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Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools

Global business companies, top leaders, and developing businesses, all believe in the power of informed decision-making. With the advent of technology and data science, this decision-making power in businesses is witnessing all new heights. Business Intelligence (BI) tools give businesses the evidence to make informed decisions. The latest business intelligence tools are designed in such a way that every aspect of the end-user is considered and the data, critically analyzed, to produce the best results.  What are Business Intelligence Tools? Business Intelligence tools are tools devised to comprehend the huge quantities of data that organizations accumulate using data science. The tools help companies retrieve, analyze, and transform raw data into resourceful business insights. This is further disintegrated into actionable reports that guide them in decision-making. Various tools are available for data visualization, data warehousing, creating dashboards, and reporting. Key aspects like purchasing patterns, market trends, and customer-psyche are derived using these tools. In this process, companies understand their customers better and can predict precise revenue growth and preventive actions against business pitfalls.Traditionally, business intelligence was gathered from quarterly or yearly reports, but with enhanced technologies, the latest BI tools have introduced a continuous, iterative cycle. Business plans are made regularly and can be populated in mere minutes.  Let us look at the top trending business intelligence tools that most of the companies are using today.  Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools SAS Business Intelligence SAS business intelligence is a self-service tool popular for its advanced predictive analytics. It helps companies use APIs for customization and high-level data integration, along with the protection of business data with security issue identification, and advanced analytics and reporting.  Yellowfin BI This tool is mobile-friendly and gives access to ‘end-to-end’ analytics, empowered with visualization, machine learning, and collaboration. It also has handy features like intuitive filtering and dashboards.  Zoho Analytics Customization is the key differentiator in this tool. It is apt for creating in-depth, personalized reports. Its automatic data sync feature with periodic scheduling and AI-powered assistant help in hassle-free blending and merging of data.  Microsoft BI and Power BI These tools are web-based and are available in SharePoint with interactive reports running on PowerPivot. Their 3 key differentiators include the dataset, dashboard, and report generator. It is popularly used for analysis, reporting, and master data services.  Tableau Tableau is a free BI tool useful for data discovery and data visualization. It removes the intervention of IT and makes it easy for the user to analyze, visualize, and share data. A variety of data sources like Oracle, MS SQL, Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel, and SalesForce are supported. Oracle BI It is an enterprise performance management system with an integrated query, reporting, and analysis of data. Its distinct features are data alerting, integration, and management in one go. IBM Cognos This tool is ideal for larger companies as it supports the entire analytics cycle. It provides cloud support, mobile support, and online as well as offline reports. It presents a visualized report of the data interpreted using its AI, by automatically analyzing hidden patterns of the raw data. SAP Business Intelligence SAP business intelligence tool has been popular for years among businesses of all sizes. Its biggest advantage lies in its transformation of relational databases, which can be used for improved performance, administration, lower cost estimation, and real-time predictive analytics.  QlikView & QlikSense  These two tools are Qlik’s BI tools creating interactive dashboards, visualizations, and apps. An entire relay of the data is visible in one glance, with drag-and-drop options and natural search, allowing instant responses to interactions and changes.  MicroStrategy MicroStrategy is a prominent name in the business intelligence industry and comes with a host of features for data visualization, analytics, Big Data integration, OLAP (Online Analytical Processing), document management, and decision services.  Data Analysis with BI With new tools to access deeper and wider data, the demand for business intelligence analysts is growing rapidly. BI analysts are the bridge between the business and the customer and help in shaping business strategies to meet the ever-evolving customers’ needs. According to Payscale, the average annual salary of a BI analyst is approximately $68,336 in the US. Individuals and data analysts across industries can apply for these roles, and help businesses deal with one of their biggest challenges – customer satisfaction and retention. 
Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools
KnowledgeHut

Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools

Global business companies, top leaders, and developing businesses, all believe in the power of informed decision-making. With the advent of technology and data science, this decision-making power in businesses is witnessing all new heights. Business Intelligence (BI) tools give businesses the evidence to make informed decisions. The latest business intelligence tools are designed in such a way that every aspect of the end-user is considered and the data, critically analyzed, to produce the best results.  What are Business Intelligence Tools? Business Intelligence tools are tools devised to comprehend the huge quantities of data that organizations accumulate using data science. The tools help companies retrieve, analyze, and transform raw data into resourceful business insights. This is further disintegrated into actionable reports that guide them in decision-making. Various tools are available for data visualization, data warehousing, creating dashboards, and reporting. Key aspects like purchasing patterns, market trends, and customer-psyche are derived using these tools. In this process, companies understand their customers better and can predict precise revenue growth and preventive actions against business pitfalls.Traditionally, business intelligence was gathered from quarterly or yearly reports, but with enhanced technologies, the latest BI tools have introduced a continuous, iterative cycle. Business plans are made regularly and can be populated in mere minutes.  Let us look at the top trending business intelligence tools that most of the companies are using today.  Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools SAS Business Intelligence SAS business intelligence is a self-service tool popular for its advanced predictive analytics. It helps companies use APIs for customization and high-level data integration, along with the protection of business data with security issue identification, and advanced analytics and reporting.  Yellowfin BI This tool is mobile-friendly and gives access to ‘end-to-end’ analytics, empowered with visualization, machine learning, and collaboration. It also has handy features like intuitive filtering and dashboards.  Zoho Analytics Customization is the key differentiator in this tool. It is apt for creating in-depth, personalized reports. Its automatic data sync feature with periodic scheduling and AI-powered assistant help in hassle-free blending and merging of data.  Microsoft BI and Power BI These tools are web-based and are available in SharePoint with interactive reports running on PowerPivot. Their 3 key differentiators include the dataset, dashboard, and report generator. It is popularly used for analysis, reporting, and master data services.  Tableau Tableau is a free BI tool useful for data discovery and data visualization. It removes the intervention of IT and makes it easy for the user to analyze, visualize, and share data. A variety of data sources like Oracle, MS SQL, Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel, and SalesForce are supported. Oracle BI It is an enterprise performance management system with an integrated query, reporting, and analysis of data. Its distinct features are data alerting, integration, and management in one go. IBM Cognos This tool is ideal for larger companies as it supports the entire analytics cycle. It provides cloud support, mobile support, and online as well as offline reports. It presents a visualized report of the data interpreted using its AI, by automatically analyzing hidden patterns of the raw data. SAP Business Intelligence SAP business intelligence tool has been popular for years among businesses of all sizes. Its biggest advantage lies in its transformation of relational databases, which can be used for improved performance, administration, lower cost estimation, and real-time predictive analytics.  QlikView & QlikSense  These two tools are Qlik’s BI tools creating interactive dashboards, visualizations, and apps. An entire relay of the data is visible in one glance, with drag-and-drop options and natural search, allowing instant responses to interactions and changes.  MicroStrategy MicroStrategy is a prominent name in the business intelligence industry and comes with a host of features for data visualization, analytics, Big Data integration, OLAP (Online Analytical Processing), document management, and decision services.  Data Analysis with BI With new tools to access deeper and wider data, the demand for business intelligence analysts is growing rapidly. BI analysts are the bridge between the business and the customer and help in shaping business strategies to meet the ever-evolving customers’ needs. According to Payscale, the average annual salary of a BI analyst is approximately $68,336 in the US. Individuals and data analysts across industries can apply for these roles, and help businesses deal with one of their biggest challenges – customer satisfaction and retention. 
Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools
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Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools

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Top 6 Tips To Learn Tableau

If you deal with a significant amount of data at work, then Tableau is surely a must-have tool for you. It is not only a data visualization software but it is also considered to be among the best tools available for business intelligence.  So, is it easy to learn? Well, learning Tableau requires the same amount of time, effort and dedication that you need to learn any of the statistics tools. Here are a few tips to help you to pace up your learning process of Tableau.Tip 1: Download and install Tableau Begin your data visualization journey by downloading and installing Tableau. It offers five main products that cater to diverse visualization needs for professionals as well as organizations. They are: Tableau Desktop: Created for individual use Tableau Server:  It enables collaboration for any organization Tableau Online: For Business Intelligence in the Cloud Tableau Reader: Allows you to read files saved in Tableau Desktop Tableau Public: Enables you to publish interactive data online. You can start by downloading the trial version of Tableau Desktop that’s free for 14 days. Just follow the steps to install it into your system. Once your free trial is over after 14 days, you can continue with your data visualization journey with Tableau public which comes with its own limitations of sharing your data publicly. Tip 2: Enroll for a Tableau training Confused about how to begin your Tableau journey? You can always enroll for training with a reputed training institute like KnowledgeHut to learn Tableau at a rapid pace. These courses are created by practitioners and enable you to learnin depth about each of the steps needed to complete tasks . Moreover, you will get guidance from industry experts.  