-One Meetings Once you shortlist the BI companies, schedule a meeting with their experts. The meetings can be in-person or virtual but make sure you talk face-to-face to determine which company is the best fit. You can have more than one meeting before making the final decision.  Be sure that the BI consultants can understand your business from your viewpoint and offer a fresh perspective. Your thoughts and goals for the business have to be aligned to eliminate future complications. Finalize the service provider only after careful consideration.  Choose the Right BI Tool The market has many BI tools with extensive features. Many of these can be used as desktop versions, cloud services (SaaS), and mobile apps. However, its the time to select the one that suits your business processes.  For example, Microsoft Power BI is a popular business intelligence tool used by several enterprises, financial institutions, manufacturing companies, healthcare centers, etc. That way, you can hire a Power BI developer when finalizing the consulting company. The specialist will set up Power BI and integrate it with other software in your business. They will create and customize dashboards based on your requirements.  Reasons to Hire Power BI Consultants Another Perspective of the Business When you hire outside consultants, they bring a fresh perspective to look at your business and find effective solutions. Furthermore, an experienced consultant will have better domain knowledge and a good grasp of industry

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7 Top Power BI Companies in UAE

Microsoft Power BI is a suite of BI apps and services that allow enterprises to convert raw data into meaningful visualizations and reports. Here, we’ll discuss the role of the top Power BI companies in the UAE and the Middle East.  Data analytics and business intelligence are prominent in today’s world. Startups, SMBs, large enterprises, and multinational brands require data-driven insights to make better decisions for their business. Statistics show that the global data analytics market is worth more than $100 billion in 2023.  There is an increasing demand for data visualization tools like Microsoft Power BI to present insights in appealing graphical reports to the end user (employee). The latest news article shows that the Middle East is experiencing a rapid digital transformation. Many companies use data and technology to make effective decisions and overcome challenges. The various analytical and AI-based events happening in Dubai, UAE, and other Middle Eastern countries are examples of this development.  UAE-based businesses are partnering with consulting firms from around the globe to adopt technologies like Power BI for day-to-day decision-making. In this blog, we’ll read about Microsoft Power BI in brief and find out which company is best for Power BI consulting services.  What is Microsoft Power BI? Power BI is a business intelligence package with a collection of software tools, apps, connectors, and services that streamline the data flow and convert raw data into actionable insights, which are presented to the end user in a visual or graphical format. Power BI connects multiple data sources and runs analytical queries to identify patterns, trends, etc., in real-time. It has five major components that work together to deliver the necessary insights and data visualizations to employees.  Microsoft Power BI is a robust business intelligence and data visualization tool with an interactive interface and easy-to-use features. An employee at any vertical can use Power BI to access data and insights and stay up-to-date. Every team and department can customize the dashboard to align the KPIs with business goals and derive real-time analytics.  Power BI Companies are offshore consulting firms that partner with Microsoft and have experts who create and customize data visualization dashboards. A handpicked team from the company will understand your business requirements and create a strategy to build and deploy data pipelines, connect multiple systems and applications, and set up Power BI integrations. The team will also create customized dashboards for each department or vertical as required by the enterprise.  