Power BI in the Workplace.

Mr. C. Alex Chrishanthan, Sponsorship Data and Business Systems Specialist, was at ITN Digital in collaboration with the LK Domain Registry to talk about the topic “Power BI in the Workplace.

One of the most popular business intelligence (BI) tools in today's workplaces is Power BI. By converting unprocessed data into interactive dashboards and informative visual reports, it assists businesses in making data-driven decisions. Here is a detailed explanation of Power BI's use in the workplace, along with samples from various departments and its benefits:

💡 What Power BI Does

With Power BI, you can:

Connect to a variety of data sources, including SharePoint, SQL, Excel, and APIs.

Utilize Power Query to clean and transform data (ETL process).

Model data to establish connections between tables

Use dashboards, maps, charts, and KPIs to visualize data.

Use Microsoft Teams or Power BI Service to share insights among teams.

🏢 Typical Applications at Work

1. Management and Executive Reporting

dashboards that display KPIs in real time, like as income, costs, and customer happiness.

Excel work is replaced with automated monthly or quarterly reports.

2. Accounting and Finance

Variance analysis, tracking expenses, and cash flow analysis.

dashboards for profit and loss (P&L) that are directly connected to accounting or ERP systems.

3. Marketing and Sales

dashboards that show sales performance by product, area, or sales representative.

ROI for marketing campaigns and insights into customer segmentation.

utilizing AI images and integrated analytics to forecast trends.

4. Supply Chain & Operations

metrics for vendor dependability, logistics effectiveness, and inventory tracking.

anticipating demand and monitoring process effectiveness.

5. Human Resources

Workforce statistics, including performance indicators, diversity, headcount, and turnover.

Dashboards for employee engagement and satisfaction surveys.

6. Management of Projects

Keep track of deliverables, risks, budgets, and milestones.

Connect with programs like Asana, Jira, and Microsoft Project.

⚙️ Advantages for Businesses

Combining Data - Combines information from several sources into a single view.

Time Savings - Automates procedures for manual reporting.

Better Choices - Quick actions are driven by visual insights in real-time.

Cooperation - Dashboards are easily shared between departments.

Scalability - Works with cloud deployment for both small teams and large companies. 

Integration Examples

Power BI easily interacts with:

Microsoft 365 (SharePoint, Teams, Excel)

SQL Database in Azure

Dynamics 365, Google Analytics, and Salesforce

Python and R scripts for sophisticated analytics

An example of a workplace situation

Assume you are employed at a retail business: 

Your inventory database and point-of-sale system are connected to Power BI.

Stock levels, top-selling items, and daily sales by region are displayed on a dashboard.

To identify which stores are performing poorly, managers can drill down and take appropriate action.