Enrolling for training further gives you real-world experience while exposing you to the practical ways of solving business problems. Tip 3: Learn Tableau with large and clean data    Increase your pace of learning Tableau by diving deep into the data, using large and clean data sets for producing incredible visualization.  Tableau provides a public gallery where you can find Tableau workbooks.  The Tableau workbooks consist of various data visualization sheets and data extracts. You can quickly mimic the filters, formulas as well as graphs in order to improve your skills. You can also look for trends, relationships, and insights by using the fresh datasets available. Tip 4: Visualization and Analysis So, how does Tableau help you? Its primary motive is to build fantastic visuals, and the platforms are specially designed in order to communicate data insights through visuals.  But why do you need analytics skills in Tableau? Well, it is essential for you to develop analytical skills in order to master Tableau, as it is one of the core skills you need for your visualization career. Further, you need to use the charts and diagrams in order to make effective use of Tableau. You can expect to find yourself lost while trying many things at one time, but be sure that you will soon gain proficiency in the tools you need.  Tableau restricts the user from selecting charts that are not in line with the visual best practices. Tip 5: Be a part of the community Got stuck while working with Tableau? Fret not! You can choose from hundreds of Tableau communities to make your learning more effective. These communities are filled with data scientists, hobbyists, as well as visual data artists whom you can approach in order to learn Tableau as a beginner or even as a professional. Tip 6: Get introduced to Tableau Server and Online It is very essential for you to learn to schedule the tasks as well as provide authorization in order to enable data security by using Tableau server and online. Although this should be taken care of by Tableau administrator, having the knowledge of these concepts helps you in dashboard development.  On a concluding note Data analytics plays a crucial role in terms of business analytics and Tableau is one of the fastest evolving Business Intelligence (BI) and data visualization tools. One of the other reasons for its popularity is that it’s fast to deploy, easy to learn, and very intuitive to use for a customer. This blog introduces you to a few tips to simplify your Tableau learning process. Moreover, these tips will provide you with a structured approach in order to pace up your learning of Tableau. Wish you all the best for your Tableau journey! 
Top 6 Tips To Learn Tableau
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Top 6 Tips To Learn Tableau

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Limitations of Power BI

Every business wishes to establish its brand in the market as well as grow exponentially. This is where business intelligence plays a crucial role, as it is a very important factor in the process of branding and other decision-making processes. To help you with an effective decision-making process and get down to conclusions, Microsoft presents with a very riveting analytics tool, Power BI. The primary tools of Power BI include Power Query, which is used for extraction and transformation; Power Pivot, which is used to model and analyze; Power View and Map, which is used to visualize data. The Power BI Designer combines various separate tools into an all-in-one application, that removes all its dependencies to Excel or Office. The PowerBI Site or service,  PowerBI.com is widely used to share reports, datasets and dashboards.Apart from these,  Power BI allows various other tools which will be very advantageous for you. But, there are a few cons as well. Read along to know what are the limitations of PowerBI that you might come across while working. Limitations of Power BI1. Microsoft Excel power users will benefit bestIt can be noted that most of the business users that you will come across will not be a power user of Microsoft Excel. In case the end-users of your business intelligence model are business users, then it should be noted that Microsoft Power BI will be very challenging to use, especially if you are not a Microsoft Excel power user. 2. Complex in natureThis is one of the major drawbacks as Microsoft has designed Power BI in a very complex manner. Power BI has a long list of components and it is difficult to understand which component you may need. To name a few, there’s Power Bi Desktop, the Power BI Gateway, the Power BI Services,  etc. Moreover, there are no moving parts available for this software, which might make you spend a lot of time and energy trying to figure out the function of each part. This makes the product even more challenging to troubleshoot, which leads to an increase in the total cost of ownership. 3. Data qualityMicrosoft Power BI does not provide with any data cleansing solution. Meaning, it assumes that the data you are pulling has been cleaned up well in advance, and is of high quality. So, in case you need data cleansing aptitude, you might need to look for an alternate solution to cleanse your data. 4. Does not handle large data sources properlyIf you have a large data set which needs to be analyzed, Microsoft Power BI will not be the best option for you. You might face trouble in connecting and importing large datasets, as well as problems such as slow performance and time-outs. 5. Performance IssuesSometimes Power BI might face performance issues as it has been observed that it has not been able to process more than 20000-30000 rows without running into issues for some queries. It might just timeout during the processing. To opt-out of facing this issue, you can create multiple queries in order to cover the full range of data, and split them up according to the dates. 6. Bulky User InterfaceThe formula help window and side par often block the view of vital, making the user interface of Power BI to be very bulky.  The making of scrolling dashboard will require a lot of efforts since it is not a native feature.7. Limited Sharing of Data Reports and dashboards can be shared only with those users who have the same email domains or the ones who have their email domains listed in your Office 365 tenant.To sum it all up, if your organisation is Microsoft favoured and has a group of Microsoft Excel power users, then the chances are very high that Power BI will work well within your organisation. Professionals who work on charts, pivot tables, and formulas in Excel can use  Power BI to quickly convert data into information. Have you employed Power BI or Power BI Pro? Leave your comment below to share your experiences with us!
