At Technology Partner, Aurélien joined us about 1 year ago. He is the go-to expert for BI, particularly for Microsoft's Power BI tool, for which Technology Partner is a partner. Today, he has decided to tell us a bit more about this complex subject.
What is Business Intelligence?
Business Intelligence is the analysis of massive data that enables decision-makers to make business decisions and optimize a company's performance. How? Through various tools that collect data and then generate intelligent reports.
The data collected can be current or historical, allowing for approximate predictions of what might happen, which then influences the decisions to be made.
Microsoft Power BI is a business analytics service that provides interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities with an interface simple enough for end users to create their own reports and dashboards. It connects to hundreds of data sources, simplifies data preparation, and enables ad-hoc analysis. Power BI is part of the Microsoft Power platform.
The Power BI tool is a comprehensive solution. It allows you to collect data from multiple different sources, preprocess it if necessary to finally generate intelligent reports, formatted according to user needs, and dynamic, so that users can manipulate this data.
It is possible to generate filterable reports, for example: by period or by country. The goal is to ensure useful visuals for the user and their needs.
There are two ways to generate reports:
- Directly linked to the data source, enabling on-demand report generation and real-time data updates. This therefore uses the most recent data but takes longer.
- By importing data beforehand, it allows for reports to be generated at a scheduled date or time automatically. The data is from the last report generation, but access to reports is much faster, especially when the data volume becomes significant.
How do you use this tool in your daily life?
I've been working for over a month on a client project where the integration of Power BI should allow for the generation of reports on the usage of an application developed by our internal team. In this scenario, the reports to be generated are generally based on geographic data, but also on the occupation of company teams.
For this need, the integration of Power BI was done seamlessly, allowing the use of reports, their formatting, and features (e.g., filter usage) directly on the web platform developed for our client, without requiring additional tools or licenses (the cost is then calculated per usage by Azure).
I find Power BI very interesting when integrating it into a web project. The tool is well-designed and easy to use. Data is easily collected regardless of the type of sources it's asked to search.
I use the Power BI Embedded plugin for this, which needs to be installed on a web project. The plugin creates a link between an independent web application and Power BI. It then allows users without a license to have the same functionalities and view these reports.
Finally, there is the possibility of implementing security mechanisms (e.g., Row Level Security), which allows with Embedded to restrict access to data according to the connected user's role. It filters the desired data, and then allows for a more limited or, conversely, a broader view of the data.
According to you, what are the advantages of integrating Power BI reports into a web application?
In my opinion, there are many advantages to using Power BI for a web project. Here are a few of them:
- The tool is easy to implement in a web or mobile application.
- There's no need for a heavy infrastructure to integrate Power BI
- Not much computer experience is needed to generate or modify reports as needed.
- It is possible to compartmentalize data based on users, as well as define user types (Row Level Security solution).
- It allows for formatting and the generation of advanced charts, without additional development costs.
- It allows easy and quick navigation by period and filtering by data type (date, amount, geographical, etc.).
- The tool allows data to be interactive based on selected filters. For example, data highlighted in one graph will also be highlighted in all others, usually in bold.
