Developers get more functionality from Power BI APIs?

Developing using Power BI APIs The trend towards Big Data-driven operations means that organisations are holding more information than ever before. Left in its raw state however, this information is effectively useless.

Information needs to be collated, queried and presented if it is to yield actionable insights. For all but the most skilled scientists, it will be impossible to make sense of the unstructured data held in the Big Data lake.

Dashboards have been a mainstream staple for specific applications for many years. Dashboards are used by sales teams to track progress of deals, whilst service manager keep tabs on case resolution rates for instance. But in the multi-application, multi-database environment, dashboards need to be able to access data from multiple sources.

To help simplify the process of surfacing and presenting data by non-technical users, Microsoft introduced Power BI. Using this tool, virtually any user is able to begin generating their own meaningful, interactive reports, making Business Intelligence available to everyone.

Time to unleash the full power of Power BI

Power BI is undeniably useful, and provides some powerful functionality out-of-the-box. But the true power of the tool is only realised once developers begin hooking into the APIs provided to build highly customised dashboards for your business.

With Power BI training, developers will be able to take advantage of the supplied REST API to create data-driven web apps for instance. Using regular JavaScript conventions, your team can embed dashboards in almost any application – and make complex data available across a range of devices too.

Importantly, Power BI supports C#. This means that .NET developers can call the Power BI API from the .NET SDK too. Power BI offers Mobile and Desktop tools to further refine the data display options available. Where appropriate, developers can build native mobile applications for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile to assist with field-based operations for instance.

By creating custom dashboards you can ensure key KPIs are available instantly. Your developers can also apply advanced analytics behind the scenes to visualise the more unusual KPIs that are unique to your business. Power BI supports a range of data extraction and calculation methods (like DAX) too, so that data can be transformed in any way you need.

“Business Intelligence tools are essential to making sense of your unstructured data, and with Power BI, Microsoft has made that job much easier,” says JBI’s Business Intelligence lead trainer, “To extract maximum value from your data with minimal ongoing effort, your developers will need to build dashboards that are tailored to the need of your users. And to do that, they will need to learn to get to grips with the Power BI APIs.”

If you are looking for a holistic overview of Microsoft BI techniques that includes Power BI, SSRS and SSAS, check out the Microsoft Business Intelligence course instead. Alternatively please get in touch to discuss how Power BI training will help your developers and analysts build more effective dashboards that help users work more efficiently and effectively.