Limitations of Power BI
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Limitations of Power BI

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Tableau Vs QlikView

What is Tableau?Tableau stands as the most powerful and fastest-growing data visualization tool which is being used in the Business Intelligence Industry. Its basic funda is to simplify raw data into a format that can be easily understandable. Data analysis has become very quick with Tableau and the dashboards and worksheets are the forms of visualization that are being created.The best part is that Tableau is a market-leading BI tool as well as the most trending tool used to visualize and analyze the user's data in a very easily digestible format.It also enables the user to work on live data-set and spend quality time on data analysis rather than data wrangling.Usage of Tableau software are listed below:They are used to translate queries into visualization.Managing metadata is also feasible through Tableau.It can even import data of all sizes and ranges.In the case of the non-technical user as well as Tableau acts as a  lifesaver as it offers the facility to create ‘no-code’ data queries.What is QlikView?When we talk about the most flexible Business Intelligence platform for turning data into knowledge then Qlikview comes into the picture. There are more than  24,000 organizations worldwide have enabled their users to easily consolidate, search, and analyze visually all their data by using QlikView.List of the top companies using QlikViewCompanyWebsiteCountryRevenueCompany SizeRed Hat Incredhat.comUnited States>1000M>10000Centerstone of Tennessee,Inc.centerstone.orgUnited States50M-100M1000-5000Robert Walters Plcrobertwalters.comUnited Kingdom>1000M1000-5000Nigel Frank International Limitednigelfrank.comUnited Kingdom200M-1000M1000-5000Axtriaaxtria.comUnited States10M-50M500-1000The wide scope of this software lies in its simplicity of usage. The creation of dashboards for analytical purposes is done by its reporting tools.The era of modern analytics truly began with the launch of QlikView. It actually revolutionized the way organizations lets its user create data with the intuitive visual discovery that put business intelligence in the hands of more people than ever.Enterprise-scale analytics is also being performed with utmost ease and credibility.Usage of Qlikview software are listed below:Flexible Business Intelligence platform for converting data into knowledge.Consolidating, searching and visually analyzing data with simplicity.Even data discoveries in order to support decision making for end-users in the business.Key Difference between Tableau and QlikViewA quick view of the difference between Tableau and QlikViewFeaturesTableauQlikviewPerformanceProcesses data slower than QlikviewCombines large and complex data at a faster rateSpeedSlow in the data processingData processing and accessing is fasterCostCheaperBit costlyBig data supportGoodAverageMultidimensional CubesGoodLimitedVisualizationSimple and interactiveExcellentCustomizationSimpleComplex toolLet’s understand the differences brieflyEase of UseEverybody can analyze information with intuitive products for drag & drop. No programming, only insight. The user can easily create their own perception using various objects and it's easy to use because of a well designed GUI interface. Tableau offers a storytelling feature that can allow us to create a presentation using data points that are available. It does not provide a feature to search content across all the user's dataThe best quality of Qlikview is it's easy to use the feature and even exploring the hidden trends.QlikView offers an associative technology that enhances the capacity of the presentation. This feature helps companies understand hidden links between data points. In the case of searching any data, we just need to type the word in the search box resulting in instant and   It also shows in-depth connections and relationships across the data. At times it becomes difficult for users to design their own views due to properties that are menu-driven.Ease of LearningTableau has community and resources which are actively engaged. The drag & drop application even makes it very easy to learn for the end-users.QlikView also has actively engaged community and resources which ultimately helps the user learn this software in the best possible way.CostTableau: Here are Tableau’s new monthly prices: Tableau Desktop Personal, $35; Tableau Desktop Professional, $ 70; Tableau Server, $35; and  Tableau Online, $42. Under the old model, a license, with annual maintenance, costs $999 for Desktop Personal and $1,999 for Desktop Professional. The server starts at $10,000 for 10 people, and Online is $500 per user per year.Qlikview: The personal edition in Qlikview is absolutely free with a limitation of no feature for document sharing. Per named user license is $1,350 and $15,000 for a concurrent user. Per Server license cost around $35,000. Additionally we require to pay $21,000/server in case of PDF distribution service; $22,500 for SAP NetWeaver connector.Might even require upgradation of RAM if the concurrent users are larger in number.Data VisualizationTableau is one of the industry's leading instruments for data visualization. Today, companies are investing more in information segmentation, clustering, and stronger analysis. It offers a user-friendly interface that enables even non-technical users to generate tailored dashboards rapidly and easily to give significant perspectives in a wide range of company data.QlikView, on the