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Different Power BI versions like Desktop, Service-based (SaaS), and mobile Power BI apps are used for different platforms. It provides multiple software connectors and services for business intelligence.

The BI stands for “business intelligence” and the tool gives non-technical users all the resources they need to aggregate, visualize, analyze, and share data. The business world considers Power BI one of the best drag-and-drop tools available in the industry today.

While we’re at it, we should define business intelligence. According to CIO, business intelligence “…leverages software and services to transform data into actionable insights that inform an organization’s strategic and tactical business decisions.” The tools access and analyze relevant data, then offer findings via charts, reports, graphs, summaries, maps, and dashboards, to provide users with accurate and detailed intelligence regarding the state of the company.

Business intelligence (BI) leverages software and services to transform data into actionable insights that inform an organization’s strategic and tactical business decisions. BI tools access and analyze data sets and present analytical findings in reports, summaries, dashboards, graphs, charts and maps to provide users with detailed intelligence about the state of the business.

The term business intelligence often also refers to a range of tools that provide quick, easy-to-digest access to insights about an organization’s current state, based on available data. 

How to Use Power BI

When trying to understand how to use Power BI, it’s best to start by getting acquainted with the tool’s different elements. Power BI consists of:

• Power BI Desktop. The Windows desktop application
• Power BI Service. The online Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Mobile apps. These apps are designed for Android, iOS, and Windows mobile devices
• Power BI Report Server. After you create your Power BI reports using Desktop, you can publish them to an on-premises report server

Users connect to the desired data sources and build a report using Power BI Desktop. Once the report is complete, users publish it to the Power BI service, allowing end-users to view and interact with the information.

And let’s not forget that you have the option of using the Power BI Report Server if you’re not ready for people outside of your company’s firewall to see the reports yet!

The beauty of Power BI is its ease of use, even by people who don’t consider themselves to be very technologically proficient. As long as you have access to the data sources, the dashboard, and a working network connection, you can use Power BI to process the information, create the necessary reports, and send them off to the right teams or individuals.

Once you gain proficiency by learning Power BI, it is important to look into the various job opportunities for skilled individuals.

BI Job Opportunities

Thanks to Power BI’s versatility and ubiquity, there are a host of different relevant positions available, including:

• Power BI Analyst
• Power BI Business Analyst
• Power BI Data Analyst
• Power BI Developer
• Power BI Software Engineer
• Senior Business Intelligence Analyst
• Senior Software Engineer

Many different industries use Power BI, including IT, healthcare, financial services, insurance, staffing & recruiting, and computer software. Specific major companies that use Power BI include:

• Adobe (USA)
• Conde Nast (USA)
• Dell (USA)
• Hospital Montfort (Canada)
• Kraft Heinz Co (USA)
• Meijer (USA)
• Nestle (China)
• Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (UK)

The average annual salary of a Power BI professional in India is ₹582,000.Glassdoor reports that a Power BI developer in the United States earns an average of $81,514 a year.

Power BI is one of the most popular Data Visualization and Business Intelligence tool. The Power BI tool is the collection of apps, data connectors, and software services which are used to get the data from different data sources, transforms data, and produces useful reports.

Power BI services are based on SaaS and mobile Power BI apps that are available for different platforms. These set of services are used by the business users to consume data and to build Power BI reports.

The BI term refers to Business Intelligence. It is a data-driven decision support system (DSS), which helps you to analyze the data and provide actionable information. It helps the business manager, corporate executives, and other users in making their decisions easily.

Business intelligence refers to the applications, technologies, and practices for the collection, analysis, integration, and presents the business information. The purpose of business intelligence is to support better decision making.

Sometimes the business intelligence is used interchangeably with briefing books, reports, query tools, and executive information systems.

Power BI is a Data Visualization, and Business Intelligence tool which helps to convert data from different data sources into interactive dashboards and BI reports. It provides interactive visualizations with self-service business intelligence capabilities where end users can create reports and dashboards by themselves, without having to depend on information technology staff or database administrators.

Power BI provides multiple connectors, software, and services. These services based on the SaaS and mobile Power BI apps which are available for different platforms. These set of services are used by business users to consume data and to build BI reports.

Power BI desktop app is used to create reports, while Power BI Service (Software as a Service - SaaS) is used to publish those reports. And Power BI mobile app is used to view the reports and dashboards.

Different Power BI version like Desktop, Service-based (SaaS), and mobile Power BI apps are used in different platforms.

Why Power BI

Here are some significant reasons to use the Power BI tool:

• It allows real-time dashboard updates.
• It provides secure and reliable connections to the data sources in the cloud.
• It allows data exploration using a natural language query.
• Power BI provides a hybrid configuration, quick deployment, and secure environment.
• It provides features for dashboard visualization regularly updated with the community.
• It provides pre-built dashboards and reports for SaaS solutions.

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Power BI History

• Power BI was thought by Ruler and Dhers Netz of the SQL server coverage services team at Microsoft.
• Power BI was designed by the West Chadic George in 2010 and named as a Project Crescent. In 2011, it was tied up with SQL server codenamed Mount McKinley.
• In September 2014, Microsoft revealed the first preview to Power BI.
• The first version of Power BI is released on 24 July 2015. It was based on Excel-based Add-ins such as Pivot, view, Power Query, and Map.

Importance of BI

Business intelligence is used to improve all parts of a company by improving access to the firm's data and then using that data to increase profitability. Companies that practices BI can translate their collected data into insights their business processors.

Then the insights can be used to create strategic business decisions that improve productivity and accelerate the growth.

Some more potential benefits of business intelligence tools include:

• Driving new revenues.
• It increases operational efficiency.
• It optimizes internal business processes.
• It improves decision making.
• It is gaining a competitive advantage over business rivals.
• It is used in spotting business problems that need to be addressed.
• It can be used in assisting companies in the identification of market trends.