The massive volume of data available to organizations today can be a gold mine of useful information or a deluge awash in complexity. For middle market companies, effectively gathering, analyzing and sharing this data can be a game changer, providing a better understanding of customer needs, driving product and service improvements, and making your organization more agile and profitable.
So, how can you transform your company into a truly data-driven organization
Microsoft Power BI tames the data deluge by letting your team connect to and visualize any data using a unified, scalable platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence (BI) that’s easy to use and helps you gain deeper data insight.
Giving middle market firms the power to compete
Power BI helps you make the most of your data investments by providing middle market companies with tools that were once available only to larger competitors. It connects to all your data sources with the scale to analyze, share and promote insights across your organization while maintaining data accuracy, consistency and security.
Here are four specific ways Power BI can benefit your company:
Accelerate big data prep
Simplify how you analyze and share large volumes of data. Using Power BI with an Azure data lake will reduce the time it takes to get insights and increase collaboration between business analysts, data engineers and data scientists.
Without the need to structure data first, you can analyze information from any source, including line-of-business applications, IoT devices on the factory floor and social media interactions with customers.
Leverage artificial intelligence to find answers fast
Companies of all sizes face increasing demand for data scientists outside of the IT function, forcing middle market companies to compete for talent against larger competitors. With Power BI, even non-data scientists can use artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare data, build machine learning models and uncover insights quickly from both structured and unstructured data, including text and images.
Hundreds of data visualizations, built-in AI tools and both prebuilt and custom data connectors provide multiple ways for users to link unrelated data sources and create compelling ways to share what they find.
With Power BI’s tight Excel integration, anyone who can use Microsoft 365 can easily connect Excel queries, data models and reports to Power BI dashboards for rapid data analysis and reporting.
Turn insights into action
Power BI unites your enterprise and self-service analytics needs into one platform. Microsoft Power Apps is a rapid development environment that empowers everyone on your team to quickly build business applications using prebuilt templates with drag-and-drop simplicity.
Users at all skill levels can employ advanced functionality typically available only to professional developers.
Microsoft Power Automate has an intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to automate workflows using prebuilt connectors; low-code, drag-and-drop tools; and AI-based recommendations for which processes to automate. Your team can streamline repetitive tasks, optimize organizational efficiency and increase productivity—all without the need for developers.
Stream analytics in real time
Being able to turn on a dime has never been more important to an organization. With Power BI, you’ll know what’s happening now, not just what occurred in the past. From factory sensors to social media sources, cloud BI tools give you access to real-time data analytics without the need for custom reports from IT staff. You can make timely, intelligent decisions with confidence and gain the agility you need to succeed.
For an example of how organizations can benefit from Power BI, consider RSM’s client Nickerson Corporation, a privately owned company that provides furniture, equipment, design and construction services for schools in the New York and New Jersey markets.
As it grew, the company sought additional insights into operations to improve decision-making. RSM implemented a comprehensive Power BI solution that gives Nickerson new visibility into key business drivers so it can easily identify problems and opportunities. Self-service analytics allow users to develop their own reports without enlisting IT. Now, Nickerson enjoys a 360-degree view of its organization, including real-time visibility into job profitability and alerts to stakeholders if projects aren’t meeting expectations.
Power an agile organization with data analytics
If your organization is drowning in data, it’s time to take control.
Across numerous industries, we at RSM are witnessing the growing importance of robust data analytics processes to improve business operations and guide decision-making. Using Microsoft Power BI can help you and your teams convert oceans of data into actionable insights and transform your organization from reactive to proactive.
A trusted partner such as RSM can help you get full value from Power BI. We’ll conduct business intelligence discovery discussions with your team to determine gaps in insight and reporting and then develop a plan to leverage Power BI for the reporting and analytics your organization needs.
As a National Microsoft Partner with deep experience in a wide range of industries, we can help design a comprehensive strategy to get the most from your data so it can guide your company into the future.
Interesting in learning more about how to maximize your organization’s potential with Microsoft Power BI? Find out why RSM should be your National Microsoft Partner of choice.
