The new Power BI is coming and the perception of the role of analyst in a business organisation might change for even a better one. Why? Because the richness of the service and tools enables creating powerful dashboards in minutes out of the existing data across a multitude of sources.
Guess, what’s more? The dashboards are mobile-optimised for iPad and iPhone, easily shared via Office 365 and – attention! – they are interactive! Altogether, this opens for an analyst the prospect of having a reputation for being an agile and magnanimous person. Various business needs – be that a request from a top manager or a line manager – could meet a resolution quicker than ever.
As an example, it takes about twenty minutes to create this beauty from scratch:
“But I have Excel, you know…” Truly, you do. In fact, one might consider Power BI Designer a simplified and at the same time an empowered mix of familiar Excel add-ins – Power Query, PowerPivot, Power View and Power Map. One notable addition: the Designer is backed with the Power BI cloud service that respects role-based access control, automatic data refresh and interactivity in the browser. Sounds teasing and provokes for an action, doesn’t it? (Download here.)
Did you have an idea of visualising some data and sharing the insight across the organisation? Or, did you have a plenty of them – for HR, Finance, LoB operations, Sales or Marketing – and a lack of time? It might be a good time to give your ideas a try with Power BI Designer. A few reasons to do it off-hand:
- It is very, very easy to use.
- It’s free.
- It supports dozens of data source, including SAP, Hadoop, Salesforce, Facebook, Oracle, etc.
- Visualisations are comprehensive – tree map, world map, funnel, gauge and all kinds of charts.
So, what does this tool mean to an analyst? Well, the lead time for a task of producing an insight shortens now. This is equally true for an ad hoc report as well as for a reusable dashboard with drill-down capabilities. Simplicity of the Designer and a straightforward way of sharing the deliverable are state-of-the-art pieces that make up a personal success for a person in charge for analytics.
When it will be available?
In late February-early March the Power BI service should expand beyond the U.S.
Upon general availability, existing customers of Power BI for Office 365 subscriptions will get an option to transition from the existing user experience to the new user experience. See more about Power BI Transition and licensing.
How much does it cost?
Prices drop considerably.
Power BI Pro for E3/E4 subscribers: $9.99 user/month (previous price: $20).
Power BI Pro Standalone with SharePoint Online Plan 2: $17.99 user/month (previous price: $40).
Power BI without Collaboration and limited Data Refresh: FREE.
EU pricing to be provided later.
More on pricing here and here.
To all those involved in self-service BI and analytics, happy reporting! Be magnanimous by the power of BI! 🙂