This reduces the time, cost, and resources spent by the brand in building an entire system from scratch and testing it in different environments. Enterprises can start using Power BI in less time, and that too without any disruptions.  What are the Top Power BI Companies in the UAE? 1. DataToBiz DataToBiz is one of the leading Power BI companies with years of experience in offering personalized services to businesses worldwide. The company has many clients from the Middle East and has helped brands adopt the data-driven model and unlock the power of data using advanced visualization tools. It is one of the top Power BI companies worldwide, with 71% of clients leveraging the platform for analytics and insights.  The offshore BI solution provider offers comprehensive end-to-end services to digitally transform an enterprise and increase ROI, customer satisfaction, and performance. A few services by the company are as follows:  DataToBiz creates customized Power BI dashboards for businesses from varying industries like manufacturing, healthcare, retail, transportation, supply chain, sales, oil & gas, eCommerce, FinTech, EdTech, entertainment, government, and many more. The company is a certified partner of Microsoft, AWS, and Google and has a 97% project satisfaction rate.  2. Euclidz.ai Euclidz.ai offers state-of-the-art products and services to help businesses adopt the latest technology to transform their processes to achieve their goals. The company combines artificial intelligence and human intelligence to help organizations align their systems with their vision and KPIs. It works with businesses from various industries and helps implement digital transformation in all verticals.  The company has offices in Dubai and India to assist businesses in gaining a competitive edge in the market. It aims to provide brands with the necessary IT infrastructure and support services to leverage different kinds of data and derive insights in a quick time. The following services are offered by the company:  Euclidz.ai delivers self-servicing business intelligence solutions through Power BI implementation. It helps unify the enterprise data scattered across various systems and create secure connections to cloud storage servers. The company builds business dashboards to facilitate access to data and encourage collaborations.  3. TechMantra TechMatra is a strategic IT consulting company that designs and deploys complex IT solutions to help businesses overcome their challenges and achieve the desired results. It provides innovative services to assist enterprises in dealing with the constantly changing market requirements and trends. The company works with clients from UAE, Gulf countries, and India to increase productivity, security, efficiency, and reliability.  The global consulting and outsourcing company aims to make lives simpler and drive success using technology. It provides seamless collaborative services to businesses from many industries and builds client-specific solutions to enhance ROI. The company offers the following services:  TechMantra sets up Power BI for desktop or mobile phones to ensure that employees have access to data at all times. The company works with different third-party platforms to develop custom integrations in an enterprise and provide real-time data visualizations.  4. Business Experts Bemea is a Microsoft Gold Partner that offers comprehensive solutions to help businesses use Microsoft Dynamic tools to streamline finance, operations, and other internal processes. The company provides business cloud solutions for enterprises to revamp their systems and become successful in competitive markets. It has experience in different industries and provides customized solutions, multi-site ERP implementations, vertical add-ons, etc., to boost a business.  The company has a presence in Middle East and South Asian countries and works with many SMBs and enterprises in the UAE. Its services include the following:  Bemea implements Power BI in enterprises to help the management discover the hidden patterns and trends using business intelligence to make

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How to Set Up Power BI Sales Dashboard – Effortlessly Visualize Sales Data

A sales analytical dashboard will empower you to gain an edge over competitors and increase profits for your business. Here, we’ll discuss the steps to create a sales dashboard in Power BI.  The sales team has to don many hats. From creating marketing strategies to directly interacting with end users, the sales department is burdened with a heavy workload. Sales analytics helps the teams stay up to date and be proactive in handling leads to increase revenue.  Investing in business intelligence tools provides the department with the necessary technical support to be one step ahead of competitors.  According to Finances Online, 90% of sales and marketing teams mention that BI tools increase their work efficiency Similarly, a business intelligence sales dashboard is the best tool to empower sales reps and help them make the right decisions.  Microsoft Power BI is among the most used business intelligence tools in the global market. Setting up a Power BI sales dashboard and customizing it for the business will ensure that the department can monitor leads, customers, revenue, expenses, profits, and all other KPIs (key performance indicators) in real-time. You can achieve this by partnering with offshore BI service providers.  In this blog, we’ll discuss the steps to set up a Sales Power BI Dashboard for the team. We will also look at the reasons to hire offshore Power BI experts instead of building an expensive in-house team from scratch.  What is Microsoft Power BI? Power BI is a suite of applications developed by Microsoft to process large amounts of data and analyze it in real time. The insights are presented on the interactive dashboards through data visualization. The graphical reports are easy to read and used for day-to-day decision-making. Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence tool that can be adopted in different departments of an enterprise.  What Goes into a Sales Dashboard? A sales dashboard is an interface that provides actionable insights by processing data from CRM systems. Building a BI sales dashboard can be complex. You should correctly identify the KPIs to track and goals to achieve.  Before you decide to set up a weekly sales dashboard, you need to consider the following: A few important metrics or KPIs to include in your sales dashboard are: The effectiveness of reports depends on how accurate your KPIs are and how well you customize the Power BI sales dashboard to align with your business goals.  How to Set Up Power BI Sales Dashboard? Setting up a Power BI sales dashboard involves eight steps. The process can be simple or lengthy, depending on the data volume, sources, dashboard layout, and KPIs.  1. Create Your Power BI Account  The first step is to create a Power BI account. You can start for free by clicking on the Try Free option on the Microsoft Power BI website. Provide your official email ID or Microsoft 365 login details if you already have an account. Complete your profile and follow the instructions on the screen to set up your profile.  2. Import Data from Sources  The next step is to import the data required to create dashboards. You can upload Excel or CSV files (exported from other platforms or apps). Microsoft Power BI accepts different types of input files.  You can also integrate Power BI with databases like Salesforce, Dynamics, SharePoint, Azure, etc. Power Bi is compatible with several CRM systems and third-party databases. You can set up API integrations for real-time data flow between the platforms. In fact, you can get data from multiple sources simultaneously.  3. Import Datasets with Report  Once you complete the data importing step, you should import Power BI datasets to create the dashboards. Power BI adds a dataset and reports when you import data to the platform. The reports are automatically generated using PowerView sheets.  4. Select Tables to Generate Reports  The tables in the imported data can be automatically converted to visualization reports. Go to Navigator View and click on the Edit option. Go to Query editor to add and filter the data in tables to create the reports.  5. Define Relationships Between Data Sources  By defining the relationships between different tables, you can create custom visualization to accurately monitor every one of the sales KPIs. You can create a Power BI revenue dashboard by following the same steps.  Select Foreign Keys to establish the relationships between two or more tables (data sources). Take time to correctly assign the keys and define relationships and click Ok when done. You can go back to the Report View through the tab on the top left.  6. Customize Visualization Elements  So, how do you want to display sales data? The choice is yours. You can customize the interface to suit the sales teams’ requirements.  Microsoft Power BI offers great visualization to present reports in graphical formats. You can choose the types of graphs, charts, etc., you want to see on the sales dashboard. Drag and drop the necessary elements onto the dashboard. You can also move them around and adjust their size, positions, filters, etc.  7. Dashboard Embedding  For third-party integrations, enter the login details to your database account. Follow the instructions on the screen to configure the database. The reports are ready to be embedded in other platforms.  8. Create Power BI Application  This step is optional. You can register an application with Microsoft Power BI to get the application ID and code generated to create the app.  Why Hiring Business Intelligence Consulting Companies is a Smart Move  Setting up the Power BI sales dashboards requires expertise. The talent  gap is a real issue in many enterprises. You can hire new talent, train existing employees, or opt for offshore partners to handle the project. By hiring a BI consulting company, you get the following benefits: Greater Industry Experience  BI service providers work with different businesses and have deeper knowledge about the process of setting up Power BI dashboards for sales. For example, DataToBiz has clients from various industries, ranging from manufacturing to healthcare, IT, retail, supply chain, eCommerce, etc., and works with MSMEs,

