If you run a business of any size, Microsoft Power BI is an excellent tool for connecting to various data sources and creating visualizations such as charts, graphs, and dashboards. It is a source of actionable insights that will, in turn, become the basis for decision-making.
Yet integrating Power AI across systems may pose challenges. This is where Power BI consulting services come into play.
In this article, we shall speak about why it is a good idea to outsource Microsoft integration services to specialists and what gains you get from it if you opt for it.
Key Takeaways
- Microsoft Power BI consultants help businesses integrate Power BI, manage data, and develop customized dashboards.
- Outsourcing Microsoft integration services enhances data strategy, model development, and supports effective implementation and maintenance.
- Consultants provide faster deployment, cost savings, improved data governance, and necessary training for in-house teams.
- By leveraging expert knowledge, companies can avoid common integration challenges and optimize Power BI usage.
- Power BI consulting services ultimately streamline the integration process while delivering best practices tailored to user needs.
Table of contents
What Do Microsoft Power BI Consultants Do?
Microsoft Power BI consultants help companies connect to Power BI, clean, structure, and prepare data; design and develop interactive dashboards tailored to users’ needs; build data models; and integrate Power BI solutions that align with their real business aims.
When broken into specific functions, these actionable insights usually help businesses with the following:
Data strategy
Since Power BI quality of work depends on the quality of the data you feed in, the proper data structure is a must. Often, companies don’t have the necessary expertise internally, so Power BI consultants can help evaluate the existing data systems and develop a roadmap towards Power BI integration.
Also, they can help integrate data from various sources and structure them to fit a single, centralized location. If needed, the data is previously cleaned and prepared for analysis. As a result, the company’s internal software and databases are ready for integration with Power BI.
Model, report, and dashboards development
Power BI consultants help companies build robust and scalable data models and interactive dashboards and reports to visualize this data with actionable insights.
The consultants’ role in this case is to evaluate which Power BI options a company needs in the first place and which are less critical. Based on the priorities, consultants’ advice on specific feature sets and help in configuring the system to make the most use of the handy features.
Sometimes, a company needs solutions that are not available in the Power BI toolkit. In this way, the consulting team will use tools like Power Query and DAX to create custom solutions.
Implementation and support
This service presupposes setting up Power BI as the data is ready for integration. It is worth noting that Power BI consultants often have experience integrating Microsoft tools across various systems, so they are familiar with the most common bottlenecks and issues. They can deliver quick solutions in situations where an in-house team would spend hours and multiple rounds of consultation with the Microsoft support team.
After implementation, consultants provide the in-house team with the necessary training to help them learn the features and functionality more quickly.
In case something goes wrong, Power BI consultants provide maintenance and support in solving issues.
They also stick to robust security policies and implement best-in-class data governance practices to help you avoid issues in the future.
Business analysis
Consultants work with stakeholders to understand the company’s needs and set the BI priorities. They analyze trends with actionable insights in areas such as sales, customer behavior, finance, and operations to understand how Power BI preferences change over time, fine-tune functionality, and select other products that better suit their needs.
What Benefits Do You Get When You Hire Power Bi Consulting Services?
Logically, when you hire experts in the domain, your immediate take is speed, cost savings, better insights, enhanced security, and painless scalability. Let’s take a closer look at them:
Faster deployment
Hiring consultants allows businesses to avoid a lengthy trial-and-error process and the back-and-forth with Microsoft support teams by leveraging consultants’ expertise, best practices, and ready-made solutions to address bottlenecks.
Reduced costs
As faster deployment reduces costs in itself, consultants can also help businesses select the proper licensing options that best fit the company’s real needs. This way, enterprises avoid unnecessary spending. Also, a consulting team can develop a spending plan, offering to tune in some advanced features later in the project instead of paying for them from the start.
Improved data governance
A considerable part of consulting services’ expertise lies in understanding best practices in data management and governance. Consultants can also help secure your private data and ensure compliance with relevant regulations, reducing the need for legal support and the risk of data exposure.
Training and support
Consultants define and bridge gaps in your in-house team’s expertise, helping your team learn the skills to use Power BI more effectively and independently in the long run.
Summing Up
Power BI consulting services help companies develop the right strategy for Power BI integration, prioritize features and payment plans, prepare data, and build robust data pipelines to make the most of Microsoft Power BI. While offering fast and secure services, they deliver time and cost savings, as well as best practices and actionable insights from Power BI tailored to specific user needs.
