Hungry for better analytics? Tired of spreadsheets? Do you need visualizations that can help propel your organization forward?Microsoft Power BI might be the right solution for you. Power BI offers “connectors” that link your organization with the sources of data that you need, displaying them within a single dashboard. Keep reading to learn why Power BI’s connectors are so powerful.
You Don’t Need to Be a Tech Genius
From Excel spreadsheets to SQL databases and APIs from external service providers, your business likely draws upon multiple business intelligence sources to make predictions and projections.
In the past, the prevailing way to integrate and source data for analysis was a highly technical process in which developers constructed databases and models. Such endeavors required significant time, money and technical knowledge, making it a risky undertaking that would not always pay off in business insights.
The true strength of Power BI and other business intelligence software is that you can connect to these different data sources regardless of the technical expertise you may or may not have on staff. Even better? Power BI is free to download and try out, which means that you can get up and running at minimal cost.
Your Data is Current
Custom connectors are powerful because they ensure that your data is timely. Before the rise of business intelligence software, if you weren’t connected to real-time data sources, you were just getting a picture of the past that was only marginally useful. Any issues or problems that you discovered had already happened, meaning that you might not be able to correct them.
Power BI can provide data that is as fresh as you can obtain it, which allows you to make better, smarter decisions. The ability to obtain up-to-date data means that your business can shift from reactively reporting on problems to a more proactive, strategic stance, moving away from running your organization based on hunches and suppositions. In general, the closer you come to real-time data and analytics, the more credible your decisions and recommendations become.
You Can Build Connectors Easily
Power BI offers content packs, prebuilt connectors that have out-of-the-box links to services like Salesforce, Marketo and Google Analytics. Forging these bonds is as simple as using a software wizard to select and configure the connectors that you want in your dashboard. Similarly, you can use a wizard to identify the internal databases to which you want to connect. Since this requires nothing more than interacting with a setup assistant, any business user can use prebuilt connectors without advanced coding knowledge. If you have the technical chops, you can also build custom APIs to other data sources.
Using Excel spreadsheets in Power BI is also relatively easy. To do so, your files should be in a cloud-based storage and collaboration space like Microsoft’s OneDrive. Power BI treats each cell in the spreadsheet like a field in a database. As long as the spreadsheet stays in the same place, you can update its contents without problems, which will update your visualizations and reports as well.
Final Thoughts
With such a low barrier to entry, Power BI is a tool that you should seriously consider for your business intelligence needs. The many prebuilt and custom connectors available have the power to radically transform the role of data and analytics in your organization.
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