Is it an on-line cloud BI-platform? Or is it a collection of Excel add-ins? Is it a SharePoint feature? Or an off-line dashboard designer? It’s all that and even more. Power BI has many faces and this session aims to give a clear overview of what Power BI – Microsoft newest BI offering – is and what it isn’t. You will learn how you can use Power BI in your environment and how you can bring self-service BI to the next level.

1. Demystifying Power BI
Koen Verbeeck
Tweet and win an Ignite 2016 ticket #itproceed

2. WHO AM I?

3. AGENDA
• the road so far…
• the YouTube of workbooks
• overview of the Power BI stack
• conclusion

4. the road so far…
• 2009 - 2010
– Project Gemini
– aka PowerPivot (without a space!)
• SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel (add-in for Office
2010)
• SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint 2010
(integration through SQL Server 2008R2)

5. the road so far…
• 2010 – 2011
– Project Crescent
– aka PowerView (quickly renamed to Power View)
– SharePoint only! (imagine the uproar)
• on top of PowerPivot or Tabular
– Ships with SQL Server 2012 SSRS

6. the road so far…
• 2012 – 2013
– release of Office 2013
– Power Pivot and Power View are included! (note
the spaces)
• both have new features
– SharePoint 2013 also support Power Pivot and
Power View
• later: Power View supports SSAS Multidimensional

7. the road so far…
• 2013
– Data Explorer
• aka Power Query (immediately with a space)
– Excel 2010 / 2013 add-in
No logo, sorry

8. the road so far…
• 2013
– GeoFlow
• aka Power Map (also with a space)
– Excel 2013 add-in
– the black sheep of the family

9. the road so far…
• 2013 - 2014
– Power BI for Office 365
• no fancy code name here
– Bundles Power Query, Power Pivot and Power View
• no Power Map
• has frequent updates / new features / bug fixes
– Introduces Q&A
– More mobile friendly

10. the road so far…
• 2015
– Power BI v2
• still in the cloud, but not Office 365
• free vs paying
– Introduces Power BI Designer
• New dashboarding experience
• Power Query + Power View + Power Pivot
– Also has mobile apps

11. the road so far…
• the future?
– What will DataZen bring?
– Power Query gets integrated into everything
– More links with Azure / Big Data stuff
– More R integration?
– More out-of-the-box dashboards for Power BI
– Great new features in Excel 2016
– …

12. AGENDA
• the road so far…
• the YouTube of workbooks
• overview of the Power BI stack
• conclusion

13. Power BI
• Managed self-service BI
• Start in Excel
• … end in the cloud (or in SharePoint)
• Umbrella term
– Excel add-ins
– Cloud environment

14. Power BI
• Why would I need a paid cloud service?
• Power BI is just like YouTube
– But without the videos…
• How did you share a video in the ‘90s?

15. Power BI
• Every awesome thing we do with Power BI
is saved into Excel
Source: http://www.powerpivotpro.com/2014/09/what-is-power-bi/

16. Power BI
• Email is not really a good way to share
those workbooks
Source: http://www.powerpivotpro.com/2014/09/what-is-power-bi/

17. Power BI - recap
• Excel add-ins
– Power Query
– Power Pivot
– Power Map
– Power View
• YouTube for Workbooks
– Cloud-based version of SharePoint portals for sharing Excel content
– Data Management Gateway so IT controls data sources published on Power BI sites
(and user access)
– Mobile BI support for Windows 8, Windows RT, iOS through either native app or
HTML5

18. AGENDA
• the road so far…
• the YouTube of workbooks
• overview of the Power BI stack
• conclusion

19. Power Pivot
• Offers an easy-to use tabular modelling
environment
– data is compressed
• millions of rows possible
• columnar storage
– new scripting language: DAX

20. Power Pivot
• Design the datamodel
– Pull data from (different) sources
– Add relationships
• Enrich the datamodel
– Set Datatypes
– Format Numbers / percentages
– Add Calculations / Measures
– Hide Overhead (link fields)
• Use the datamodel
– Power Pivot Report

21. DEMOPower Pivot

22. Power Query
• “Self-service” ETL tool
• Can extract data from dozens of source
– list is growing each month

23. Power Query
• Possible sources include
– SQL Server, SSAS
– SharePoint Lists (& OData)
– Excel & Flat files
• Some sources “fold” back to the server
– E.g. filtering, sorting, grouping
• Power Query loads data
– into Excel
– into Power Pivot

24. DEMOPower Query

25. Power Query
• Not supported currently in SharePoint
– Power Pivots populated by Power Query are a
problem
• Supported in Office 365
– But not every source out of the box
– Data Management Gateway is needed

26. Power View
• Intuitive and interactive dashboarding
• No code has to be written
– Works on top of a data model
• Power Pivot or SSAS

27. Power View
• Supported in Office 365 & v2
– As a Power View sheet in Excel
– Result of Q&A
• Supported in SharePoint 2010 & 2013
– SharePoint offers browser based editing
– Export to PowerPoint feature

28. DEMOPower View

29. Power Map
• Allows you to plot data on a globe
– custom maps are possible
• You can make a
video showing off
your data
• Useful to tell
stories

30. DEMOPower Map

31. Power BI for Office 365
• YouTube for Workbooks
• Share reports with colleagues
– (No organisational SharePoint / not the right SharePoint version / features)
• Interactive reports available via browser
– Silverlight & HTML5
• Up to date report
• Controlled Database load
– Refresh the data overnight

32. Power BI – Q&A
• Natural Language query
– aka English language query
• Ask a question, and Power BI will give you the
answer in the correct format
• Retrieves data from uploaded Power Pivot
models
– create synonyms to refine model

33. DEMOPower BI for Office 365

34. Power BI v2
• Currently in preview
• Two subscriptions
– one free, one paying
• More interactive dashboarding
• Integration of (almost) all Power BI tools
• Frequent changes and updates

35. Power BI Designer
• Offline client to develop Power BI reports /
dashboards
– For customers who don’t have the right
version of Excel
• Integrates Power Query, Power View and
Power Pivot
– Allows you to write DAX as well

36. DEMOPower BI v2

37. AGENDA
• the road so far…
• the YouTube of workbooks
• overview of the Power BI stack
• conclusion

38. Conclusion
• It has been a bumpy road
– but there’s been a lot of progress
• Microsoft is finally starting to unifying
everything
• There are some amazing capabilities
– but also some big shortcomings
– these will be tackled in the future

39. THANKS FOR LISTENING

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