Self-Service BI with PowerView

 

In an attempt to empower the users, Microsoft has launched several tools that allow users to develop their own data visualization efforts. Excel, a familiar tool that has a large audience is one of the suite of tools that you can use to develop impressive reports and dashboards. Using Excel, you can create PowerView reports.  PowerView visualizations are authored in the Excel environment which helps remove  a “barrier on entrance” for users  who can be skeptical of using unfamiliar report development tools.  PowerView is one of Microsoft self-service BI tools (Power Query and Power Map are the others) that make up its self-service BI offering. It allows for some very impressive data exploration and intuitive ad-hoc reporting. 

Before embarking on these self-service BI tools, it’s important to first understand the importance of PowerPivot. PowerPivot has been available for Excel 2010 as an add-on and it is a core component of all Microsoft BI self-service tools. PowerView reports are based on PowerPivot models in Excel. In order to use PowerView, you must first establish a PowerPivot Worksheet. In order to create a report, open the Excel workbook that contains a model and on the Insert tab, click the Power View button

To help drive home the point of self-service BI ease of use, I have created a video that demonstrates producing a PowerView dashboard...

As you can see in just a few clicks,  I was able to create a relatively impressive representation of data without the assistance of IT staff or some data steward. 

Although its an easy environment to create reports, as with any reporting tool, it’s still important to understand how to best represent you data given business questions that need to be answered and audience. These tools won't make you report designer guru with just a few clicks. However, for those that know what they want from their data , PowerView will help you get there very fast and without much assistance.