🧠 Day 1 – Introduction to Power BI and Business Intelligence
What Is Data?
Data is simply the collection of information that can be used to generate insights, make decisions, and improve business performance.
What Is Power BI?
Power BI is one of the most popular Business Intelligence (BI) tools developed by Microsoft. It helps organizations convert raw data into meaningful visuals such as graphs, charts, and dashboards for better understanding and decision-making.
Understanding Business Intelligence (BI)
Business Intelligence refers to the process of transforming raw data into interactive visual reports that help businesses analyze their performance and make informed decisions.
Popular BI Tools in the Market
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Power BI
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Tableau
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Sisense
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Splash BI
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Spotfire
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Looker Studio
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Qlik Sense
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Qlik View
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ThoughtSpot
Why Choose Power BI?
Power BI stands out because of its ease of use, flexibility, and strong community support. It’s especially suitable for beginners and professionals looking for a powerful yet affordable BI solution.
✅ Advantages of Power BI
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Free of cost (Power BI Desktop version)
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Built-in ETL tool – Power Query Editor for cleaning and transforming data
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Data modeling capabilities for relational analysis
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Emergency support and regular updates from Microsoft
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Vibrant Power BI Community for troubleshooting and sharing ideas
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30+ default chart types for visual analysis
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Connectivity to 200+ data sources including Excel, SQL Server, and Cloud platforms
⚠️ Disadvantages of Power BI
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Does not support files larger than 1 GB in Import Mode
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Not compatible with macOS
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No 3D visualization support
How to Install Power BI Desktop
You can download Power BI Desktop directly from Microsoft’s official website:
👉 Download Power BI Desktop
💡 Summary
On Day 1, we learned the basics of data, the concept of business intelligence, and why Power BI is one of the most powerful tools in this domain. It’s an essential first step for anyone starting their data analytics journey.
