With relevant information, you get an insight into your company's greatest development opportunities and thus increase the chances of making the right decisions, but how do you gain access to the information that will put your company on the best route to success? The answer lies in your data. Or, more specifically: in a structured overview of your data.
What is Microsoft Power BI?
You have probably heard of Microsoft Power BI, but what can the service offer your business? Power BI is an online business analytics service connecting to other SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications and data sources. The service lets you analyze, visualize and transform your data easily and quickly. With dashboards, interactive reports, and visual elements, Power BI creates an overview of your data.
In this blog post, we will dive further into 8 reasons you should invest in Power BI.
1. All relevant data is gathered in one place
Power BI integrates with hundreds of data sources, apps, and other services - e.g., SQL Server, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics, Adobe Analytics, Mailchimp, etc., and new integration combinations are constantly being developed.
This means that you can gather your data under one roof and perform more extensive data analyzes across data sources within minutes. For example, you can connect to your CRM and ERP system, retrieve relevant customer and revenue data, and in no time get an insight into how much you earn on average on customers. It can help you create an overview of your future profits. The possibilities for new and valuable insights into your business are endless with Power BI.
2. Data collection is streamlined
In the past, data collection was an incredibly complicated and time-consuming process. First, you need to obtain data from various sources, identify relevant information, convert, merge, and prepare it for analysis. It took a long time from the data was obtained until the analysis was completed, which meant that the validity of the data decreased.
With Power BI, this process is automated, which means that you and your employees do not have to focus on the data itself, but on the information, you can get out of them.
3. Your data is visualized for a better overview
With Power BI, you can present larger datasets with visual elements - graphs, charts, tables, etc. It is incredibly valuable to understand and communicate complex information. Most companies are experiencing an ever-increasing amount of data. Here, the visualization will help to understand the relevant information more quickly. Each data point does not have to be reviewed before a well-founded decision can be made.
4. Access to real-time information
Your Power BI dashboards are updated in real-time as data is retrieved. It allows you and your employees to identify and resolve issues here and now quickly.
5. Guessing and gambles are minimized
So what does it, more specifically, mean for your business that you, through Power BI, get access to a structured, understandable, and accurate overview of your data? Among other things, that guesswork and the gambling of critical business decisions are minimized. It often happens that important decisions are made based on a gut feeling, which is obviously not appropriate in those situations where there is a lot at stake for your business. With Power BI, you minimize the risk of making wrong decisions.
6. Better understanding of past and future
With a good data overview, you can get a good sense of where your business was in the past and where it is headed. You can download descriptive analytics that tells you what has happened in your business in the past. E.g., how many customers leased a car within the last year or what type of car was most in demand. You can also download analytics that combines the abovementioned results with forecasting techniques to gain insight into what could potentially happen in the future. It helps you create a realistic view of what your business is facing and thus how to be most prepared.
Power BI helps you, i.a., by identifying products with a low turnover that can be eliminated from your next purchase. In addition, you can dive into your supply chain with Power BI and quickly locate where there is an opportunity to optimize your investment in the products that end up in your warehouse. With Power BI, you can also identify and measure inefficiency in other areas - e.g., employee costs.
8. Security is improved
With Power BI, you can manage security and user access within the same interface. You thus eliminate the need to use other tools to ensure that you comply with the strict rules for IT security. Azure Active Directory (AAD) is built-in for user authentication, so you can use Single Sign-On (SSO) along with your standard Power BI login information to access your data.
How can we help you?
Fiftytwo has three different Power BI Starter Packs covering four primary purposes. The packages address specific needs in finance, sales, and 52LEASING. Below you can read about each of the packages. If you want elaboration, you are very welcome to contact me.
The FINANCE package
Based on the settings in the Dynamics 365 Business Central chart of accounts and associated financial items/budget items, the data package makes it possible to follow the company's realized figures against budget and the same period the year before. In addition, the package provides a quick overview of the current status of customer receivables, bank balances, and outstanding items to suppliers.
The SALE package
The sales package links the posted invoices and credit notes with associated value items so that it is possible to show the actual contribution margin from an updated inventory. The sale and the related contribution margin will also be displayed divided across sellers, customers, and products, as well as groupings set up in Dynamics 365 Business Central across these. In addition, it will be possible to see the value of the accepted sales offers and sales orders measured on expected revenue and gross margin.
The 52LEASING package
Based on registered agreements in 52LEASING, measuring parameters such as residual value, blank, future cash flows, and profit will be possible. These parameters can also be explored across, e.g., customers, leasing objects, and risk profiles. In addition, it will be possible to make a cross-sectional analysis of income from various fees, re-invoicing, insurance, and profiles.