Summary

Business intelligence efforts are only as useful as the outcomes that they inform. Power BI aims to reduce the time and effort required to go from information to action by providing an interface that encourages rapid iteration. In this episode Rob Collie shares his enthusiasm for the Power BI platform and how it stands out from other options. He explains how he helped to build the platform during his time at Microsoft, and how he continues to support users through his work at Power Pivot Pro. Rob shares some useful insights gained through his consulting work, and why he considers Power BI to be the best option on the market today for business analytics.

Announcements

• Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management
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• You listen to this show to learn and stay up to date with what’s happening in databases, streaming platforms, big data, and everything else you need to know about modern data platforms. For more opportunities to stay up to date, gain new skills, and learn from your peers there are a growing number of virtual events that you can attend from the comfort and safety of your home. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/conferences to check out the upcoming events being offered by our partners and get registered today!
• Your host is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Rob Collie about Microsoft’s Power BI platform and his work at Power Pivot Pro to help users employ it effectively.

Interview

• Introduction
• How did you get involved in the area of data management?
• Can you start by giving an overview of what Power BI is?
• The business intelligence market is fairly crowded. What are the features of Power BI that make it stand out?
• Who are the target users of Power BI?
  • How does the design of the platform reflect those priorities?
• Can you talk through the workflow for someone to build a report or dashboard in Power BI?
• What is the broader ecosystem of data tools and platforms that Power BI sits within?
  • What are the available integration and extension points for Power BI?
• In addition to your work at Microsoft building Power BI you now run a consulting company dedicated to helping people adopt that platform. What are some of the common challenges that users face in employing Power BI effectively?
• In your experience working with clients, what are some of the core principles of data processing and visualization that apply across industries?
  • What are some of the modeling or presentation methods that are specific to a given industry?
• One of the perennial challenges of business intelligence is to make reports discoverable. What facilities does Power BI have to aid in surfacing useful information to end users?
• What capabilities does Power BI have for exposing elements of data quality?
• What are some of the most challenging aspects of building and maintaining a business intelligence effort in an organization?
• What are some of the most interesting, unexpected, or innovative uses of Power BI that you have seen, or projects that you have worked on?
• What are some of the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned in your work building Power BI and building a business to support its users?
• When is Power BI the wrong choice?
• What trends in business intelligence are you most excited by?

Contact Info

• LinkedIn
• @robocolli3 on Twitter

Parting Question

• From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Links

• P3
• Power BI
• Microsoft Excel
• Fantasy Football
• Excel Functions
• Lisp
• Business Intelligence
• VLOOKUP
• Looker
  • Podcast Episode
• SQL Server Reporting Services
• SQL Server Analysis Services
• Tableau
• Master Data Management
• ERP == Enterprise Resoure Planning
• M Language
• Power Query
• DAX

The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA