No matter the size of your business, it will always generate data, and before you know it, you will be left with heaps of data all piled up, waiting for you to organize and discover. Why wait until the load increases? There is no denying the importance of data in the world of business. Small business owners have taken the step of using the effective solutions of Power BI, and that is the smart thing to do.
There are several advantages of using data analytics tools and software that help small businesses even with their little bit of data with big notable differences. You do not have to wait for your data to start piling up for the data tools to work. Small-sized and start-up businesses have shifted to using these tools, and there is a reason why they do not regret this decision. The best companies are defined by their fast, effective insights generated through Power BI, data analytics, machine learning, and AI.
In this comprehensive read, you will discover all the reasons why small businesses should be considered, and if you are a small or start-up business, this is your sign to hop on the rapidly increasing competition.
Why Small Businesses Should Use Power BI
The first important reason for small business owners to overlook the significance of Power BI is that the rest of the market has already begun this. It is not the time to look for other methods to do something different or not hop on to the trend because this is no trend. This is an effective and proven strategy to provide businesses with impactful insights and improve their business on several levels. It does not matter whether your business is large or small. You, as a growing business, should gain that competitive edge in the market. And that is where Power BI does wonders.
If you are interested in the whole concept of Power BI, read our blog, “What is Power BI for Beginners?” to learn the basics about this data analytics tool. It is a comprehensive guide that will benefit you and your business strategy.
Companies utilize these strong and versatile Power BI solutions to fathom many nuances of business operations while making revenue-driven decisions. Business owners need help in making the right decisions for their business growth and solving their pain points through accuracy. Such moves can be pivotal for businesses in terms of positive growth and increased revenue in the long run.
Read more: Top Data Analyst Skills You Should Know.
What is the Right Power BI Tool to Use First?
This is a common question, and it is understandable why. It can be tricky to figure out which Power BI tool to use, especially when you are a small business. Some tools are slightly more advanced and meant for larger businesses. Here, we will walk you through the uniqueness of Power BI and compare it to the variety of solutions it has to offer.
1. Data Source Integration
Microsoft offers several solutions for data source integrations. Its list of connectors is updated monthly and regularly includes upgrades. Users can connect to a host of data sources, such as SAP, flat files, and SQL. Power BI instantly defines the relationship when importing data from multiple clouds, sources, and on-premise.
More to know: Your Guide To Healthcare Business Intelligence.
2. Visualization and Dashboards
Power BI has many advantages, but the visualization pane is the most commonly used tool. There are several kinds of dashboards and visualizations to choose from. It is all up to how easily the business owner finds it and can interpret that information in the dashboard. Dashboards are interactive and precisely made. This makes it easy for business owners to see all of their business details and data in one dashboard chart. These are cloud-based and are easy to share with other people within the same business. However, the main file is with the main person, and the security measures in this file are strong. The best part about these visualizations is that they can be easily updated and modified. You will not have to recreate them again.
Learn more about dashboards here: A Guide for Creating Strong Power BI Dashboard Design.
3. Community Support
Like all other Microsoft solutions, Power BI has a robust community. The Microsoft Knowledge Base has a strong base, and a vast base comprises support documents for all the features and regular updates.
4. Easy to Learn
The learning curve for using and understanding Power BI and its services has increased. However, people still prefer to hire professional data analysts and data scientists to do the job. The language used for Power BI is often R and Python, so professional data analysts are well aware of this programming language and can shorten the delivery time. Apart from the language system. Power BI is easy to understand. While it can be slightly tricky to operate, especially if you are a newbie, the end result, such as the graphs and visuals delivered through this software, is easy to understand and interpret.
5. Delivering a Competitive Edge for Small Businesses
Power BI is known for its agility. It can be easily integrated into the cloud securely, and the owner of the file can add multiple connectors and other components such as Power Pivot, Power Maps, and Power Query. Power BI is known to be cost-effective and impactful for new businesses or small businesses. The data visualizations it offers are easy to interpret and can allow business owners to make accurate predictions for the future as well. These dashboards and the software tool can help you predict future trends and understand your target audience better. Overall, the purpose is to help decipher your business’s pain points and combat them.