contrary, offers normal report creation characteristics, visualization templates, configurable graphs, and customized opinions that assist provide an interactive report in real-time. All the visualizations and data sets are shown as a quick reference when QlikView is in use. Qlik's product provides an in-memory engine that can view patterns and produce associative analytics that alone can not be achieved with SQL. The In-Memory Engine is able to integrate with diverse information source variants and create a unified dashboard that shows analyses, KPIs and metrics of our concern.Connectivity with Other tools/ Language or DatabaseTableau integrates successfully with a wide range of data sources which includes the spreadsheets, CSV, SQL databases, Salesforce, Cloudera Hadoop, Firebird, Google Analytics, Google BigQuery, Hortonworks Hadoop, HP Vertica, MS SQL Server, MySQL, OData, Oracle, Pivotal Greenplum, PostgreSQL, Salesforce, Teradata, and Windows Azure Marketplace. It can also coordinate with sources of Big data as well.Qlikview also integrates with high range of data sources like Amazon Vectorwise, EC2, and Redshift, Cloudera Hadoop and Impala, CSV, DataStax, Epicor Scala, EMC Green Plum, Hortonworks Hadoop, HP Vertica, IBM DB2, IBM Netezza, Infor Lawson, Informatica Powercenter, MicroStrategy, MS SQL Server, My SQL, ODBC, ParAccel, Sage 500, Salesforce, SAP, SAP Hana, Teradata, and many more. In this case, API integration can be used to connect with R. It can also readily connect with Big data sources.DeploymentSince tableau does not have their own data warehouse hence they have to generate layers while connecting with data set. The deployment becomes easier here since it needs more structured data.QlikView has its own data warehouse with an additional feature of scripting which acts as a feature in the cap leading to the use of multilevel layers in its deployment. QlikView is readily deployable and configurable and starts producing excellent reports immediately after the installation. An additional feature involves enabling interactive queries and creation of reports—a technology which is not found in other products since this product does not use cubes; hence loads all the tables and charts found in the memory. Both 32 and 64 bit can be used for the development. Data modeling becomes easier because of associative technology.SpeedIn the case of Tableau the speed varies based on two parameters, first being the RAM and second being the source's database. Tableau makes it extremely effective to produce in a matter of minutes of interactive views and reports. Tableau can also speed up the entire process since it enables online and offline report sharing.  In Quikview the Speed is dependent on only the source's RAM.QlikView offers quick assessment, outcomes, and allows for much quicker decision-making in comparison to traditional techniques.Valuable Insight GenerationTableau has an excellent storytelling feature that helps the user to create effective presentations, using the available data sources.In Qlikview the Associative technology makes it more impressive and it also helps to read association between variables readily. This unique feature sometimes even benefits businesses to understand the hidden relation between the data points.MobilityTableau is readily available on all devices and can be accessed via the internet. We can even use it on our laptop, tablet or smartphones as well.QlikView is independent of any device thus we can easily access it from anywhere hence decision making becomes much prompt and quicker as compared to the traditional methods of data visualization.SecurityTableau provides excellent security features and it is highly handled by Tableau server. It is indeed a modern enterprise analytics platform that enables the users to avail the self-service analytics at scale with proper governance. Security is the first and foremost critical part of a data and content governance strategy. It's server actually provides comprehensive features along with deep integration to address all the aspects of enterprise security present. Tableau also renders the organizations in promoting trusted data sources for all users, so the right data is used to make the right decisions within seconds.PerformanceWhen compared with Qlikview, Tableau generates the output slower since it uses the cubing technique for data visualization. QlikView seamlessly combines all sizes of datasets hence are quicker when compared with Tableau.ScalabilityQlikView is a lot more scalable than Tableau. The  Qlik Sense applications can be easily scaled especially while dealing with big data. But we cannot deny the fact that both the vendors handle a huge amount of data successfully. In Fact, most of the organizations do not produce the amount of data that both these can handle individually.Big Data SupportTableau has good support for Big data as compared to Qlikview.CustomizationSimple drag and drop features are available in Tableau. Qlikview is Complex tools when compared with Tableau.ConclusionIn brief, the reply to the question:' Which is the best tool for data visualization? It's pretty subjective. Users find out the demands of their business or their projects, which is a matter of personal preference. In both Tableau and QlikView, all the points listed above in this blog illustrate the possible regions where consumers can assess and comprehend their possibilities and then decide in an informed fashion which ones to use.Want a career in Tableau and QlikView? Then taking up training in  Tableau and  QlikView would be an added advantage.
