How data analytics tools like Power BI can ease your reporting job

The main aim of data visualization and data analytics is to produce the data in a comprehensible form so it can be exploited to make better decisions in sales, purchase, marketing, etc. and deduce trends and patterns from it. With the influx of new technologies and players into the market and acquisition by the dominant and well-established companies, the entire data analytics domain and visualization has been changing at a rapid pace. To emerge as leaders in this domain, the requirement of an economical, powerful and easy-to-use tool is ever-present, which has been efficiently fulfilled by a tool like Power BI.

How Power BI will ease reporting?

The main purpose of using KPI structure is to monitor the performance of the business on a real-time basis. Any deviation from the usual performance parameters can be easily tracked from an intuitive dashboard and immediate steps could be taken to counter it. This gives businesses a big strategic advantage over the peers in the industry which are a non-BI user or are not exploiting the tool efficiently. With Power BI anybody in the organization can run analysis and produce meaningful results. Some of them are mentioned below as follows:

• Self-service analytics: With businesses evolving to become technologically smart and flamboyant, self-service BI solutions are becoming immensely popular as they are extremely versatile in reducing the complexity of data as well as the time. Also, it will eliminate the monopoly of the IT department on data analytics, as it will become accessible to all the departments who are willing to increase their efficiency. Through drag and drop feature and integration of Salesforce, Quickbooks, Microsoft dynamics, natural language processing etc. compelling visualizations can be made, and generated reports could be shared with ease on just a click/ touch.
• Process Metrics: With interactive presentations becoming the new trendsetters displacing static reports, businesses have started exploring and answering questions with real-time uploaded data. Critical business queries can now be answered flexibly and anywhere. With the continuous update of data on a real-time basis, reports can be refreshed instantly to see the changes in demographics, fostering smart decision making, and speedy insights. Vital information such as LOB efficiency, customer tickets generation, product effects, avg. time of query resolution or product improvement is also obtained through it. With the feature of access and modification of the dashboard through mobile, analysis and management in businesses truly become simplified.
• Data Integration: Earlier business faced issues while compiling the data in one place if there was a disparity between the sources or views of the data. With the integration of BI tools, humungous amounts of data can be integrated, assessed and processed through simple interfaces in a short duration. With Power BI, unstructured unorganized data can be systematized to figure out the customer behavior by tapping into the pool of data. Any market change response can be devised using this approach and tool, efficiently.
• Financial metrics: With immensely powerful data analysis tools such as Power BI, financial KPI such as Cash Flow from financing, innovation spending, Average expenses for serving one customer, EBITDA can be tracked easily. Real-time changes can be monitored in these KPI, ensuring there isn’t any haphazard spending or downfall in investment. Various ratios like Customer Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost can be monitored in real-time which helps in identifying whether the customer is profitable or not.
• Customer Metrics: Satiating customer demands is the best way to utilize the full potential of a business and harness sales in the most efficient manner. Various KPI of sales such as Customer Churn Rate, Contact Volume by channels, number of new versus repeat site visits, figures out the percentage of people very or extremely happy with the quality of product or service offered.

Conclusion

By focusing on every KPI, businesses can be more efficient and profitable. It’s just the right KPI they need to track and monitor, rest otherwise there will be no benefit of all the efforts poured in through the business. With rapid advancements in the technology, numbers of important KPI’s have increased. Businesses need to align these KPI’s with their objectives and goals. With Power BI, every aspect of assessment and reporting can be easily and effortlessly done, so that businesses become ultimately profitable.

By CA, CFE Nikhil Mahajan, Managing Partner, NSKT Global