Why switch from Excel to Power BI?

Excel has long been the standard tool for data analysis in many companies. With its broad acceptance and versatility, it has established itself as an indispensable tool. But with the increasing complexity of data and the requirements for quick and visually appealing reports, Excel reaches its limits. This is where Microsoft Power BI comes into play: It offers a number of advantages that excel out in modern data analysis.

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What are the advantages of Microsoft Power BI in data analysis?

Microsoft Power BI is one Cloud-based business analytics solutionthat collects, analyzes and visualized and offers some advantages in data analysis compared to Excel.

Higher performance: Excel has a limit for processing large amounts of data. Power query and pivot tables can help, but performance often remains a problem with millions of lines. Power BI, on the other hand, was specially developed for the analysis of large amounts of data. Thanks to its in-memory engine and the use of Columnar Storage, complex queries and calculations can be carried out much faster.

Use of various data sources: Power BI offers native connectors to a variety of data sources, including SQL databases, cloud-based services such as Azure, Salesforce or Google Analytics and even APIs. This facilitates the automatic update of data and saves manual importing and processing in Excel. In Power BI, Excel files can also be used as the basis. For example, Power Query enables users to put several monthly separate Excel files in a SharePoint folder and then automatically merging them into a single extensive data table in Power BI.

Interactive dashboards: While Excel with diagrams and conditional formatting offers basic visualization tools, Power BI allows the creation of highly interactive dashboards. Users can apply filters, explore data in real time and share dynamic reports that go far beyond the possibilities of static Excel diagrams.

Collaborative collaboration: Power BI is cloud-based and enables teams to share reports and dashboards in real time and work together. Excel files, on the other hand, often have to be distributed manually via emails or file releases, which can lead to version conflicts. To increase the safety of reports and data, there is also the possibility to use a Power BI report server as an on-premise solution.

Machine learning: Power BI uses the DAX scripting language (Data Analysis Expression), which provides comprehensive functions for calculations and the modeling of data. Power BI also offers the option of integrating R and Python, which means that advanced statistical analyzes and machine learning can be carried out. In comparison, Excel is limited to these extended functions. With Power BI, companies can carry out a large scale analyzes without overwhelming individual users with complex files and calculations.

Improved security: Power BI offers extended security features such as Row-Level Security (RLS) to control access to data. This automatically filtered the data for users in such a way that it can only see the data relevant to them.

Cost efficiency: Although Excel is part of Microsoft 365 and does not cause any additional costs, the increase in efficiency can reduce costs by using Power BI in the long term. Automation, better insights and less time for data preparation make Power BI a worthwhile investment.

Use case for Microsoft Power BI

By integrating a wide range of data sources and the option of creating interactive dashboards, Power BI offers flexible possible uses in almost all areas of the company. Whether in sales, finance, personnel management or in logistics – Power BI helps to process complex data in an understandable manner. In two other blog posts on the subject of Power BI, we present suitable use cases:

Conclusion

In summary, it can still be said that Excel is still a varied and valuable tool. However, Power BI is the better option for modern, scalable and interactive data analyzes. Companies that want to raise their data analysis to a new level should consider switching to Power BI.

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Felix Grünberg works as a Power BI consultant in the area of ​​Microsoft Business Application. He supports our customers with the help of Microsoft Power BI in the clear visualization of data from different sources with live dashboards and reports-locally or in the cloud, in real time and as a data stream.