Power BI Consulting Services

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Power Platform Professional Services

POWER BI: THE GO-TO ANALYTICS PLATFORM

Are you sufficiently staffed to support the growing demand of your citizen developers?

Smartbridge has been providing business intelligence and data management services since 2003 and in the course of our vast project experience, we have seen the use of Power BI soar. As a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant with their unified and scalable platform, your organization may be on Power BI whether you planned it or not.

Overwhelmed by Power BI?

Time and again, we see new user growth scale so fast that the effectiveness of Power BI becomes lost. Data foundations haven’t been prepared to meet expectations by the reports needed, and users are setting their own standards and guidelines for use. Our recommendation is to book a 30-minute no obligation consult with one of our managers or directors to discuss the options of a health check, and/or temporary staffing to assess and fix issues and train internal staff. Whether you need nearshore, onshore (US-based), or offshore expertise, we customize our staffing to provide the right talent for your project’s unique requirements.”

Request a Free 2 Hour Power BI Health Check

Book an initial call with one of our senior strategists to discuss your Power BI ecosystem

Request Power BI Staffing or Training

Perfect if your organization is in need of immediate help to alleviate bandwidth or skilling issues

Smartbridge

POWER BI CONSULTING SERVICES

Implementation, Migration & Rollout Plans

Deploy and configure Power BI within your department or organization, including setting up Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service (cloud), and Power BI Report Server (on-premises) as per requirements.

Planning a Power BI enterprise deployment? It’s not uncommon to make a plan around converting hundreds of individual (free and Pro) licenses to Premium. Or, as the case may be, keep users on Pro licenses, but create an ecosystem that supports application lifecycle management and future demand.

Deploy Power BI Reports & Dashboard Design

Design and build data models and interactive visualizations using Power BI Desktop to transform raw data into actionable insights, including creating relationships, measures, and calculated columns.

Smartbridge recommends the creation of a dashboard catalog. This catalog takes into account – user experience design, standard and custom visualizations (e.g. ArcGis Maps, Chord, Network Navigation, etc.) as well as advanced analytics and quick insights. Our successful track record with clients encompasses key capabilities such as business requirements workshops, reports, metrics rationalization, change management, end-user training, and self-service enablement.

Data Integration and ETL

Integrate data from various sources into Power BI using Power Query for data transformation and loading, including on-premises databases, cloud-based applications, spreadsheets, and web services. A vital step for ensuring that Power BI can effectively aggregate, transform, and analyze data from diverse sources.

Smartbridge recommends automating the data workflows to reduce manual efforts and minimize the risk of errors, ensuring that users have access to the latest data.

Power BI Enterprise Gateway

Set up and configure your Power BI Data Gateway to enable secure access to on-premises data sources for cloud-based Power BI reports and dashboards.

One of the biggest decisions is whether an enterprise gateway is necessary. Do you need your sources to be local, on the cloud, or hybrid? As demand grows, the potential need for a Power BI Gateway can be accommodated in your future-state rollout plans.

Governance Framework

Implement data governance policies and security controls within Power BI, including row-level security, dataset-level security, and integration with Azure Active Directory for user authentication and authorization.

A self-service data governance model is key to continued security, compliance and efficiency. Whether it’s business-led or IT-managed, defining roles and offering training of standardized datasets is a must.

AI & Advanced Analytics

Smartbridge’s AI and data science team will extend your Power BI capabilities, such as AI visuals, Quick Insights, and Azure Machine Learning integration, to perform predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and forecasting.

Data Warehouse Management

Sometimes Power BI issues are a symptom of backend data issues. Do you need resources equipped to assess your data architecture, integration, and quality? Insights from your data visualizations are only as good as the sources behind the curtain.

Power BI Compliance

When there are no standardized operating procedures in place, regulatory compliance is at the mercy of each individual contributor. The key to compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and various other responsibilities includes data classification and accountability, identity and access management, and host infrastructure.

Power BI Center of Excellence or User Group

Finally, once the dust settles on efforts to get Power BI dashboards, users, and data management standardized, it’s time to think bigger. A Power BI Center of Excellence (CoE) or User Group could empower your users with the perfect amount of access, governance, and templates by designating a formal committee to optimize business processes around Power BI.

Article: 4 Reasons Why You Need a Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence

PLUS:
Mobile BI Solutions
Custom Visual Development
Embedded Analytics and White-Labeling
Performance Optimization
Training and User Adoption
Upgrade and Migration Services
Managed Services and Support

Common Pain Points with Power BI

  • You need to scramble to standardize your Power BI enterprise, likely due to business decisions to migrate without proper governance and rollout plans in place.

  • Individual (free and Pro) licenses are proliferating across all business functions. User management is de-centralized.

  • Dashboards are being developed by a variety of users, shared in numerous ways, and data refreshes are suffering for it.

  • Data refreshes are failing and performance is being hindered causing growing frustration throughout the business.

  • Other tools such as Tableau or MicroStrategy are also in play, and the vast array of skills needed to support a robust BI tech stack are in short supply.

  • Fabric has been introduced into Power BI, bringing with it AI capabilities like never before. Where do you even begin with capitalizing on these features?

See how we solved some of these for a client >>

PRO TIP: A CoE or User Group is not as daunting as it sounds, but it is best to deploy early in your platform adoption.

PRO TIP: Request our 4-week data, analytics, and Power BI assessment.

RESOURCE: Modernize Your Data & Analytics Architecture with Azure

Power BI Adoption Framework – Free eBook

Want more insight for a successful Power BI adoption? Download our extensive Power BI Adoption Framework to jump-start your Power BI journey today.

Power BI Consulting Services - eBook
Power BI with Power Automate

Extend Power BI with Power Automate!

The Microsoft Power Platform is a robust set of connected applications that perform even better together. In addition to Smartbridge’s business intelligence services with Power BI, get to know Power Automate.

POWER BI CONSULTING INSIGHTS
ARTICLES & CASE STUDIES