19 Quick Questions to Ask from Power BI Consultants Before Hiring Them

In an age where data is the determining factor to make decisions, data analytics is crucial for firms to grow. Data analysis involves discovering, interpreting, and processing data to reach a conclusion. Until a few years back, business and data analysts had not many tools to choose from to organize and interpret their data, thereby aiding in decision making. But then Microsoft launched its business intelligence tool in 2013, which combined new features with several add ons of Excel to form a completely new platform with interactive data visuals and interactive reports shared through a personalized dashboard The demand for Power BI developers has increased by many folds in recent years owing to the rate at which firms are adopting business intelligence. This also led to an increase in the number of Power BI service providers who offer remote consulting services. For those industries which do not find the need to apply BI in their daily operations, outsourcing is one of the options. But how would you decide if the outsourced firm offering Power BI consulting services or individuals is the right way choice to get your job done? Microsoft Power BI consultants have different levels of experience which is valuable to firms in respective ways. You need to be familiar with the way they work and their experience before you commit to any finances. To help you get access to the best Power BI services, we have compiled some important questions and expected answers from a Microsoft Power BI consultant. Take a look… Basic: Consultants with 2-3 yrs experience. 1. Why should I use Power BI? As a business intelligence tool, Power BI helps you convert raw data, like that from an Excel sheet, into interactive insights. Companies offering Power BI consulting services for data analytics help you adopt the data-driven model in the enterprise to enable faster and efficient decision-making. The primary reasons for using the Power BI tool are… 2. What would suit my requirements better – an in-house Power BI resource or outsourcing it to a Power BI consulting team? Recruiting an in-house Power BI consultant has its own benefits and disadvantages. To talk of benefits, I would say the response time of the team is better, they can be involved in internal and external projects, and are flexible to adapt to your corporate culture. However, more than anything, when you are hiring a Power BI specialist, the candidate must have specific skills, to be efficient in working with the data visualization tool, and such professionals don’t come for a small salary. Secondly, there will be a time when your business expands. In such a situation you might have to re-engage in recruiting or expanding your team to handle the requirements of the entire organization. Opting for consulting services would be a smart choice in such instances. On the other hand, outsourcing it to a Power BI consulting team that specializes in data science tools and services gives you access to a fully equipped team with experts in every field. This also helps in saving a lot of money and efforts you’d put in otherwise. You can get high-quality results for the lowest cost. The other alternative is outsourcing it to a Power BI services firm. However, it is observed that following an agile methodology works best when you’re outsourcing service for this helps in avoiding delays and disruption of deadlines. If you want to be one of the industry leaders, you’ve got to hire only the best Power BI consulting services. 3. What are the essential applications of Power BI? Power BI is mainly used by industries where data is considered as fuel for daily operations, like Airline, Hospitality, Retail, Healthcare, and so on. It is widely used by data and business analysts to monitor performance, and drive growth in an organization. To summarize some of the top roles that make use of Power BI are… 4. What are the drawbacks of using Power BI for a small or medium firm? One of the major disadvantages of Power BI is that even though it’s easy to use for simply importing data and creating reports, it is complex to master for other functions. Power BI helps increase operational efficiency by allowing you to make data-driven decisions based on custom visuals generated using the personalized dashboard. When the purpose of using this business intelligence tool is much more than creating interactive visualizations from raw data,  Power BI is an entire suite with a lot of interrelated functions like Gateways, Report server, Power BI services, etc, which you’ll need to learn. The power platform has a lot to offer if you know how to use it the right way. It can make you one of the industry leaders, given you have the necessary systems to work on data analytics. 5. Name some important components of the Power BI toolkit along with the function they perform. Power Query: This allows you to discover, access, and interpret information from different sources.Power Pivot: A data modeling component.Power View: A presentation tool to create charts, tables, and other compelling visualizations.Power Map: Helps in adding geolocation to your data.Power Q&A: This allows the user to ask questions in plain language and get answers accordingly. 6. What are the types of data Power BI is compatible with? Some of the major data sources used in Power BI Desktop are… Mid-level: Consultants with 4-5 yrs of experience 7. What is grouping? How can my firm benefit from it? A component of Power BI, Power BI Desktop allows you to collect data and organize them into smaller groups. In a firm that has cross-functional teams, grouping can be a way for both teams to view and extract data crucial for either. Just use Ctrl+click to select multiple elements in the visual and right-click to see which of them appear on the group’s window. 8. What is the purpose of the ‘Get data’ icon in Power BI? When users click on the Get-data icon in Power