Does your Business Data tell you a Clear Story?

Does your business data tell you a clear story? Is that story clearly represented to your employees, executives, customers, and stockholders? In today’s data-driven world, often organizations have an overwhelming amount of information at their disposal. How that knowledge is harnessed and mined can make all the difference between second-guessing facts and worse having incorrect information to base business decisions on. Business Intelligence has come a long way in a relatively short time. Microsoft Power BI with Power Query are invaluable tools to allow organizations to tell the story of their data.

Data can be mined and viewed in many ways but making it actionable is truly game-changing. Often current reporting is not easy to discern and to make decisions on. With Power BI that data story can be built to effectively give its consumer a clear view and thus a clear path forward. Consider the following questions you may have.  Does your business need to?

• Know Profit and Loss on a particular item?
• Track product location by location and arrival times on any easy-to-read Dashboard?
• Evaluate the Financial Health of the Company?
• Spot Trends for Better Decision-Making?
• Connect and Extract Data from Different Sources?
• Have “real-time” critical information at an instant?

Microsoft Power BI can give organizations the ability to view and report on data from an almost limitless amount of data sources. It can bring together data from an ERP system and a website into one dashboard that is easy to use and up to date. 3rd Party Information Sources can also securely be part of your information collaboration process.

As with any storytelling, there are some important elements to keep in mind.  These elements will help convey your story in a compelling manner to motivate your audience. The first element that needs to be considered is the narrative. You need to decide what story you wish to convey in your report or dashboard. You can use your data along with visuals to support the narrative and convey your ideas to your audience.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and never is this truer than in a well-thought-out dashboard. A visual can quickly covey past trends current standing and future goals all without a single word.  Charts and graphs that are interactive can allow your visuals to come to life and tell many facets of a single story all while making your dashboard visually appealing.

In today’s rapid-paced business world, data is essential in providing accurate and insightful information.  Dashboards and visuals can tell us a lot in a hurry, but we need to support them with data to give them meaning. Every report needs to have supported data to be reliable and actionable. Presenting the supporting data to your vision is key to making a compelling and insightful dashboard. There needs to be a balance between visuals and the data that supports them. Creating something that is visually appealing while well supported with actionable data is where Power BI is set apart from many other Business Intelligence solutions.  Microsoft has been at the forefront of developing business analytical solutions including Power BI, to help companies fully utilize data at their disposal. Knowledge is power and power BI can help your organization gain better reporting insights. 

Learn more about Microsoft Power BI offered through iCepts Technology Group, Inc.