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PowerBI now GA | Intro & Resources

March 6, 2014 Leave a comment

Power BI for Office 365 is now Generally Available, which is a cloud-based Business Intelligence service that gives people a powerful new way to work with data in the tools they use every day, Excel and Office 365. You can experience both Self-Service BI and Online Services by using Excel and Power BI for Office 365. Power BI delivers a new way to Integrate, Transform and Exploit data through Excel as well as new opportunities to access, Share and Search through Office 365. Power BI is a solution of a Workstation with Excel part and “App”, as well as an Online game with Office 365.

Power BI for Office 365 Overview

In my [previous] blog post I demonstrated the capabilities of Power BI Components by showing their Videos. Here in this post I’ll provide the Resources to setup Power BI environment for you.

>> To start you can Sign up for a Free Trial of Power BI for Office 365 on this site: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/powerbi/default.aspx#fbid=v0V8xzuZXJR

>> Download components of Power BI integrated into Excel:

1. Power Query

2. Power Pivot

3. Power View

4. Power Map (formerly Geoflow )

5. Power BI Mobile App (or Mobile BI).

>> Online Components in Office 365:

6. BI Power for Office 365

7. Power Q&A

8. Data Management and Data Stewardship

As part of the Power BI trial you’ll also receive a free 30 day trial of Office 365 ProPlus giving you access to the latest version of Excel. Once you have Excel installed, download and install the Power Query and Power Map add-ins for Excel and learn about the new features with the getting started guide.

>> Power BI Offering Options:
1. Power BI, Add-on for E3/E4 Subscribers

2. Power BI, Standalone

3. Power BI, Standalone + Office 365 ProPlus

Check following link for “Power BI” current pricing: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/powerBI/pricing.aspx?WT.mc_id=blog_PBI_GA_PBI#fbid=v0V8xzuZXJR

Categories: Power BI Tags: Office 365, Power BI, Power BI Q&A, Power Map, Power Pivot, Power Query, Power View, Self Service BI

Power BI for Office 365 | Self Service BI in Excel

March 4, 2014 1 comment

Microsoft Power BI for Office 365 is a collection of features and services that enable you to Visualize data, share Discoveries, and Collaborate in intuitive new ways. Microsoft Power BI for Office 365 provides an Organization-wide Self-service Business Intelligence (BI) infrastructure, and brings Excel workbook sharing, Online collaboration, and IT infrastructure together into a holistic offering.

Power BI consists of many features and services, and works seamlessly with Excel. Use Excel to create compelling content, data models, and visualizations, and then use Power BI to share, collaborate, and extend those insights

>> Self-Service BI Features in Excel: these features extend the data-specific features and capabilities of Excel 2013:

1. Power Query – Discover: easily discover and connect to data from public and corporate data sources

2. Power Pivot – Analyze: create a sophisticated Data Model directly in Excel

3. Power View – Visualize: create reports and analytical views with interactive data visualizations

4. Power Map – Visualize: explore and navigate geospatial data on a 3D map experience in Excel

>> Power BI for Office 365: these features amplify the self-service BI capabilities created in Excel by making them available in a collaborative online environment:

5. Power BI Sites – Share Data & Insights: Share, View, and Interact with reports in these collaborative Power BI sites

6. Power BI Q&A – Get Answers: use natural language queries to find, explore, and report over your data

7. Query and Data Management – share and manage queries and data sources, and view query usage analytics

8. Power BI Windows Store App – Access Data Anywhere: view reports on the go, with the Power BI app

>> IT Infrastructure Services for Power BI: these features get Power BI running in your organization, and enable IT professionals to provide, manage, and secure Power BI services: