Power BI: How much do you know?
Power BI is a powerful business intelligence software that has the ability to help companies make better decisions, identify insights, and collaborate on data analysis. Businesses benefit from its easy-to-use interface and user-friendly features.
Power BI offers a variety of features that help users analyse and visualise data quickly. Users can easily discover insights and explore data using interactive dashboards created with the tool. Moreover, Power BI offers a unified view of data from multiple sources by connecting various data sources. Seeing trends, identifying anomalies, and discovering opportunities this way is much easier than doing it the old-fashioned way.
Fig 1. Power BI dashboard
Power BI: What are the cons and pros？
Data analysis and interpretation have been revolutionised by Power BI, a powerful business intelligence (BI) tool. With its easy-to-use platform, users can visualise, organise, and analyse data quickly and accurately. Businesses can quickly recognise trends, gain insights, and make informed decisions using Power BI. It is important to note, however, that Power BI is not without its advantages and disadvantages, as any technology does.
Pros:
1. Visuals: A comprehensive library of visuals is offered by Power BI to help users create stunning dashboards and data presentations. Users can easily create custom maps, charts, and graphs using a drag-and-drop interface. Visualising data can help you gain insights, compare sets of data, and identify trends.
2. Data Connectivity: With Power BI, you can connect to multiple data sources, including cloud-based and on-premises databases. As a result, businesses can access a wide range of data and analyse it across a range of different sources.
3. Platform Integration: Users can easily share data with colleagues and stakeholders through Power BI’s integration with other Microsoft products. In other words, users will be able to collaborate on projects, as well as share insights, quickly and easily.
Fig 2. Common data sources for Power BI
Cons:
1. Cost: Power BI free is available to everyone who wants to get meaningful insight from their data and apply it to their businesses, but for organisations, depending on the size and the license acquired, it can be costly.
2. Learning Curve: There is a learning curve associated with Power BI. Understanding how to get the most out of the platform can take some time.
3. Security Issues: The cloud hosting of Power BI can pose security risks. Organisations need to ensure that their data is secure when using Power BI.
Power BI: What are the benefits for college students?
Students can gain new insights into their data with Power BI. By using Power BI, students can create visually appealing dashboards for quickly identifying trends and getting an overview of their data.
Fig 3. Power BI Dynamic Visualisation Charts
In addition, Power BI simplifies the process of accessing and analysing large datasets for students. The ability to connect to datasets from a variety of sources, such as Excel, SQL, or SalesForce, allows students to access and analyse data in a very efficient manner. Analysing the results of an experiment or survey can be especially useful in this situation.
Furthermore, Power BI enables you to create complex visualisations like maps, graphs, and charts. Visuals can be used to identify patterns and trends in data, which is invaluable for students studying a particular subject. In particular, students who study subjects that require a lot of data analysis will benefit from Power BI’s ability to help them understand their data.
As a result of Power BI, sharing data with classmates and colleagues is easy, allowing for collaboration and discussion. Therefore, Power BI is an essential tool for college students.
By IFTM Faculty Member Dr. Sonny Su and PhD Student Zhang Si
