Microsoft Power BI is an analytics service that allows users to visualise data in graphs and other representations. These can draw on a single source of data, such as a spreadsheet, or from combined data silos that are otherwise not connected. Insights gained by pooling and analysing data in Power BI can be shared as meaningful information through interactive and visually appealing reports and dashboards.
Key features of Microsoft Power BI:
- Data Connectivity: connect to a variety of data sources, including databases, spreadsheets, and more.
- Data Transformation: Clean, transform, and model data.
- Data Visualisation: options such as charts, graphs, maps, and tables that users can create interactive, dynamic reports to explore data trends and patterns.
- Dashboard Creation: Combine multiple visualizations into dashboards, providing a view of key metrics and insights. Dashboards can be shared with others within an organisation.
- Natural Language Query: Power BI supports natural language queries, allowing users to ask questions about their data using everyday language, and the tool generates visualizations based on the query.
- Integration with Microsoft Office: Power BI integrates with other Microsoft Office applications like Excel and SharePoint to link Power BI reports into existing workflows.
Power BI is available as a desktop app for creating reports from the Microsoft Store, an online app for sharing and collaborating on reports in the cloud, and a mobile for accessing reports on mobile devices.
