Mastering Data Visualization: A Guide to Power BI in Office 365

If you already have Microsoft 365, you can access Power BI within it. This makes it easier, as you’re working with Microsoft’s suite of tools in one place.

Your employees and team get to work with the same suite of tools. This means that the learning curve is more gentle.

As a business, you also avoid having to deal with many service providers. This could also be cheaper in the end, as you can negotiate for affordable support. You may not even pay extra for the integrated tool.

In this article, we explore Power BI in Office 365. We begin by defining it and explaining how to use it. We then discuss its benefits and the best practices to follow when using it.

Eventually, we will learn how Power BI elevates data presentation in Office 365.

Table of Contents:

1. What is Power BI in Office 365?
2. How to Use Power BI in Office 365?
3. Benefits of Power BI in Office 365
4. Best Practices for Using Power BI in Office 365
5. How Power BI Elevates Data Presentation in Office 365?
6. Wrap Up

What is Power BI in Office 365?

Power BI is a business intelligence (BI) tool. It helps you collect, analyze, and data visualization from a variety of sources. Power BI is included in the Office 365 suite of productivity apps.

With Power BI, you can:

• Connect to data from various sources, including Excel, SQL Server, Azure, and cloud-based services.
• Clean, transform, and model your data to prepare it for analysis.
• Create interactive dashboards and reports that visualize your data in a way that is easy to understand.
• Share your dashboards and reports with others so that they can make informed decisions.

How to Use Power BI in Office 365?

If you already have a Microsoft 365 plan, you can access Power BI within it. You do, however, have dataset, storage, and data refresh limits per user.

You can purchase Power BI Premium licenses to get rid of the limits.

To use Power BI in Office 365, you need to be logged in.

• Click on “Teams”.
• Click on “Apps” on the left menu.
• This opens the “Apps” panel.
• Enter “Power BI” in the search bar in the Apps panel.
• It should show as one of the “Apps” results.
• Click on “add” on the top right of Power BI’s result.
• This adds Power BI to your left menu.
• Click on the Power BI icon.
• Click “Open”.
• Sign up for Power BI.
• Enter some details, like email and region.
• Click “Get Started.”

Benefits of Power BI in Office 365

Using Power BI in Office 365 greatly enhances data analysis and decision-making processes. Here are some key benefits:

• Seamless Data Access

Power BI integration with Microsoft 365 allows users to access data from various Microsoft 365 apps:

• SharePoint,
• Excel,
• OneDrive,
• and Teams.

This streamlines the data import process. It makes it more efficient and reduces the need to switch between different applications.

• Unified User Experience

Users can work with Power BI on Mac for reports and dashboards within the familiar Microsoft 365 environment. This creates a unified experience that enhances user adoption. It also reduces the learning curve, as employees can leverage their existing knowledge of Microsoft tools.

• Secure Data Sharing

Microsoft 365 has security and permission settings. These allow for secure sharing of Power BI reports and dashboards with colleagues and external stakeholders. Controlled data sharing ensures that sensitive data remains protected.

• Embedding in Apps and Portals

Power BI reports can be directly embedded into Microsoft 365 apps like SharePoint and Teams. You can also embed reports in custom applications and portals. This means that employees can access relevant data and insights without leaving the apps they use daily.

• Automated Data Refresh

Power BI can automatically refresh data from Microsoft 365 sources. This ensures that reports and dashboards always reflect the latest information.

• Easier Sign In

Users can benefit from a single sign-in when accessing Power BI through Microsoft 365. This simplifies user authentication and enhances security by centralizing access control.

• Cost Savings

Organizations can optimize their software costs and reduce the need for multiple standalone tools. This consolidation can lead to cost savings in software licensing and support.

Best Practices for Using Power BI in Office 365

Here are some best practices for using Power BI in Office 365:

• Limit visuals. Limit the number of visuals in dashboards and reports to improve performance.
• Remove unnecessary interactions. Remove interactions between visuals that are not necessary to improve performance.
• Cleanse and transform data. Cleanse and transform data before importing it into Power BI to improve data quality.
• Organize data. Utilize Power BI Report Builder to keep your data organized, thus improving performance.
• Ensure the cache update frequency is aligned with the data source refresh frequency. Ensure the cache update frequency aligns with the data source refresh frequency to improve performance.
• Use white or light background colors. Use white or light background colors to improve report design.
• Shorten numbers: Shorten numbers to improve report design.
• Use tooltips. Use tooltips to improve report design.
• Partition large tables. Partition large tables and process multiple partitions in parallel to improve performance.

How Power BI Elevates Data Presentation in Office 365?

This section teaches how Power BI elevates data presentation in Office 365. We’ll use the Sankey Diagram (Sankey Chart) as a Power BI dashboard example.

Stage 1: Logging in to Power BI

• Log in to Power BI.
• Enter your email. Click the “Submit” button.

• Enter your password and click “Sign in”.

• Choose whether to stay signed in.