Tableau Vs QlikView
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Tableau Vs QlikView

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Top Features of Power BI

Power BI is a business analytics service by Microsoft that provides users with Data Visualization and Business Intelligence tools with an elementary interface, simple for end-users so that they create reports and dashboards of their own. Microsoft Power BI helps to find insights within the data of an organisation.  It converts data from various data sources to interactive BI reports and dashboards, like it forms different data models, creates graphs and charts which depict visuals of the data, etc. These data and data models can be shared with other Power BI users within the organisation. Moreover,  Power BI provides executive dashboards for the manager and administrators which gives the management more insight into how the departments are functioning. The following lists the key features of Power BI that makes  Power BI a hit amongst various organisations and businesses.Key features of Power BIGet started in seconds: You can sign up for free to get started in no time and start monitoring your data. There isn’t any setup required or training needed. They have simple, yet out-of-the-box dashboards for different services like Salesforce, Google Analytics, etc. with the help of which you can get insights from your data in no time.Analysis of Data, Stored Anywhere: Get a comprehensive view of all of your data and key metrics of your business, no matter what form your data is stored in or where it is stored. Solve Problems on the go: With real-time Power BI dashboards, you can instantly know when your business is demanding attention.  Seize opportunities to solve problems as they occur. Content Packs: Power BI uses Content Packs, which has embedded queries, dashboard reports and data models. A large number of applications use Content Packs now, including QuickBooks.Print Dashboard: Power BI allows printing of dashboards, which is a new feature. This feature comes really handy in board meetings and discussions. Natural Language Q&A: Natural Language Q&A is one of the most powerful tools in Power BI, which allows users to write questions as well as provide the content and answer, which can be manipulated as per your visual needs. For example, if you ask for the previous year’s sales by product, be ready to get a stunning and interactive visualization as a reply. Custom Visualization: Power BI is a library of custom visualization, that is, depending on the business needs, if the business needs differ, then so should the visuals.DAX Data Analysis Function: Power BI comprises of more than 200 functions and counting. The DAX formula language is so rich that it includes libraries of various remarkable capabilities that it cyphers your data in such a way that powerful analytical data models can be created. Get Data (Data Source): With the help of Power BI, businesses can virtually get data from anywhere. Power BI Desktop encompasses a variety of on-premise as well as cloud data sources, which are both structured and unstructured; more of which are added each month.Act in motion: No matter wherever you are, keep yourself on the top of your data. With apps available for iOS, Android and Windows, you can now access all of your data where you are and where you go!Integrate with Power BI: With the help of their open, standards-based REST API, integrate your service or application with Power BI. This will help you deliver solutions faster without losing focus on the core value. New Features of Power BIThe following lists the latest Power BI features that have been made available since January. Read along to know what all changes and upgradations have been made!1. Show and hide pages:If you wish to share just some particular sections of your report, then you might want to hide certain pages before giving them the access. This feature has become available since January, where all you have to do is right-click on the page and select ‘Hide’.Upon doing so, you will be able to look at the hidden pages yourself. But if you go onto reading mode, you won’t be able to see them as well.2. Manage the data label background colour for map visuals and Cartesian:You can now edit the background colour and data labels for Cartesian and map visuals. It can be found under the Data labels card in the formatting page. These options have improved the issues faced previously, such as readability.  3. Control the Bar/Column padding:This lets you control the inner padding between the bars. The inner padding can now go up to 50% of the bar’s width, as well as all the way down to a zero or a histogram effect.4. Increase the area used for axis labels in a chart:You no longer have to increase the chart’s size if the axis labels are cut off in a chart. If your page’s space is limited, a new slider is now available to increase the percentage of the charts used by the axis labels. 5. Top N selection in Q&A:Improvements have been made in the natural language engine to support ask top-n-type questions. For example, ‘What are my top 3 products by sales?’, ‘Top manufacturer by NSAT.’
