What is Power BI?

Power BI is business analytics and reporting service, part of Microsoft’s Power Platform.

First released in 2015, it quickly became a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) Platforms. It consistently scores highest in its completeness of vision and ability to execute.

Previously the domain of big corporates, Power BI now brings Business Intelligence into reach for companies of all sizes.

Some of the key features of Power BI are:

• Interactive charts that allow users to explore the data and reveal their own insights

• Powerful development tools that enable us to measure just about anything

• The ability to connect to a huge range of data sources including Excel and csv, Access, SQL, OneDrive, websites and an ever-increasing number of cloud-based services

• Automatic refresh that ensures your data is always up to date

• Apps for Android, iOS and Windows devices of all kinds

• Sharing via the Power BI Service hosted by Microsoft

• Dashboards that consolidate information from different reports

Getting started with Power BI is free and the cost of rolling it out to your users is minimal. Our aim is to kick start your Power BI project, deliver real benefits to your business, and to guide you through to being able to manage it all for yourself.

The scope for reporting is endless and the benefits for your organisation could be enormous.

Excel Projects and Support

In every organisation, spreadsheets are to be found in almost every process and on every desktop.  Whether for data input, analysis, communication or reporting, at the core of the process or on the edge, spreadsheets are everywhere.

Given their critical role it is clear that your spreadsheets need to be well managed and supported if they are to remain fit for purpose as your business changes. Poorly written spreadsheets can be the source of errors that can have serious implications for your business.  They can drive high administrative costs and be difficult to control and change.

The emergence of Power BI for data analysis and reporting does not signal the end for Excel. It is very common to use Excel as a data source for Power BI reports: we download data to spreadsheets from other systems and we use it to add information to reports or to bridge between data from different systems.

In these and many other situations, it is important that your spreadsheets are robust and supportable, and that their performance doesn’t hinder your business as it changes.

Our goal is to improve the way Excel is used in your organisation through small improvements, projects, training and support.

Projects

The cost depends on the size and complexity of what you’re after: 

• When you have straightforward requirements needing little or no clarification we can offer a fixed price for the work. If it takes more time then we pick up the cost.

• Most projects are difficult to define and scope, in which case we’ll agree regular checkpoints to make sure we’re delivering what you want and that costs to spiral out of control.

• We don’t charge for meetings.

The bottom line is that we charge what the solution is worth to you, and there won’t be any surprises.

To discuss pricing for your project then contact us.

Support

We also offer flexible monthly support and maintenance arrangements.

In return for a commitment to pay for a number of hours each month we will provide ad hoc support for your own Power BI and Excel projects at a reduced hourly rate. You can use the time for fixing problems, learning new things, training or whatever: it’s up to you.

To find out more about how a monthly support arrangement could work for you then contact us.