A Beginner's Guide to Dataflows in Power BI

Do you want to learn dataflows in Power BI? Data volumes continue to grow and as they do it becomes more challenging to pull all that data into actionable information. Power BI dataflows help organizations unify data from disparate sources and prepare it for modeling. In a recent webinar, Erin Ostrowsky shows you an overview of dataflows main purposes, features, opportunities and limitations.

The presentation begins with an overview of the big picture including what the problem is with self-service BI and why to use dataflows. One problem with self-service BI is that it has gaps in the data preparation process – dataflows bridge that data prep gap. Another thing dataflows can do that self-service BI can’t is fulfill the need for greater extension of data capabilities with things like machine learning and AI, as well as have the ability to re-use data.

From here, Erin jumps into and demos how to create a dataflow in the Power BI Service using Power Query for the web. Throughout the presentation she gives dataflow use cases for the analyst including:

• Re-use: One Power Query table in multiple Power BI Reports
• ETL flexibility: Decoupling the Power Query Editor (ETL) work from reporting
• AI/ML in PBI: Leverage custom and out-of-the box ML/AI opportunities

Also covered are important considerations with dataflows depending on if you have a Power BI Pro or Premium license. The webinar includes a demo on sentiment analysis on survey data using dataflows in the Power BI Service as well.

The presentation wraps up with answers to three commonly asked questions about dataflows such as: do you still need a data warehouse, or if you have a data warehouse, do you need dataflows and do dataflows replace Azure Data Factory?

So, if you want to learn about dataflows is Power BI, this one-hour webinar is for you! You can watch the complete webinar below. To view Erin’s presentation slides, click here.

Dataflows can enable you to get better control, and faster insights, from your business data. If you’d like to learn more about Power BI dataflows or Power BI in general and what it can do for your organization, we’re here to help. Our team of experts can help you with from creating a Power BI roadmap to implementation and management your Power BI environment with our Managed Services offering. Click the link below to learn how we can help you take your business from good to great!