You read the title correctly – you have the ability to help
shape the BI capabilities that Microsoft is delivering via Power BI. If you are not familiar with it yet,
you will be in the near future. Power BI is a business
intelligence tool in Office 365 that allows end users to mine their data in dynamic
and insightful ways.
Therein lies the biggest detriment to the adoption of
Microsoft’s jewel. How do I use my data (usually on premise in a
database or on my local drive in Excel) with a tool based in the cloud? Microsoft did three things to address this
dilemma.
1.
At the end of January, they released Power BI
Designer. This is a powerful tool that
allows you to work offline with your
data and then publish it. That’s right, you don’t need the right version of Excel to do Power View or the add-ins. You can utilize this tool with your data. Right now this tool is in preview (beta) mode
so the features can (will) change.
2.
Less than two weeks ago Microsoft cut in half
the monthly cost of Power BI. Reducing
cost is always an effective way to speed up adoption.
3.
Microsoft has set up a site where you can vote
on the features you would most want to see in the Power BI tool. While this has been done before what makes
this compelling is that Microsoft’s Product Manager(s) are extremely involved,
giving us an idea of what we will see in the product before the big Ignite
event in May.
Here is the address where you can vote:
http://support.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi?WT.mc_id=Blog_PBI_Announce_DI
I reviewed many of the suggestions and here are 5 features which
are listed as PLANNED which will
help speed up adoption:
1.
DAX Editor in Power BI Designer – The ability to
create calculations in Power BI Designer will make for a great data modeling
experience. This feature received over
500 votes!
2.
Support for importing from Power Pivots shared
on O365 or SharePoint
3.
Data Catalog integration in Power BI Designer –
The Data Catalog is a place where you can share information about a query with
all users or a specific set of users within the organization. These queries are discoverable via search and
thus promote reuse.
4.
Undo and Redo button in Designer – Hard to
believe this is not there out of the box.
But as one user put it, prototyping where you can do a number of
changes, preview it, and then back it out if you must is invaluable.
5.
SQL Server Analysis Services Cubes – Microsoft
is planning to add the ability to connect ‘live’ to SSAS models in the near
future. This feature received over 800
votes making it the most voted on feature that I saw.
Two other features were suggested that are worth mentioning
(so you can vote on them I hope). One is
the ability to export to Power Point.
With the on premise version of Power View you can do this and it is
compelling. You can create multiple dynamic
views of your data, export them and immediately have a report with
accurate data for management!
The last feature is a must have! The second most voted on feature I saw with
over 740 votes: Integrate Reporting Services (SSRS). As a consultant there are two things that I
am always confronted with: Forms for SharePoint and Reports for
SharePoint.
What was nice is that the Product Manager put Under Review
after this suggestion. That means
nothing but with the amount of votes this is getting, hopefully Microsoft is
looking at this capability. It would be
a game changer if they could solve this problem.
There you have it, 7 features that Power BI must have. Get your vote in today, review the other
suggestions, and make one of your own.
While you are at it, download the Power BI Designer and see why in 2015
Microsoft is 2nd only to Tableau as a leader in the 2015 BI Magic
Gartner report.