Saturday, September 9, 2023

Migration of Traditional Reports to Power BI - Quick Guide

Moving reports from traditional analytical tools to Power BI represents a significant stride in harnessing advanced visualization and data analysis capabilities. Below is an initial guide to assist you in the process.

Evaluation and Strategy:
  1. Ascertain which reports to transfer, prioritizing them based on their business significance and complexity.
  2. Gain insight into the data sources utilized in current reports. Determine if they are compatible with Power BI or proceed with prerequisites and pre-processing to achieve the state.
  3. Clearly outline the migration's scope and objectives. Consider whether you're merely relocating reports or if there are opportunities to enhance them using Power BI's functionalities.
Data Readiness:
  1. Ensure that your data sources possess appropriate structure and have been thoroughly cleansed. Power BI performs optimally with well-organized, clean data.
  2. If your data resides in a database, confirm that you possess the requisite credentials and permissions to access it via Power BI.
Power BI Desktop:
  1. Download and install Power BI Desktop if you haven't already. This is the tool you'll employ to design and craft your reports.
  2. Launch Power BI Desktop and acquaint yourself with its interface and capabilities.
Establishing Data Connections:
  1. Within Power BI Desktop, navigate to the "Home" tab and select "Get Data." Choose the relevant data source (e.g., Excel, SQL Server).
  2. Connect to your data source by supplying the necessary connection particulars.
  3. Opt for data import or establish a direct connection, depending on your data source and specific requirements.
Data Transformation:
  1. Utilize Power Query Editor (accessible from the "Home" tab) to modify and structure your data as required.
  2. Undertake data cleansing, establish calculated columns, and implement any necessary transformations.
Report Development:
  1. Construct your reports by dragging and dropping visuals onto the canvas.
  2. Customize the visuals using the formatting choices found in the "Format" and "Visualizations" panels.
  3. Establish relationships between tables if your data necessitates such connections.
DAX Formulas:
  1. Familiarize yourself with Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), Power BI's formula language used for crafting custom calculations.
  2. Compose DAX calculations to derive insights that may not be readily accessible within your data source.
Report Design:
  1. Concentrate on creating reports that are visually captivating and easily comprehensible.
  2. Exploit Power BI's array of visualization options to effectively convey insights.
Interactive Elements:
  1. Leverage Power BI's interactive capabilities, including drill-through functionality, slicers, and bookmarks, to augment user engagement.
Publication:
  1. After finalizing your report, save it as a Power BI Desktop (.pbix) file.
  2. Log in to your Power BI account (or sign up for a free account if you don't have one).
  3. Select the "Publish" button to upload your report to the Power BI service.
Sharing and Collaboration:
  1. Configure suitable permissions to govern report access. Use AD groups to provide access to the workspaces and any published App for the business.
  2. Disseminate the report to colleagues and stakeholders via direct links, embedded reports, or dashboards. 
Maintenance and Oversight:
  1. Make sure the scheduled refreshes are working fine and the data quality checks are in place.
  2. Monitor report usage and gather feedback to facilitate continuous enhancement.

Note:- 
Bear in mind that transitioning reports to Power BI might entail a learning curve, especially for newcomers to the platform. Exercise patience and make the most of the abundant online resources, encompassing tutorials, forums, and documentation, to aid in your journey.

Learning:
For starting the Power BI journey as a Novice , refer to my previous post on training/learning library

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Quick Start with Power BI - No prerequisites

    I have been in the IT space for almost 15 years now and out of all available analytical tools like         
Oracle Analytics, Tableau, Google Analytics, Cognos and Power BI , I would easily pick Power BI to fulfill all my needs. And the reason is Microsoft.

     Power BI is widely used in businesses and organizations to gain insights from their data and make data-driven decisions. 

I would like to suggest the below path and libraries for learning the Power BI in a fast paced learning path.
  1. Download the Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft store, it is free for all windows users.(No luck for mac users yet). Make sure you only download the Desktop application.
  2. This is the best in detail learning course you can get in the Udemy for references and I had great time in learning through this course.
  3. Learning Power BI will unlock lot of opportunities in the Business Analytics vertical and having good knowledge inn SQL and MS-Excel is obviously a plus.
  4. Learning power query in transforming the source data is a key factor in flourishing in Power BI as that is where most of your brain work goes into. (Data Modelling).
  5. I would segregate Power BI into 2 categories as Easy part and Hard part.
    • Easy part
      • Get Data from data sources as Microsoft has good integration with almost all available technologies including Snowflake.
      • Check the data quality and transform the data to fulfill basic needs in generating the insights.
      • Power BI Service where you can see the published workspace and managing the data of your organisation with corporate license from Microsoft.
      • Power Query which can be generated with usual navigational features available in the Power BI desktop tool.
      • Security management of your reports and data with in Power BI cloud.
      • Refreshing your data online using gateway connections and scheduled refreshes.
    • Hard part
      • Writing DAX queries to fulfill advanced requirements using custom measures and attributes.
      • Power BI report builder which is used to generate pixel perfect reports also known as Paginated Reports.
      • Transforming the data by massaging the source data to the actual requirement of the report and insights which are to be fulfilled.
  6. As Microsoft is already a most trusted vendor across all formats of IT market, the integration with different systems are made easy and new preview features are released very frequently for the developers to explore and leverage most of out of Power BI platform.
  7. There are so many free resources online for Power BI and you can see mainstream developers in youtube with many tutorials.
  8. These day with so many visual changes and preview features Microsoft has stepped up into the nextGen reporting as Microsoft Fabrics.

Note:- Remember that Power BI can be a powerful tool, but it may take some time to become proficient. Start with simple projects and gradually work your way up to more complex ones as you gain confidence and experience.

References :-

Published by K@run@

Saturday, August 26, 2023

DigiLocker - An App from Indian Govt.

DigiLocker was an initiative which would be used as a one stop solution for all your authentic ID proofs with verified bar codes.

But now it has achieved its feat more than expected where millions of users are getting benefitted with the features of DigiLocker.

Personally I have been using the below which have been playing a major role in my life everytime some govt offical asks me for an ID.

But that's not the only benefit we get out of it. I have seen slowly the IT has introduced number of options by collaborating with individual state govt's across the nation.

I am using the below as an example which is very helpful for my daily routines.

1. Aadhar Card virtual
2. Driving licence
3. EPFO card for Provident Fund
4. Vehicle Registration
5. Vehicle Insurance
6. Term Insurance from HDFC life
7. SBI - ulip policy
8. ABHA card
9. COVID vaccination certificate.

If you are the genZ , then you can even retrieve your marks list from multiple universities these days.

So I would really suggest everyone to use Digilocker for their own benefits.