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10 Top Power BI Consulting Providers in UK for 2025 (Updated)

Power BI is a 360-degree data analytics and data visualization package by Microsoft. It is one of the most used tools in the global market. Here, we’ll discuss the role of Power BI and the leading consulting firms offering Power BI services in the UK.  Business intelligence combines processes, applications, and software to collect large amounts of data and derive meaningful insights from it. BI can be limited to a single department or used across the enterprise in different verticals. It has evolved rapidly over the last few years and has become one of the differentiating factors that give a business an advantage over others in the market.  According to Statista, the projected revenue for the BI software market in the UK is expected to reach $1.57 billion by the end of 2025 and is projected to reach $2.01 billion by 2029 at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 6.39%.  Research shows that 52% of software companies use BI, and 54% of enterprises agree that cloud-based BI tools are vital for their business growth. Business intelligence is implemented using various tools like Microsoft Power BI, Qlik, Tableau, etc. Microsoft happens to be one of the major players in the UK business intelligence market. The UK government has signed an MoU with Microsoft, which allows all public sector companies and organizations in the country to be eligible for discounts when they use Azure, Power BI, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, etc.  This three-year agreement is called Digital Transformation Arrangement 2021 (DTA21), which aims to revamp government and public sector organizations by adopting cloud solutions and applications to enable digital transformation. Microsoft Power BI will be widely used for data analysis, insights, and data visualizations.  However, adopting Power BI can be overwhelming without access to expert services. Power BI is an extensive package that can be customized and integrated with existing business systems to streamline data flow and access real-time insights through the dashboard. The increasing popularity of Power BI led to an increase in demand for Power BI consultants in the UK. Several data analytics and BI consulting firms offer offshore services to help enterprises implement and use Power BI for everyday work.  In this blog, we’ll understand what this Microsoft package offers and look at the top Power BI consulting providers in the UK.  What Is Microsoft Power BI? Microsoft Power BI is a unified package of applications and services that deliver business intelligence insights for small, medium, and large enterprises. The insights are presented as graphical data visualizations through the interactive dashboard. The dashboard is customized for each department and job level in the enterprise.  Power BI is a scalable platform that caters to self-service and enterprise requirements. Microsoft calls it a complete solution to bridge the gap between data and decision-making. Real-time reports are used by employees and top-level executives to make better, faster, and more effective decisions. From end-to-end data protection to the cloud and 500+ data connector integrations, Power BI optimizes business intelligence for an enterprise.  What Does a Power BI Consultant Do? Microsoft Power BI has to be integrated with the existing systems in a business along with the data center and third-party applications to create a proper data flow. This requires domain expertise offered by Power BI consultants and service providers.  But what exactly do they do? A Power BI consultant will understand your business process and determine the best way to customize Power BI to suit your requirements. They will handle the tasks necessary to arrange datasets for analytics and present insights in a graphical format.  Top Power BI Consulting Providers in the UK DataToBiz  DataToBiz is a reputed and reliable Power BI consulting partner for startups and small, medium, and large enterprises. The company has clients from regions like the UK, USA, Australia, India, South Africa, and the Middle East. DataToBiz is a Gold Microsoft Partner and Power BI showcase partner. It offers end-to-end solutions to adopt data-driven models in a business and integrate the necessary applications to derive real-time actionable insights.  The company’s Power BI consulting services include integration, implementation, development, and customization. It provides a full-scale report so that businesses can make the most of multi-dimensional perspectives and be proactive in making decisions.  DataToBiz also offers an array of other services that help organizations optimize investment and increase productivity.  The service provider creates unique dashboards for enterprises from different sectors such as the government, oil & gas, banking & finance, eCommerce, revenue, sales & purchases, supermarket/retail, manufacturing, etc. DataToBiz has won several awards and has an 80% record of getting repeat clients and referrals.  PTR Consultancy  PTR Consultancy offers various data and business intelligence services in the UK. It is a family business that considers its clients as a part of the extended family. The company provides tailor-made solutions based on the mission, niche, and long-term goals of each client. It is a Microsoft Gold Data Platform and Data Analytics Partner with access to advanced Microsoft tools used to adopt the data-driven model in an organization.  PTR Consultancy uses proofs-of-concept to set up and implement Power BI for its clients. From forming the data strategy to running a scalable Power BI platform, it takes care of all services from start to finish.  The company offers consultancy services for the following:  The consultants will help you finalize the right Power BI architecture based on the business needs and set up custom dashboards to provide actionable insights to employees across the enterprise. The company enables businesses to use data analytics for effective decision-making.  Jarmany  Jarmany is a UK-based company offering data analytics services to help businesses drive growth and achieve their goals. The company combines science and art to create powerful data visualizations that help in real-time decision-making. It specializes in data-based services and has helped several clients reduce their cloud storage costs by up to 97%.  The company’s Power BI consultants implement the tool in an enterprise and continuously provide business intelligence reports. Jarmany guarantees that businesses don’t have to spend hours of their time training

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Power BI Supply Chain Dashboard: What Can It Do for Your Business?