Top Features of Power BI
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Top Features of Power BI

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The Architecture of Power BI

The main element of the drive to be agile, competitive, and efficient is business intelligence. As companies develop, the regular generation of information becomes very hard to handle. This, in turn, generates a road-block for data-driven businesses that want to use their data to drive company decision-making.In addition, the siloing impact and biased reporting structures across companies generate a scenario where decision-makers are compelled to make choices based on information that is partly accurate.This is why smart business systems are largely embraced. Establishing an analytical system to efficiently analyze data helps a company find helpful information, propose conclusion and promote improved decision-making. With its demonstrated technology track record, Microsoft has come to the fore with the implementation of its convincing analytics instrument,  Power BI. This report authoring tool enables businesses to readily visualize and analyze their business information to transform their activities. Here in this article, we will see various components included in Power Bi architecture. This guide will help you in  installing Power BI.Microsoft Power BI ArchitecturePower BI architecture consists of four steps. Let's look at them in detail:Sourcing DataTransforming InformationReport & PublishCreating a Dashboard1. Sourcing Data: Power BI can supply information from a wide range of internet facilities and file kinds. The information can be imported into Power BI or a live service link can be established to receive the information. If you import a Power BI file, it limits the compressed data sets to 1 GB. If the information set exceeds 1 GB, then the direct query may be used. For big information sets, there are two other choices.                     Power BI premium                      Azure analytics servicesList of Data Sources supported in Power BIFiles:Excel, XML, JSON, Text/CSV,Folder and SharePoint FolderDatabase:SQL Server Database, Access Database, SQL Server Analysis Services Database, SAP HANA Database, SAP Business Warehouse server, Amazon Redshift, Impala, Google BigQuery (Beta), Snowflake,Oracle Database, IBM DB2 Database, IBM Informix database (Beta), IBM Netezza (Beta), MySQL Database, PostgreSQL Database, Sybase Database, Teradata DatabaseAzure:Azure SQL Database,  Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Analysis Services database (Beta), Azure Blob Storage, Azure Table Storage, Azure Cosmos DB (Beta), Azure Data Lake Store, Azure HDInsight (HDFS), Azure HDInsight Spark (Beta)Online Services:Power BI service, SharePoint Online List, Microsoft Exchange Online, Dynamics 365 (online), Dynamics 365 for Financials (Beta), Common Data Service (Beta), Microsoft Azure Consumption Insights (Beta), Visual Studio Team Services (Beta), Salesforce Objects, Salesforce Reports, Google Analytics, appFigures (Beta), comScore Digital Analytix (Beta), Dynamics 365 for Customer Insights (Beta), Facebook, GitHub (Beta), Kusto (Beta), MailChimp (Beta), Mixpanel (Beta), Planview Enterprise (Beta), Projectplace (Beta), QuickBooks Online Other:Vertica (Beta), Web, SharePoint List, OData Feed, Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Hadoop File (HDFS), Spark (Beta), R Script, ODBC, OLE DB, Blank Query2. Transforming information:After the information is imported into the Powerbi system, power bi offers a preview window for selecting columns or entities. There are many transformation choices available to perform the job if you need to edit the query.3. Report & Publish:We are prepared to produce reports after sourcing and editing the information. Reports are data visualization with filters and slicers in the form of graphs, charts and pie charts. A lot of custom visualization is also available. We can publish them to power bi facilities after generating reports. You can also publish them on the energy bi server assumption.4. Creating a Dashboard:We can create dashboards after publishing reports to Power BI services by pinning the individual elements or by pinning the page of the live report. The visual maintains the filter setting chosen when the report is saved when pinning the individual components. By choosing slicers and filters, pinning the Live Report page enables the dashboard user to communicate with the visual.Components in Power BIThere are four major components in Power BI which play an important role in delivering Power BI capabilities- 1. Power BI Desktop:Power BI Desktop is free software that allows you to connect, convert and visualize your information on your local desktop. You can connect to various distinct information sources with Power BI Desktop and combine them (often called modeling) into a data model that allows you to create graphics and collections of images that you can share with other individuals within your organization as records. Most users working on Business Intelligence projects use Power BI Desktop to generate reports and then use Power BI to share their reports with others.2. Power BI Gateway:The on-site Power BI gateway can be used to maintain your information fresh by linking to your on-site information sources without moving the information. It enables you to query big datasets and take advantage of current investments. By linking to your on-site information sources without the need to transfer the information, you can keep your information fresh with the on-site gateways. Request big datasets and take advantage of current investments. The gateways provide the flexibility you need to satisfy your organization's individual requirements and needs.3. Power BI Mobile Apps:You can remain linked to your information from anywhere using Power BI mobile applications. For Windows, iOS, and Android platform, Power BI applications are accessible.4. Power BI Service:This is a cloud service for publishing Power BI accounts and visualization of information. It allows designers and BI experts to generate and distribute extremely formatted, pixel-perfect reports alongside