An interactive dashboard allows users to monitor their progress in real time. Depending on the level of data visualisation, key performance indicators (KPIs) can communicate information about trends, relationships and gaps between information. In Power BI Service, a KPI dashboard can be created for continuous monitoring of your goals.
In this article, you will discover :
- What is Power BI Service
- How to create a KPI dashboard
I. What is Power BI Service?
Power BI Service is an online version of Power BI. It allows you to create and share reports and dashboards securely in the cloud. Depending on the license you have, you have access to different features:
The creation of a dashboard is usually based on an existing report. A report is a set of visuals on several pages, whereas a dashboard is a single page. Dashboards are only created in Power BI Service and not in Power BI Desktop.
Some commonalities between Power BI Service and Power BI Desktop :
- Managing data security (RLS)
- Create reports and filters
- Search for information (Q&A)
Below is a Venn diagram comparing Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service:
Let's take an example to see how to create a dashboard in Power BI Service.
I. How to create a KPI dashboard
A KPI dashboard simplifies the activity of the teams by displaying trends, similarities or deviations in their data. These KPIs lead to actions and better business management.
When creating a dashboard, the first step is to create a report from the dataset. The need to define the KPIs upfront allows you to know if you need to do any modelling in Power Desktop before publishing the report in Power BI Service.
An example of a KPI dashboard:
Case study: Our objective is to create a dashboard with key indicators and to monitor the activities of a company. This will be done entirely in Power Bi Service.
For this case, we will choose a small sample of data but you will be able to load your own data for the same filtering method.
Here are the steps to follow:
1. In Power BI Service :
1.1. To start, open the dedicated workspace in Power BI Service and choose the associated report:
1.2. After opening the associated report, select and pin the visuals to be displayed in your dashboard. Example: "Lead_ToSigned_Ratio
1.3. In the tab for creating a dashboard, you will see the table below containing the theme and name.
1.4. For each pinned visual, you will get a confirmation of its creation in the dashboard:
1.5. Then in the dedicated workspace, you will have your dashboard created:
1.6 Finally, the result obtained :
1.6.1. Initial report :
1.6.2. KPI dashboard (clicking on a KPI takes you to the associated report): :
Conclusion:
In summary, creating a KPI dashboard has many benefits for teams wishing to monitor their objectives and make strategic decisions in real time. Through this example, we have seen the benefits of Power BI Service and how easy it is to use.
See more :
Thank you for reading,
Fodé DIABY
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