Supply chain analytics helps businesses understand their datasets to make informed decisions about their logistics and transportation processes. Power BI is an incredibly useful business intelligence tool to create supply chain dashboards and use the insights in real-time. Let’s discuss the role of supply chain analytics and Power BI in various industries.  The supply chain is a network of people, businesses, and processes that ensure that a company continues to produce and sell products/ services in the market. From sourcing raw materials to moving finished goods to the warehouse and delivering them to the end customers, the supply chain network is intricate, complex, and systematic.  The implementation of the supply chain strategy has an impact on the success of a business. After all, how can a company deliver the products/services to the end-users if it cannot source the materials or transport the finished goods as per the schedule?  Covid-19 has disrupted the global supply chain, and the Middle Eastern markets, too, faced the same trouble. Challenges such as shortage of labor due to lockdowns, increase in demand, and reduction in supply and adhering to the safety protocol makes it difficult for businesses to manage their supply chain. However, the companies also know a solution to the problem.  Many Middle Eastern businesses are heavily investing in technology, especially artificial intelligence, to make their supply chains more resilient even in adverse conditions. For example, Hypermotion Dubai is an ME edition of the German-initiated convex that gives the transportation and logistics industries a fresh start. The aim is to be sure that the emirate continues to lead in supply chain management and speed up development.  The Dubai-based global logistics company, Aramex, has built a data lake and streamlined its supply chain process by relying on machine learning. This led to a whopping 74% increase in shipping accuracy. It also resulted in a 40% reduction of calls to customer support. Middle Eastern companies know that digitalization is the way to the future. Business intelligence for the supply chain is becoming an integral part of various companies.  But what is supply chain business intelligence? How does it help the companies, and which BI tools can be used to build a supply chain dashboard?  What is Supply Chain Analytics?  Supply chain analytics is the analysis of the individual elements of the supply chain that work together to help the business achieve its goals. Procurement, inventory, warehouse, order management, shipping, and deliveries are the elements of the supply chain.  Understanding how every element contributes to keeping the supply chain running will help businesses overcome roadblocks and prevent delays. While there are various software applications to manage individual elements, companies need to bring it all together on a single platform/dashboard. This makes it easier to identify the correlations and come up with the necessary solutions.  Types of Supply Chain Analytics The following are the four major types of supply chain analytics that help enterprises improve the efficiency of their business operations, streamline logistics, and save time and money without compromising quality.  Key challenges that Supply chain analytics solution solves: Actionable Advice for Data-Driven Leaders Struggling to reap the right kind of insights from your business data? Get expert tips, latest trends, insights, case studies, recommendations and more in your inbox. How Do Companies Use Supply Chain Analytics?  Companies use analytics to process and analyze the data generated at different points in the supply chain. The logistics dashboard empowers companies to stay up to date and get real-time information about their supply chain processes. It gives them the information to make last-minute changes and make decisions based on historical and real-time information. Managing local, national, and global supply chains is simpler when using supply chain analytics.  How Can Supply Chain Analytics Transform a Business?  Businesses need to invest in building supply chain dashboards to make the most of data analytics. Since companies don’t often have in-house teams to manage business intelligence, they hire offshore solution providers to create the BI dashboards. Many AI service providers recommend Power BI for supply chain analytics. Power BI is a Microsoft product that helps build business intelligence dashboards for various business requirements.  Power BI experts help business enterprises use supply chain analytics to transform their business in the following ways:  Streamline Inventory and Warehouse Management  Accurate forecasting can reduce the uncertainties in inventory and warehouse management. Analyzing customer preferences, purchase history, market trends, and the inventory at different distribution centers will help businesses plan the stock in their inventory to keep up with the customers’ requirements. It is one of the most vital supply chain management techniques.  Increase Sales Knowing which products have a higher demand and anticipating the changes in the market conditions will increase sales for the business. Supply chain analytics gives the management the necessary insights about the demand and supply ratio for their products. Releasing products into the market at the right time will give the business a better chance to capture the customer base. Improve Quality Standards  The quality standards here pertain to the logistics and supply chain processes. For example, the Power BI logistics dashboard will make it easy to identify the gaps in the supply chain that are causing disruptions in procurement or deliveries. By rectifying the gaps, the business increases the quality standards of the process and gets higher returns.  Data Utilization  How a business uses the supply chain dataset determines whether it can achieve its goals or not. Big data solutions facilitate businesses to better understand the changing demands in the market. Not only does supply chain analytics use historical data, but it also processes real-time information from multiple sources to increase the accuracy of the forecasts/predictive insights. Supply chain analytics makes businesses proactive instead of reactive.  How is Power BI used in Supply Chain Management? Power BI is a popular business intelligence tool used by enterprises of all sizes and volumes. Multiple dashboards can be created for each department to provide employees access to the centralized data sets and the derived insights. Supply chain analytics using Power BI improves functional efficiency and aligns the processes

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Power BI HR Analytics Dashboard: Simplify HR Processes