their interactive Power BI content, becoming the first cloud BI solution combining the energy of self-service BI with traditional Enterprise BI scenarios ' requirements and capacities.There are other components as well which we should understand to get benefits of advanced capabilities of Power BI.5. Power Query:Mashup data and instrument for conversion. You can connect to many distinct information sources with Power Query in Power BI, turn the information into the form you want, and be able to generate reports and ideas rapidly. Power Query functionality is given in the Power Query Editor when using Power BI Desktop. Power Query is made available in Power BI Desktop through Power Query Editor. To launch Power Query Editor, select Edit Queries from the Home tab of Power BI Desktop.6. Power Q&A:Natural Language Question and Reply Engine. Sometimes asking a question using natural language is the fastest way to get a response from your information. The Power BI Q&A function allows you to use your own phrases to explore your information.  Q&A is discussed in distinct papers in the Power BI mobile applications and Q&A with Power BI Embedded.7. Power Map: 3D Geospatial Data Visualization Tool.8. Power Pivot:Power Pivot is an element that models information in memory that allows highly compressed data storage and incredibly quick aggregation and calculation. It is also accessible as part of Excel and can be used within an Excel workbook to build a data model. Power Pivot can load information on its own, or Power Query can load information into it. It is highly comparable to the tabular model of SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services), which is like a Power Pivot server-based variant.9. Power View:Power View is an interactive visualization instrument that offers a drag-and-drop interface for users to quickly and easily create information visualizations in their Excel workbooks (using the Power Pivot data model).10. SSRS Reporting services 2016:The integration between SQL Serb Reporting and the Power BI Services takes SSRS tiles to a Power BI dashboard with planned SQL Server Agent updates. This integration gives you the tile from SSRS reports. Integrating SSRS reports into the Power BI service will generate a connection to comprehensive SSRS reports from the Power BI dashboard.Clusters in Power BI Architecture The Power BI service is based on Azure, the cloud computing platform of Microsoft. Power BI is currently being deployed in many data centers around the world–there are many active deployments made available to customers in the regions served by those data centers, and an equal number of passive deployments serving as backups for each active deployment.Each deployment of Power BI comprises of two clusters–a cluster of Web Front End (WFE) and a cluster of Back End. The following picture shows these two clusters :1. WFE Cluster:The WFE cluster manages the original Power BI link and authentication process using AAD to authenticate customers and provide tokens for subsequent Power BI customer links. Power BI also utilizes the Azure Traffic Manager (ATM) to guide customer traffic to the closest datacenter, which is determined by the client's DNS record trying to link, authenticate and download static content and files. Using the Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN), Power BI effectively distributes the required static content and files to customers based on geographic location.2. Backend Cluster:How authenticated customers interact with the Power BI service is the Back-End cluster. The Back-End cluster manages visualization, user dashboards, datasets, reports, data storage, information links, information refresh, and other elements of Power BI service interaction. The Role Gateway functions as a gateway between customer demands and the service Power BI. Users are not directly interacting with positions other than the role of the Gateway. The Gateway Role will ultimately be managed by Azure API Management.How Power BI can be a game-changer for the enterprise?Power BI combines centralized DW / BI strategies with cloud data sources and self-service tools through its data catalog and data management gateway, as no other platform has yet been able to do. And as a SaaS solution, all its functionality is packaged so that it can be easily implemented and used by any organization.  In brief, Power BI can speed up the adoption curve and make sophisticated BI Analytics as prevalent as Excel itself.Power BI provides all BI system stakeholders with game-changing capabilities: 1. End-users:End-users wanted the capacity to access and evaluate information readily for a long time. The natural language query of Q&A and the smart visualization engine will do more to encourage each worker to use data as a basis for decision making.2. BI Analysts:Power Pivot provided power users with the capacity to create effective data models over big amounts of data, but the information required to "fit" into clean data models.  The data transformation and flexibility of Power Query further empowers analysts to rapidly create their own end-to-end alternatives.3. IT & Data Managers:BI self-service has always been a subject of push-pull. Everyone wants the instruments and data that consumers need to create excellent choices. However, good governance, safety, and auditing are often seen as a roadblock for power users to make progress.  The Power BI information catalog is interesting because it simultaneously encourages self-service and governance.Not every organization will move rapidly to embrace Power BI. For some, too much strategic shift will be represented too rapidly.  There may be truly regulatory or other reasons for others that prevent cloud-based systems from being considered. But setting up an accessible and robust BI platform was challenging and cost-prohibitive for many organisations.  Power BI can be the solution that ultimately makes sophisticated BI as simple and widely accepted as a search engine to use.
The Architecture of Power BI
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The Architecture of Power BI

The main element of the drive to be agile, competi... Read More