Business Intelligence and Data Visualization with Power BI (Udemy.com)

A warm welcome to the Power BI course by Uplatz.

Power BI is a business intelligence platform provided by Microsoft that provides nontechnical business users with tools for aggregating, analysing, visualizing and sharing data. Power BI's user interface is fairly intuitive for users familiar with Excel and its deep integration with other Microsoft products makes it a very versatile self-service tool that requires little upfront training.

In essence, Power BI is the collective name for an assortment of cloud-based apps and services that help organizations collate, manage, and analyse data from a variety of sources, through a user-friendly interface.

Business intelligence tools like Power BI can be used for a multitude of purposes. Primarily, Power BI pulls data together and processes it, turning it into intelligible insights, often using visually compelling and easy-to-process charts and graphs. This allows users to generate and share clear and useful snapshots of what’s happening in their business. Power BI connects to a range of data sources, from basic Excel spreadsheets to databases, and both cloud-based and on-premise apps.

Power BI is something of an umbrella term and can refer to either a Windows desktop application called Power BI Desktop, an online SaaS (Software as a Service) service called Power BI Service, or mobile Power BI apps available on Windows phones and tablets, as well as for iOS and Android devices.

Power BI is built on the foundation of Microsoft Excel, and as such, the learning curve from Excel to Power BI is not that steep; anyone who can use Excel can use Power BI, but the latter is far more powerful than its spreadsheet counterpart.

Uplatz provides this comprehensive Microsoft Power BI training with focus on teaching the fundamentals of Power BI starting from introduction and installation of Power BI to understanding Power BI Desktop in great detail to Data Modelling and Visualization.

This training is for anyone who wants to learn about self-service business intelligence with Power BI – regardless of technical or analytical background. You will be able to use all key features in order to effectively analyse your data, create interactive reports and share your findings throughout your organization.

This course will enable you to create visually rich, interactive reports and publish them to Power BI Online, where they can be shared anytime, anywhere. You will also explore Power BI Desktop's powerful data modelling tools.

Power BI versions

A free version of Power BI is intended for small to midsize business owners; a professional version called Power BI Plus is available for a monthly subscription fee. Users can download an application for Windows 10, called Power BI Desktop, and native mobile apps for Windows, Android and iOS devices. There is also Power BI Report Server for companies that must maintain their data and reports on premises. That version of Power BI requires a special version of the desktop app -- aptly called Power BI Desktop for Power BI Report Server.

Course Objectives

• Rapidly analyse, transform and present data

• Understand the Power BI platform

• Set up queries to extract and transform data

• Create efficient data models

• Design and publish interactive reports

• Confidently use DAX calculations

Microsoft Power BI - course curriculum

Introduction to Power BI

• What is Power BI?

• The Power BI service

• Power BI Report Server

• Power BI Desktop

• Reports and Dashboards

• Datasets

• Row-Level Security

• Content Packs

• Natural Language Queries

Power BI Desktop

• What is Power BI Desktop

• Installation Process of Desktop Power BI

• Using Power BI Desktop

• Practical Scenarios

​​Data Sources

• Connecting to Files

• Importing Excel Files

• Publishing to Power BI from Excel

• Updating Files in Power BI

• Data Refresh

• The Power BI Data Model

• Managing Data Relationships

• Optimising the Model for Reporting

• Hierarchies

• SQL Servers

• Other Data Sources

• R Script Data Connector

• Configuring Data for Q&A

• Creating Content Packs

• Creating a Group

Shaping and Combining Data

• The Query Editor

• Applied Steps

• Advanced Editor

• Shaping Data

• Formatting Data

• Transforming Data

• Combining Data

• Merging Data

Modelling and Loading Data

• What are the Relationships?

• Viewing Relationships

• Creating Relationships

• Star Schema

• Merge Queries and Join Kind

• Data Model Structure

• Relationship View

• Cardinality

• Cross Filter Direction

• Active Properties

• What is DAX?

• Syntax

• Functions

• Context

• Calculated Columns

• Calculated Tables

• Measures

Interactive Data Visualization

• Power BI Reports: Page Layout and Formatting

• M Language and DAX Language

• Multiple Visualisations

• Creating Charts

• Using Geographic Data

• Histograms

• Power BI Admin Portal

• Service Settings

• Desktop Settings

• Dashboard and Report Settings

What does Power BI do?

Microsoft Power BI is used to run reports and surface insights based on a company’s data. Power BI can connect to a wide range of data sets, and cleans & organizes the info it’s fed so that it can be better digested and understood. The reports and visuals generated from this data can then be shared with other users.

Power BI helps users see not only what’s happened in the past and what’s happening in the present, but also what might happen in the future. Power BI is infused with machine learning capabilities, meaning it can spot patterns in data and use those patterns to make informed predictions and run “what if” scenarios. These estimates allow users to generate forecasts, and prepare themselves to meet future demand and other key metrics.