Power BI is a Data Visualization and Business Intelligence tool that converts data from different data sources to interactive dashboards and BI reports. Power BI suite provides multiple software, connector, and services – Power BI desktop, Power BI service based on Saas, and mobile Power BI apps available for different platforms. These set of services are used by business users to consume data and build BI reports. This tutorial covers all the important concepts in Power BI and provides a foundational understanding on how to use Power BI.

Audience

This tutorial has been prepared for beginners to help them understand the basic concepts of Power BI. This tutorial will give you enough understanding on Power BI, from where you can take yourself to a higher level of expertise.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with this tutorial, you should be familiar with Microsoft Excel, data modeling, and have some knowledge of DAX language.

What is Power BI?

Power BI is a Data Visualization and Business Intelligence tool that converts data from different data sources to interactive dashboards and BI reports for business-driven decisions. The Power BI suite provides multiple software, connectors, and services. Power BI apps are available for different platforms. This set of services is used by business users to consume data and build BI reports.

What is Business Intelligence?

Business Intelligence assists companies in processing and filtering massive amounts of stored data and transforming it into actionable insights. Mining, Data Warehouse, and Data Analytics are the correlated names of Business Intelligence. Exploratory data analysis, dashboards, and predictive modeling are the core methods of business intelligence.

Why do we need a Business Intelligence Tool?

In today”s digital era, unstructured data is dispersed all around the world. Companies face difficulty in handling and monitoring huge amounts of data, which in turn negatively affects their business strategies and operation management. This is why the companies require powerful BI tools for quick decision-making to increase their sales production, increase the availability of structured data, generate immense reports, handle customers, track employee performance, and enhance operational efficiency.

Popular business intelligence tools such as Power BI and Tableau are being used by financial companies and big firms like Deloitte, PwC, and EY to compile data from various sources and present it in an attractive format that can be used for making crucial business decisions and identifying market trends and patterns.

What are the Major Components of Power BI?

Following are the major components of Power BI −

Power Query

It is the process of cleansing and transforming data and permits users to access datasets connecting from multiple sources. It is included on the Power BI desktop. Business users may view the data from distinct databases like MySQL, SQL servers, DB2, and many more.

Power View

It is a data visualization tool that assists users in developing stunning charts, and colorful maps, that turn data into a story.

Power Map

It is a 3D map visualization tool to identify geospatial data on Map visuals. It seamlessly helps organizations to examine the maximum sales production geographically, visualizing the demographic populations of specific regions.

Power Pivot

It is a Data Modelling technique that is used to create relationships between datasets. It performs complex computations by utilizing DAX functions.

Power Q & A

When dealing with giant datasets, it becomes crucial to get to know the in-depth details of the data. Luckily, it is done through natural language where users may ask questions and obtain the answer through Power Q & A.

Why Power BI as a Career?

Aspirants who are willing to make their career as a Power BI developer, researcher, business analyst, or data analyst should learn the Power BI tool and get certified by attempting the PL 300 exam. They should start from scratch and learn all the core components of Power BI.

Anyone who is well versed in Excel can easily learn Power BI. The growing demand for Power BI professionals who can develop interactive dashboards and reports has been increasing continuously. Power BI is widely used in all domains, like healthcare, finance, manufacturing, retail, and more. This allows enthusiastic Power BI learners to grab opportunities in these domains.