Power BI For Business Intelligence: Why Your Business Needs These 5 Technical Skills

As you explore your career and the different opportunities associated with it, you’ll realize that learning is a never-ending process.

If your goal is to expand your skills and broaden your horizons, you should be adaptable to changes and innovations, particularly those highly targeted to your line of work.

Whether you’re part of an organization or the owner of the company itself, there’s no harm in having a good grasp of data-focused knowledge that can give you an edge over other employees or entrepreneurs. 

An excellent example of data-focused knowledge you might want to familiarize yourself with is business intelligence (BI.)

BI is a process that involves technologies and strategies used for data analysis so that businesses and enterprises can make better and data-driven decisions.

If you’re interested to learn more about BI and what it can do for your business, a good starting point is to be proficient in using a business intelligence tool, such as Power BI. 

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Businessman analyzing a business analytics (BA) or intelligence (BI) dashboard on virtual screen showing sales and operations data statistics charts and key performance indicators (KPI)

Power BI 101 

Power BI is a business intelligence tool from Microsoft. It’s a set of analytics and BI services that can help professionals, students, and businesses to turn their unrelated data sources into interactive, immersive, and coherent visualizations.

Power BI is one of the most popular and preferred tools among all the BI tools because of its reliability and ease of use.

And, of course, everybody knows the credibility of the Microsoft company, thus, making their tool a widely-used one. 

Your business can surely benefit from the technical skills that come with being a Power BI specialist or analyst.

That said, it might be helpful to consider learning how to utilize the tool. You can take a Power BI course from Acuity Training or other companies that can help you manage your business data better and establish useful dashboards so you can make sounder decisions moving forward.

If you want to find out what those technical skills are and what benefits you can get from them, here’s a quick list you might want to take note of: 

Working Knowledge Of Various BI Tools And Systems 

Before you can master Power BI, you need to have at least a working knowledge of other business intelligence tools and systems.

Doing so will help prepare you for the Power BI role that you want to acquire. At least a basic knowledge of MS Excel can go a long way in advancing your Power BI proficiency.  

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As you’ll mostly be converting raw data into visualizations and stories, you need the necessary skills and knowledge to perform conversions and analyze the results.

The analysis is what the organization or company will use to make more informed decisions moving forward. 

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Project Manager and Computer Science Engineer Talk while Using Big Screen Display and a Laptop, Showing Infrastructure Infographics Data. Telecommunications Company System Control and Monitoring Room.

Strong Analytical Skills 

Being in the business intelligence line of work means you’ll be working with numerous data and statistics.

That data will need to be analyzed and translated into actionable information so your organization or company can make business decisions that’ll be favorable to your profits and investments. As you work with and make sense of large amounts of data, you’ll need strong analytical skills.  

The analysis starts from the moment you start gathering data until the final stage, where you’re supposed to interpret every information at hand.

You’ll be expected to formulate data queries, draw inferences, apply appropriate scientific methods, classify data, and more, depending on the needs and requirements of your organization.  

There’s also the part where statistical analysis will be strongly needed on your end.

Being knowledgeable in the different aspects of statistics can help you get a more comprehensive analysis of the data you’ve gathered.

Statistical components, such as variance, range, median, and mean, will play a significant role in helping you understand the metrics so you can come up with a solid Power BI strategy. 

Compelling Communication Skills 

While communication skills may not be technical, it’s still a business intelligence element that can help you become a better Power BI analyst or strategist.

Being an effective communicator is critical for the organization because it means having the skills to describe and explain the technicality of your analysis as you recommend solutions that’ll help streamline business operations

Communicating effectively and clearly is detrimental in executing your BI technical skills in a way that non-technical members of the team will understand.

You’ll be presenting and offering graphical data, writing and pitching proposals, carrying out group discussions and presentations, and even leading the team as a whole.

Members and stakeholders need to feel comfortable when meeting with you so that the complexity of information conveyance will be easily understood. 

Business Acumen 

As a Power BI expert, knowledge of the industry is essential. Whether you’re the business owner or an essential part of the organization, it’ll be helpful to the company as a whole if you’re well-acquainted with the ins and outs of the enterprise.

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Having a certain level of business acumen will be advantageous in framing the company’s future path in terms of short-term and long-term goals. 

For instance, if you’re in the healthcare industry, knowing the latest medical trends and innovations can significantly help in understanding and analyzing the data you’ll be gathering from your strategies.

It’ll also make it more effective for you to recommend or develop the best practices that the organization can use moving forward. 

Problem-Solving Skills 

Another technical skill that your business needs from business intelligence is the ability to solve and overcome the challenges you may encounter while analyzing data.

Offering solutions based on the situation at hand is the ultimate goal of learning Power BI.

It’s only after you’ve offered and recommended solutions that the business can use the strategy to improve the team’s workflow and processes. 

You’ll need a fair amount of creativity, power of persuasion, project management skills, research, and plenty of decision-making.

All of these can contribute to helping you become a problem solver that’ll make you an effective Power BI analyst. 

Final Words 

Business intelligence isn’t for the faint of heart. You need to be determined and persistent enough to be successful in different aspects of it.

In addition, you have to master a handful of technical skills that’ll make you a better BI strategist in more ways than one.  

To start, you need a working knowledge of BI tools and systems, as well as the ins and outs of the industry you’re in, so you can navigate your way around the tasks and responsibilities expected of you.

You should also have strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills to come up with sound solutions and proposals.

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Avatar of Jonathon Spire
My diverse background started with my computer science degree, and later progressed to building laptops and accessories.And now, for the last 8 years, I have been a social media marketing specialist and business growth consultant.In my spare time I dabble in crypto and various types of automation.
Jonathon Spire

Jonathon Spire

Tech Blogger at Jonathon Spire

My diverse background started with my computer science degree, and later progressed to building laptops and accessories. And now, for the last 7 years, I have been a social media marketing specialist and business growth consultant.

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Jonathon Spire

I blog about a range of tech topics.

For the last 7 years I have been a social media marketing specialist and business growth consultant, so I write about those the most.

Full transparency: I do review a lot of services and I try to do it as objectively as possible; I give honest feedback and only promote services I believe truly work (for which I may or may not receive a commission) – if you are a service owner and you think I have made a mistake then please let me know in the comments section.

– Jon