The most important task a BI consultant does is getting all the data in one place. You may have multiple sources of data like SQL, API, CSV, JSON, etc which need proper cleaning and refreshing on a scheduled basis. This requires a good understanding of how data from various sources are connected to create a data model for reporting.
A Power BI consultant knows which data sources are compatible with Power BI directly and which would require some transformation/ modification/ manipulation to be able to integrate with Power BI. Also, a Power BI consultant knows the limitations of the Power BI platform and its data handling capabilities and can suggest other technologies which can handle large scale data.
To get the best analytics a lot of computation needs to be done to get correct and accurate data which shows the right KPIs and relevant charts. Moreover, if a measure is created for a particular logic instead of a calculated column, then it may slow down the report and anyone interacting with the dashboard would lose interest.
Just getting the data into tables is not the goal of creating analytics projects, right?
Each type of data can be best represented by a particular type of chart like balance sheet is best shown on a waterfall chart, cash burn on a line chart, etc. A Power BI consultant knows exactly which kind of chart is suitable for the information that is to be displayed on the dashboard.
Also, there are some KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that are industry specific which help you better monitor your business. For example, if you want some analysis for your sales data then having a funnel chart is a must.
Just creating a dashboard is not important, having a nice UI/UX is equally important when looking at the dashboard. A good-looking UI coupled with a thoughtful UX creates the lasting experience which makes you go back to the dashboard. A bad UI/UX is the reason people go back to using excel sheets rather than using Power BI.
Lastly, you need to share the report with others within your company, right?
A Power BI consultant will help you publish the report in the Power BI Service which can then automatically refresh your reports and share with others within your organization.
In Analytics, most reports are only referred to when something goes wrong. For example, your company did not reach a specific goal which was set in the stipulated time - A Power BI Consultant can set up notifications which can send a message on teams or trigger an email to notify in case the goal is not met.
The other thing we want with our reports is to enable automatic refreshes. This enables the dashboard to be refreshed with the latest data as available data sources. In case the data volume is high, a Power BI consultant will enable delta loads to get only the new data that was ingested in the data source.
There is an option in Power BI which enables you to convert your reports to adjust to a vertical display. Here is an example of a desktop dashboard converted to a mobile dashboard:
A Power BI can configure your Power BI reports (both new and existing) to adapt to a vertical mobile display. You can check your reports on your mobile phone as Microsoft has developed mobile apps for both Apple app store and Google play store.
