From Excel Hero
to
Power BI Champion
Isabelle Van Campenhoudt

About
Isabelle Van Campenhoudt
3
Data Platform MVP, Brussels
Consultant, Speaker Trainer, Community Leader
SQL server since 1999
SharePoint BI & Power BI since it starts
Blog: theSQLGrrrl.wordpress.com
ivc@shareql.com
Twitter: @theSQLgrrrl
http://GUSS.pro
SQL
BI
Tuning
Architecture
Coffee making

About
4

Agenda
✓ Introduction
✓ Collect
✓ Organize
✓ Calculate
✓ Visualize
✓ Distribute
✓ Conclusions

Introduction

Context
Scope
User adoption
Observation from the field
Heroes & Champions

What are
Excel
Heroes
expected
to do?
Complex calculation with formulas
and functions
Create usable connected information
Provide graph, charts and analysis
Collect, import information from
others files and combine them
Automate the process
Distribute and refresh their
results

Complex calculation with formulas and
functions
Create usable connected information
Provide graph, charts and analysis
Collect, import information from
other files and combine them
Automatethe
process
Distribute and refresh their results
Let’s organize our Heroes tasks

Extract,
Transform
Load
Model Analyze
Share
Consume
Automate
Visualize
Heroes task—sounds Familiar
What are
Power BI
Champion
expected
to do?

Collect, import information from
others files and combine them

Excel import of data
• Copy paste from another worksheet
• Use linked workbooks and Sheets
• Old import function
• Data connections
• Power Pivot wizard
• Power Query

Power BI import of data
• Power Query
• Data Flows

Cleaning and Transformation of data
Excel
Flash fill
Functions (trim, left)
Replace (manual)
Skills or work
No guidance
Macro’s & VBA
Power Query ☺
Power Query
Auto fill, split, clean, create
Conversion
Transform , Unpivot
Parameters
As a Function
Reusable
Complex language M

Create usable connected information

Cells, Table, Pivot etc…
Cells
unrelated
information
references
Table
related
information
in cells
Pivot
table
Matrix of
related
cells
Data
Model
Power pivot
Related
tables
New
Dynamic
array

Relations
Excel
•VLOOKUP, Index
etc…
• Data Model
•Dax functions
Power BI & Data
Model (Power
Pivot)
•M Combine and
Merge
•Data model
•Dax functions

BI Modeling
• Tables based
• Star schema is the key
• Dimensions
• Fact
• Relations

DEMO

Complex calculation with formulas
and functions

Functions & Formulas
Excel functions
• Cell reference
• Range of cells as
reference.
• Explicitly applied
DAX functions
• Column as reference
---calculated
columns
• Table as reference -
-- measure
• Implicitly applied
when put on a visual

Functions
Excel
Power BI &
Power Pivot

Aggregations
Excel
• Formulas
• Functions SUM AVG COUNT and
their child (xxxA, xxBLANK,
xxxIF)
• Apply to specified ranges
• Pivot Table for implicit
usage
• Power Pivot & Data Model
Power BI & Power Pivot
• Implicit
• Default aggregation are
applied trough the data model
• SUM, AVG, COUNT, Distinct
Count
• Use DAX to create values
• Calculated columns are
applied row by rows
• Measures are applied by
context-- junction of applied
relations

Time Intelligence
Excel
•Date & Time
function
“static”
Power BI & Data
Model (DAX)
•35 Functions
so far
•Automatic date
time

Demo

Provides graph, charts and
analysis

Data Visualisation
of people
do not
understand
the data
they see

Data Visualisation
of people
do not
understand
the data
they see

Excel Data Visualization
Power View
is
deprecated
and out of
the
roadmap
Excel 2016 introduced new chart types
waterfall
box and
whisker
histogram Tree map
Office
365
Funnel

Power BI Visualisation
Interaction
between
visuals
Bookmarks
Advanced
filtering
Drill-downs
and drill-
trough
Extremely
rich
library
Highly
interactive
Q&A

Demo

Distribute and refresh their
results

Distribution
One
version of
the truth
Central
place
Protection Security

Refresh of Data
Excel
•Data Connections
•Refresh On
opening
•Third tool
•Macros --
scheduled
Power BI
•Import, direct
query, live
•Publication
•Data gateway
•Schedule

Conclusions

Conclusions
Either in
Excel or on
Power BI
Think DATA model
Think Process
Think simple
Think off the grid
Embrace DataViz

Questions

Ressources
➢ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guided-learning/
➢ https://lazysnail.net/en/lazy-dax/
➢ https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/
➢ https://www.sqlbi.com/
➢ https://radacad.com/blog

Thank YOU!