Read more: Overcome Your Fear of Advanced Analytics: Empower Yourself Towards (BI).
Briefing Over Power BI Components
Power BI for small businesses is a simple and user-friendly strategy. It is a powerful tool that offers several advantages and immediate solutions. This software is mature enough that reporting and analytics tools easily service all business functions hassle-free. However, if you come across this, you will notice that several other components have been released. Here, we will go over them briefly to help you understand.
Power Pivot
Power Pivot is an in-memory data modeling engine that provides faster responses and allows users to create a star schema, relationships, and measures. It benefits from the DAX language for calculations and strong measures.
Power Query
Power Query is a strong data transformation engine. It can read data from several databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, and more. Then, it can grab any file format, such as Text, Excel, and CSV. Power Query also provides a strong GUI to transform the data according to your requirements.
Power Map
Power Map is another important feature that highlights data based on its location. This helps us understand the data better. Power Map provides the best visualizations by using Geospatial information in 3-dimensional formats.
Power BI Desktop
Power BI Desktop is another important component and a complete development tool for data analysis and report-making. Without Power BI Desktop, users are unable to customize their data and dashboards according to their liking or their business needs.
Power View
Power View is an interactive data visualization component that connects to the main data sources. It also collects all the relevant metadata for analysis. Additionally, Power View also offers a filter option depending on the visualization of the reports available.
Power BI Website
Power BI Website is another notable feature of Power BI for small businesses. Users can publish the BI solutions to the Power BI by refreshing the data sources, creating simplified dashboards, sharing them with many other users with security measures intact, and transforming data through their simplified web browser.
Power BI Mobile Apps
Mobile usage is inevitable and will only increase in the days to come. So, of course, there was meant to be a Power BI Mobile Apps option for users who use mobile more often. Mobile options are important because users can easily transfer dashboards and data through Power BI tools. IOS, Android, and Windows versions are available. It is important for small businesses to keep their data in simplified ways, even in the form of simplified apps if necessary.
Power Q&A
Power Q&A is powered by a natural language engine. Users can easily and quickly ask questions, retrieve information, or analyze it without extra support from an expert. All the user has to know is to follow the guidelines and general order while creating the data model to provide answers in the best way possible.
Learn how to implement a successful BI strategy.
What Kind of Small Businesses Will Gain From Power BI?
Power BI is a robust business intelligence platform that has been a valuable asset for a wide range of small businesses. It has the capability to be beneficial for data-driven industries such as finance, retail, healthcare, and even educational sectors. It provides significant advantages for businesses in several sectors as well. Even if the data collected in the business is low, it can also work in such circumstances.
For instance, small businesses in the retail industry use Power BI to analyze their sales data, identify patterns and trends, make future predictions, and optimize their inventory management. This way, they can make data-driven decisions about their project placement, pricing, and promotions. When we look at the finance industries such as banks, Power BI is heavily used to track financial performance, identify any pain points, see where cost-reduction is possible, and perform risk management. Similarly, in the healthcare sector, Power BI helps analyze patient data, identify patterns in disease prevalence, and improve the quality of healthcare.
When it comes to smaller businesses, we can take floral shops, for example, startup businesses, and medium online eCommerce shops. It helps them understand their competitors and gives an advantage at that point where they can learn more about consumer behavior. You can also analyze customer satisfaction and monitor employee productivity.
More to know: 10 Hidden Areas Holding Back Your BI Data Strategy.
Hire BiExperts for Your Small Business
Power BI can be used with its free desktop version since it is a small business. But when it comes to further growth, maintenance, and regular updates on the dashboards for your small business, that is when you can benefit from a professional BI agency.
Don’t worry about the budget; BiExpertz is known for delivering quality and accurate Power BI solutions for businesses of all sizes and in every niche. We have a fully equipped team of data scientists and analysts who are ready to assess your requirements and deliver custom solutions based on your business needs. Gain that competitive edge with our Power BI solutions. Our team will stay up-to-date and on track with your progress and update your dashboards whenever you need. With the increased competition and small business growth, it is important for your small business to do the same but better. With the right professionals by your side, you will gain the competitive advantage that you deserve.