Data analytics for HR helps streamline the human resource processes within the organization. The Power BI dashboard is commonly used to derive actionable insights to improve employee performance and retention rates. Let’s read more about the importance of HR analytics in an enterprise.  The HR (Human Resource) department is the heart of every organization. From recruitment to compensation to performance appraisal and employee wellbeing, the HR department plays several roles in the enterprise. The HR acts as a mediator or a bridge between the employees and the management or enterprise. It’s no surprise that the HR department is already burdened with work. Providing them access to the latest technology and means to derive insights in real-time will help reduce the workload and create a healthy environment throughout the organization.  HR analytics or people analytics is the key to helping the HR department provide a better working experience for the employees. Unlike other analytics, HR analytics doesn’t collect data about employee performance. It gathers data about the HR processes and the work environment so that the processes can be made more efficient to keep employees happy and productive. Issues such as high employee turnover rate, decreased productivity, employee grievances, etc., are the focus of HR analytics.  What is HR Analytics?  Human Resource or HR analytics is where analytical processes are applied to human capital in the business to improve outcomes and enhance critical talent. The analytics aims to provide in-depth insights into the HR processes to increase employee retention, performance, and productivity.  The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the Middle East market along with the rest of the world. A report published in Jan 2021 showed that around half of the employees wanted to change jobs. While some responders said that flexible working and job security were their primary factors, 45% admitted that a higher salary was their aim. The employees in Gulf and UAE regions saw an increase and decrease in salary. While the increase was to retain top-level professional employees, the pay cuts were due to the pandemic and resorted after the market conditions improved. Around 64% of the employers in the Gulf said they would be hiring additional staff in 2021 and 2022.  So how does the HR department make these decisions in volatile market conditions? They rely on HR analytics to understand the existing situation and come up with a new one. A survey report by CIPD showed that 82% of the respondents were already using HR analytics in the Middle East. Almost 72% of them responded that they will continue to invest the same amount or increase the investment in HR analytics.  Middle Eastern organizations are actively upgrading the legacy systems and adopting the latest technology to provide employees with more growth opportunities. HR analytics will continue to play a vital role in helping organizations design robust and agile end-to-end HR processes.  How to Get Started with HR Analytics?     Data analytics in HR helps build the data-driven model to make decisions based on actionable insights in real-time. Implementing HR analytics requires proper planning and continuous monitoring to ensure that the analysis reports are accurate.  Have a Data Management Plan  How do you plan to manage the data within the organization? Start by creating a data governance program and define policies to collect, clean, process, and store data. Then you need to align the data definitions with analytical processes and focus on the four main key areas of human resources- recruitment, absenteeism, turnover, and retention.  Choose the Reporting Software Which reporting and visualization software do you want to use to derive analytics? For example, Power BI is popular software for HR analytics and is used by many businesses from around the world.  Build the Dashboard  You also need to determine whether you have the necessary talent to run analytics or if you need the assistance of a Power BI consulting company. Many organizations in the UAE hire offshore solution providers to set up the HR analytical dashboard. The metrics you choose for the dashboard should align with the KPIs of your business and achieve short-term, midterm, and long-term goals.  Run a Pilot Test  You don’t need to invest heavily in HR analysis from the very first day. Start small by focusing on minimum metrics and run a pilot test to see how the insights are helping in making faster and better decisions. Gradually, you can expand the dashboard and hire HR analysts to manage the processes.  Actionable Advice for Data-Driven Leaders Struggling to reap the right kind of insights from your business data? Get expert tips, latest trends, insights, case studies, recommendations and more in your inbox. Work on Capacity Building  HR analysis reports are used to improve the processes and capacity of your business. Focus on one target group first before implementing the changes throughout the enterprise. Starting with the capacity building of HR Business Partners is recommended as they are the ones who are in constant contact with your customers. Consider Data Privacy and Security  Dealing with employee data means you have to be extra careful about data privacy. Your employees need to know that their data privacy rights won’t be compromised to run HR analytics. Set up policies to find a balance between both.  What are the Benefits of HR Analytics? The HR analytics dashboards help the business adopt a strategic approach to growth and development.  How Power BI Consultants Can Help You Overcome the Biggest HR Analytics Challenges? Though the HR analytics dashboard offers numerous benefits to the organization, the process is not without challenges and complications. How you overcome the roadblocks determines the success of your enterprise. Power BI consultants can help the HR team find a comprehensive solution for the challenges and create HR analysis dashboards to derive real-time insights.  A Gap in Talent Pool  As we previously discussed, the lack of data analysts within the enterprise can make it hard to use technology and derive insights for the HR team. This problem can be solved by hiring offshore consultants.  Bad Data  The accuracy of the reports depends

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Power BI for Retail Industry: Dominate the Sector

