There are several data management and analytics solutions available including Microsoft Power BI, Salesforce (Tableau), Google Analytics, Google Looker Studio and Qlik. We use Microsoft Power BI for a number of reasons:
- Almost every business uses Excel, and Power BI addresses its shortcomings (mainly that is it not a controlled reporting environment, or a database) and extends Excel’s capabilities with the ability to standardise, transform, blend and visualise data
- Power BI has a familiar interface to, and easy integration with, other Microsoft products including Excel, Powerpoint, Word and Teams
- Power BI contains all of the main tools needed for reporting and analytics within the same solution, including: uploading and integrating data from various sources (cloud; legacy systems; websites etc.); workflow to cleanse and transform data; definition of business key performance indicators (KPIs); visualisation of data in tables, charts and dashboards; automated report generation and updating; and sharing of reports across teams on many devices
- This combination of data management and analytics tools makes it easy to generate quick ‘proof-of-concept’ solutions, which can then be approved and put into production
- Low cost – Power BI is free to trial as a desktop solution, and costs a few pounds per user per month for a licence to publish and share reports
Power BI allows us to focus on the business user experience, understanding their requirements and working collaboratively to design analytics solutions. We liaise with your IT team or service provider to generate the underlying data sets.