Business growth comes in many different forms, but the best way to keep growing your business is to stay ahead of the curve by using new technologies and strategies. In this blog post, we’ll take you through some frequently asked questions about using Power BI and Excel to grow your business.

Is Power BI and Excel a Good Way to Grow Your Business?

As technology and data continue to grow more and more within the business, it’s important to keep up with modern trends and learn how to use the tools effectively. Using Power BI and Excel can help you learn from the start how to use these powerful tools and avoid getting stuck using tools that are no longer relevant to your business. 

As you begin to use Power BI and Excel you’ll notice that these tools are incredibly versatile. They can be used to create virtually any type of report you could desire. This includes creating ad-hoc reports and the ability to create ETL ( Extract, Transform, and Load) reports for your data sources.

What is the Best Way to Use Power BI and Excel?

There are many different practices when it comes to using Power BI and Excel to grow your business. Regardless of your stage in the data journey, it’s important to remember that these tools are meant to help you get data into the system and not create reports and visuals on your own. 

The best way to use Power BI and Excel is to create a data flow between these systems. When you first install Power BI and Excel, you’ll notice that they have a lot in common. Both platforms are primarily visual, making use of charts and graphs to display data. Both platforms also use the Power Query server to store your data, allowing you to query your data anytime. 

By creating a data flow between these systems, you’ll be able to create a truly integrated system that will allow you to view data from any source, access data from other systems, and create new reports without having to manually input data. This data flow will allow you to easily create ad-hoc reports, send data to other systems, and automate repetitive tasks, keeping your team on-task without having to do all the work themselves.

Which Is Better: Power BI or Excel?

There are a lot of advantages to using Power BI and Excel over other technologies such as tables, graphs, and charts. These include the ability to create ad-hoc reports and the ability to access any source data you want, as well as create your own reports and visuals. What’s more, is that Power BI and Excel don’t require any special permissions, which means they are more accessible to the public and you can create reports and visuals without the need for any user accounts.

What Are the Benefits of Using Power BI and Excel?

Easy to use - When you first start using Power BI and Excel you’ll notice that they are very easy to use. Both platforms make use of drag-and-drop functionality to allow you to create reports and visualizations quickly and easily. 

Standardized - Both platforms are optimized for ease of use and have a standard format that allows you to easily create reports and graphs. Additionally, both platforms have support for standard data sources and APIs, letting you easily integrate your data with other systems. 

Great for data scientists - Both platforms are extremely useful for data scientists, allowing you to create visualizations and graphs that allow you to explore large datasets quickly and easily. 

Additionally, both platforms have built-in tools for cleaning and formatting data so you don’t have to spend time doing it manually.

When Is a Data Bonus Worth Paying Upfront Costs for New Tools?

If you are already using a specific tool or are new to data science and want to try out Power BI and Excel, it makes sense to pay upfront for the tools to get them at their full potential. This will allow you to save money in the long run by avoiding having to add new tools and/or increase your staff when you grow. 

When you pay upfront, you are allowed to use the tools in their original state. This means that you won’t be able to use the power of Power BI and Excel when you don’t have the data sources or tools to feed into the system. This also means that you won’t be able to experiment with new data sources or features, allowing you to focus on growing your business.

Is There a downside to Paying Upfront Fees for New Tools?

There are a few things to keep in mind before deciding on whether to pay upfront for new tools or not. The biggest downside is that you will have to deal with upfront costs that would've otherwise been avoided by using data already in your system. For example, if you already have a CRM system, you might have to pay an upfront fee to use the tools to their full potential. 

However, by using a CRM system, you allow people to create a personal account and log in with their credentials whenever they want. By using a data source, such as your lead score database, you eliminate the need for a cumbersome log-in process, making data access easy and quick. You also avoid the need to create a new user account for each new report or visualization that you build.

Conclusion

No matter what business you are in, data is always going to be a critical factor in your decision-making process. By understanding the ways that data is used, how it's created, and how that data is shared, you are better able to create data-driven decisions. Furthermore, data analysis tools can help determine where your business is weak and could use some boost. 

By understanding your data and how it's used, you can optimize your processes to take advantage of these emerging trends. At the end of the day, using data and technology in your business requires a strategy. With that strategy, you can ensure that data is being collected optimally, used most efficiently and that decisions are being made using the most up-to-date data.