Visual Business Intelligence
We are now seeing a marked trend in the way management information is displayed. Since executives started using Excel the boundaries of data presentation have moved with graphs and other visual features.
Likewise, open any modern cloud accounts system and the first screen you see is a visual dashboard, showing you instantly the state of your finances.
In today’s rapid business world, we can perform much better when key information like this is available not only on the dashboard displayed on your PC but also on your mobile device.
Data is now the new business currency, but if it’s stuck inside your database it is of little value.
Microsoft have created Power BI for this purpose (Microsoft Power Business Intelligence). Whilst it has been extensively adopted for large corporates, the take up in the UK SME marketplace has been much slower. Many SME executives dream of having such a tool without realizing it is now within grasp.
An individual navigating a dashboard will have a fascinating, powerful view of the data as it is recompiled and redisplayed as you click on different elements of interest.
However, when the team view dashboards together it completely changes the way meetings are held. With dashboards, each individual present will see the data in real-time drilldowns. Seeing the visuals change at the same time provides a much higher level of collaboration.
Additionally, this completely reduces the need for spreadsheet data to be manipulated in certain ways to show and update the new data, making the transition from data-entry to reporting seamless through Power BI.
Another positive of Power BI is that the data can be split and departmentalized, meaning the head of departments can have dashboards specifically filtered to the data that is relevant to them. This is a great feature of Power BI, enabling executives and management to see instantly the critical and fundamental elements of their business.
Power Bi can also combine data from foreign systems and different databases thereby combining a consolidated picture of company business. With the ability to also view your dashboards on mobile devices we are confident that this type of visual presentation will soon become the new norm for businesses of all sizes.
To find out more about Power BI click here to visit Microsoft’s Product Page.
If you want to learn more about brining visual business intelligence to your business, please do not hesitate to contact us.
View our 90sec demo here