With an increase in competition in the retail sector, it has become extremely important for every retail company to understand advanced technology stack, people and data. Power BI is one such technological advancement that allows retail businesses to leverage its functionality for data visualizations to improve their profitability and efficiency while acting on real-time insights.  In fact, the usage of any business intelligence tool is considered a crucial key to managing a company’s data in this digital age. It is used to generate reports, surface insights and connect to a wide range of information for better understanding. The reports offer visualization of the data that boosts the sales for the business by facilitating better planning and strategizing. Today, we will discuss the applications of Power BI for retail and what makes it one of the most efficient retail reporting tools.  Benefits of Power BI in the Retail Industry Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the retail industry is slammed with the challenge of uncertainties. Moreover, the growth of digitalization has enhanced customer expectations. As per a survey, the e-retail industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region was predicted to grow at the rate of 12.2 percent of the offline retail in the year 2025 (before the COVID-19 pandemic). The forecasted penetration rate grew to approximately 16.3 percent after the pandemic.  Therefore, customer demands follow a different pattern in today’s digital era. Along with the products or services, the customers are also given equal importance in today’s economy. Every business and retail industry is looking forward to providing their customers with quick satisfaction and a smooth experience. The retail industry is suggested to analyze and collect the data for coping with the changing customer expectations and rising demands. With the applications of Power BI, the industry can expect the transformation of raw data into actionable retailing insights. It can offer every business a 360-degree view of their entire industry at a glance. Moreover, the efficiency of the Power BI retail dashboard helps understand the selling and buying habits of the customer. Thus proving to be the top retail business intelligence tool in the e-retail market. Let us look into the major advantages of using Power BI in retail: Since it is clear how Power BI for retail can prove to be beneficial, let us now understand its technicalities.  How Does the Power BI Sales Dashboard Work? As we discussed earlier, the business intelligence tool by Microsoft helps to analyze data present in different sources and build dashboards and reports based on the data. Top-level management effectively uses Power BI’s dashboard for retail operations as it is capable of generating an alert once it notices low stock. It helps to create accurate reports on the profitability of the products. Apart from endless uses of the Power BI retail dashboard, the report generated by the BI tool helps to analyze the cash tied to the existing stocks. The industry can avail the advantage of getting the data source with the help of Power BI. Companies can keep track of the inventory status, changes in customers’ shopping trends and the value that any supplier holds using the BI tool. For example, a Customer Analysis Dashboard will help evaluate profit and sales while generating valuable insights based on product turnover-related, dynamic customer behaviors. As an illustration, retail companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) could analyze a decrease in in-store shopping following the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, noticing an increase in shopping via the PC. A survey conducted in 2020 supported the data analysis by predicting the growth curve of the e-commerce industry in the Middle East region to accelerate to five years in about five months. How Would the Retail Industry Use Business Intelligence? The powerful dynamic of business intelligence can be used in many ways by the retail industry. Some of the most useful ways are as mentioned below: Following up with Changing Trends Keeping up with the latest customer trends has become seamless with the help of Power BI. Now every industry can use Power BI to analyze big data that projects the pattern of change in the customer’s purchasing behavior. Using the retail visuals can help the industry monitor, plan and assess the effectiveness of various promotional activities. It can also draw a report on how a particular group of customers reacts to specific marketing campaigns.  Moreover, the Power BI can collect social media data while analyzing it to measure the high engagement level, track the demographics, and assess the influencing behavior while understanding the buying patterns. With the help of the retail analytics dashboards, you can boost the efficiency of the supply chain while meeting your customers’ demands. It can also help meet the seasonal demand while enhancing the forecasting ability. Get the Omnichannel Experience The multi-channel retail would get replaced with the help of a more engaging omnichannel experience. Power BI helps to unify the customer in every action and touchpoint. It helps to treat the single-channel interaction for a more delightful customer experience. Power BI helps to aggregate the data from various offline and online sources with the help of a visualization tool that helps predict user behavior. It also helps get a unified picture of the expectations and demands of the customer. Assessment through the budget is only possible with the help of Power BI. It helps to understand the different areas of intelligent plans, cost-cutting, predictive analysis and floor optimization to balance the demand and supply of the perishable results. Assists All Team Members The data analysts can dig deeper with the help of the advanced features of Power BI, including map visualization. It also helps them unfold the platform’s predictive analysis potential by using R scripts. The team helps the executive keep an eye on the critical parameters while helping them with an all-encompassing and comprehensive report generated via Power BI sales dashboards. It can help them to access a high-level picture of the situation within less time. The top-level management is

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