Body:
On Thursday afternoon Microsoft delivered some new features for Power BI. The features, now in preview, shows Microsoft’s dedication to improving its data consumption service.
Power BI is an Office 365 add-on that allows companies and organizations to synch data from multiple sources and then provide reporting and filtering to make the data actionable and pertinent. It’s Big Data for Office 365.
Here’s what Microsoft unveiled:
- Dashboards – Power BI customers can now see all their data through a single pane of glass. Live Power BI dashboards show visualizations and KPIs from data that reside both on-premises and in the cloud, providing a consolidated view across your business, regardless of where their data lives.
- New visualizations – Combo charts, fill maps, gauges, tree maps and funnel charts give customers more ways to view their data in Power BI.
- Out-of-the-box connectors for popular SaaS services – These connectors help customers get started with Power BI quickly. Supported services include Dynamics CRM Online and Dynamics Marketing, GitHub, Marketo, Salesforce, SendGrid and Zendesk.
- A mobile app for iPad – Customers can access their Power BI dashboards, receive alerts regarding important changes in their data, and share and collaborate with colleagues.
- Live connectivity to SQL Server Analysis Services – Customers can now benefit from a cloud based BI solution without having to move their data to the cloud. With the new Power BI connector for SQL Server Analysis Services you can create a secure connection to Analysis Services on-premises from Power BI in the cloud.
- Power BI Designer – For Power BI customers who don’t have access to Excel 2013, the new Power BI Designer provides a solution expressly designed for Power BI content creation. It can be used to import and model data, then author and publish Power BI reports to the Power BI service.
Power BI, even in preview mode, requires a work or school account to access.
You can access the Preview here: http://www.powerbi.com/dashboards
