How to create and use a Power BI Dashboard

Data is an essential asset for every business. But there's a problem: the sheer volume and incoherence of data in its raw form. When information only exists as pages of numbers on spreadsheets, it's a daunting prospect. It gets even worse when the data comes in various formats from multiple sources. Often this data can only be accessed and understood by experts, who often lack the will or skill to explain its meaning in plain language.

Power BI is Microsoft's solution to that problem. This article will explain how dashboards fit into the bigger Power BI picture and the benefits they can deliver for your business. Plus, how to create and use them.?

What is Microsoft Power BI?

Power BI is Microsoft’s business intelligence platform and data visualisation tool. Bringing together a suite of software services, apps, and connectors, Power BI transforms Excel spreadsheets and other forms of unconnected, raw data into visually stimulating reports and dashboards. ?

The stars of the show are vivid and informative visualisations: charts, graphs, infographics, maps, and more. This way, valuable but potentially confusing information becomes clear, actionable business intelligence. Best of all, that information is available for everyone, including non-experts. Data is no longer exclusive to IT specialists and analysts - Power BI fundamentally democratises data accessibility. ?

What is a Power BI dashboard??

A Power BI dashboard is a single page, often referred to as a canvas. It displays charts, graphs, headline statistics, and other visualizations known as tiles. The tiles should be organised to make the dashboard clear and user-friendly. Each tile is clickable, acting as a link to the related report or dataset.?

A dashboard can either link to several reports or highlight different aspects of a single report. A well-designed personalised dashboard shows only information essential to the user, organised for ease of use. It transforms the complexity of raw data into clear, compelling visualisations, built around smart analytics and actionable insights. ?

How does a Power BI dashboard work???

Power BI does what data specialists often can't: take information from reports or datasets and condense it into graphics and charts that communicate clearly. These visualisations are then pinned to the Power BI dashboard. They are known as tiles and act as a "shop window" for the underlying data.?

This allows you to instantly connect your data, sift out the relevant information, and model it to provide the insights and analysis you need.?

It puts business intelligence and insights into the hands of the people who need it, without the requirement for day-to-day specialised support. ?

How to create a Power BI dashboard??

1. Collect the data. Importing datasets from Excel and other sources is easy and intuitive. Simply open Power BI and click ‘Get Data.’ When the data is successfully imported, the workspace becomes your visualisation tool.?

2. Explore the dashboard. You'll see a wealth of possible visualisations: bar charts, column charts, stacked bars, pies, line graphs and much more. Take your time, especially at first. Browse through options, bearing in mind the nature of the data, the insights you wish to highlight and the goals you aim to achieve.??

3. Choose the visualisation resources most suitable for the data you are importing.??

• Stacked charts are best for showing comparison and composition together.?
• Scatter plots are ideal for establishing a relationship between two variables—such as how employees' years of service correlate with salary.?
• Bar and column charts are primarily used for comparison. They can also be used to show periodic data.?
• Line charts and area charts are most suitable for viewing data over time. If you wish to see how an employee's salary has grown over the past ten years, a line chart is ideal.?

4. Save and publish. Once you've created and populated the dashboard to your satisfaction, simply save it. That doesn't freeze the dashboard. Power BI data is live and automated, so the information you’re seeing is always the latest version. It will continue to update in real-time whenever the data changes.??

Examples of Power BI charts and visualisations??

A vast array of creative options are available to bring data to life. Here are just a few examples:??

• Comparison: comparing data between different categories.?
• Over time: representing the spread of data over a given period to identify trends and track changes.?
• Correlation: used to show any relationship between two or more variables.??
• Distribution: showing how frequently values occur in a dataset.?
• Part-to-whole: showing the breakdown of elements that add up to a whole.?
• Ranking: ordered lists based on selected data points.?

?The benefits of Power BI dashboards?

Dashboards give you the power to continuously monitor all aspects of the business, including:??

• Analyse reports and view the most vital metrics at a glance.?
• Connect multiple datasets or reports from various data sources, such as Excel, CSV, Oracle, Azure, and SQL.??
• Quickly transfer all queries, data models, and reports to Power BI without learning a new application or language.?
• Customise dashboards to meet any requirement for any enterprise.?
• Embed Power BI into applications to provide a unified user experience.??
• Instantly share dashboards with colleagues.?
• Provide business intelligence for all stakeholders and create a data-driven culture.?
• Make data beautiful and compelling with clear, actionable insights.?
• Keep data secure and meet your compliance standards. Power BI can alert users and consumers to sensitive data that needs careful handling.???
• Access Power BI on desktop and mobile, download the Power BI app across iOS, Android, and Windows mobile devices.

How BCN can help you make the most of Power BI dashboards???

At BCN Group, we are a Microsoft-certified partner, and we share Microsoft’s cloud-first vision. As a Microsoft Solutions Partner with four designations, we have designed and delivered hundreds of successful Power BI solutions for various clients.??

A recent example of BCN's Power BI expertise in action is detailed in our IMI case study. It demonstrates how we enabled the Institute for Motor Industry to take its financial reporting forward by visualising insights from Sage 200 through the implementation of Power BI. It was so successful that the IMI then decided to replicate the process across sales, marketing, and other business functions.?

Ready to learn more about Microsoft Power BI? Contact the BCN team anytime to discuss your requirements.??