Stage 2: Creating a Data Set and Selecting the Data Set to Use in Your Sankey Chart

• Click on the “Create” option on the left-side menu.
• Select ”Paste or manually enter data“.

• We’ll use the following 2021 life expectancy at birth data for this example.

Gender	Age	Nationality	Airport Name	Country Name	Flight Status
Female	62	Japan	Coldfoot Airport	United States	On-Time
Male	62	Nicaragua	Kugluktuk Airport	Canada	On-Time
Male	67	Russia	Grenoble-Isère Airport	France	On-Time
Female	71	China	Ottawa / Gatineau Airport	Canada	Delayed
Male	21	China	Gillespie Field	United States	On-Time
Female	55	Brazil	Coronel Horácio de Mattos Airport	Brazil	On-Time
Male	73	Ivory Coast	Duxford Aerodrome	United Kingdom	Cancelled
Male	36	Vietnam	Maestro Wilson Fonseca Airport	Brazil	Cancelled
Female	35	Palestinian Territory	Venice Marco Polo Airport	Italy	On-Time
Male	13	Thailand	Vermilion Airport	Canada	On-Time
Male	39	Tunisia	Nuevo Casas Grandes Airport	Mexico	Cancelled
Male	71	Russia	Ruben Cantu Airport	Panama	Delayed
Female	47	Sweden	Loralai Airport	Pakistan	Delayed
Female	77	Russia	Cudal Airport	Australia	Delayed
Female	32	China	Farmington Regional Airport	United States	Delayed
Female	22	China	Oudtshoorn Airport	South Africa	Cancelled
Female	28	Colombia	Zaraza Airport	Venezuela	On-Time
Male	12	Greece	Enshi Airport	China	Delayed
Female	87	Philippines	Thompson Airport	Canada	Cancelled
Male	62	China	Guilin Liangjiang International Airport	China	Cancelled

• Paste the above data table into the “Power Query” window.

• Select the “Create a dataset only” option.

• Click on the “Data Hub” option on the left-side menu.
• Power BI populates the data set list. (If you have not created a data set, refer to the Error! Reference source not found section.)
• The data details are shown below:

• Click on the “Create a report” dropdown.
• Select “Start from scratch“.

• Enter “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” in the highlighted search box.
• You should see the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” as shown in the image below.

• Click the highlighted “Add” button.

• Power BI will add the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” in the visualization panel.

Stage 4: Drawing a Sankey Diagram with ChartExpo’s Power BI extension

• Select the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” icon in the visualization panel.
• The following window opens in the report section of your dashboard:

• You can resize the visual as needed.
• Go to the right-hand side of your Power BI dashboard.

• • Age
  • Airport Name
  • Country Name
  • Flight Status
  • Gender

• You’ll be asked for a ChartExpo license key or email address.

Stage 5: Activate your ChartExpo Trial or Apply a Subscription Key

• Select the ChartExpo visual. You should see three icons below “Build Visual” in the Visualizations panel.

• Select the middle icon, “Format visual.”
• The visual properties will be populated as shown below.

• If you are a new user,
  • Type in your email under the section titled “Trial Mode”.
  • This should be the email address that you used to subscribe to the ChartExpo add-in. It is where your ChartExpo license key will be sent.
  • Ensure that your email address is valid.
  • Click “Enable Trial“. You’ll get a 7-day trial.

• • You should receive a welcome email from ChartExpo.
  • The Sankey Diagram you create under the 7-day trial contains the ChartExpo watermark (see below).

• If you have obtained a license key:
  • Enter your license key in the “ChartExpo License Key” textbox in the “License Settings” section (see below).
  • Slide the toggle switch next to “Enable License” to “On“.

• • Your Sankey diagram should not have a watermark.
• To add colors, expand the “Level Colors” properties and select a color.
• Do this to change the color of each node.
• All changes are automatically saved.

• Your final chart should look like the one below. If you get a license, the Sankey Chart will not have a watermark.

Insights

• At level 1, Airport Name, Thompson Airport had the most traffic (8.95%). Cudal Airport came in second (7.92%), and Duxford Aerodrome was third (7.51%).
• At level 2, Country Name, Canada had the most traffic (23.97%). Following it were Brazil (9.36%) and the United States (11.83%).
• At level 3, Flight Status, most flights were on time (35.29%). There were a high number of canceled flights (32.82%) and delayed flights (31.89%).
• At level 4, Gender, there were more female passengers (53.1%) than male passengers (46.9%).

FAQs

Is Power BI included in Office 365?

Power BI is included in the Microsoft 365 E5 plan. You can also use Power BI by purchasing a Power BI Pro license. Power BI Pro licenses are available for individual users or organizations.

How Do I open Power BI in Microsoft 365?

To use Power BI:

• log in,
• click on Teams,
• select “Apps”,
• enter “Power BI” in the search bar,
• add it to the left menu,
• sign up,
• enter email and region details,
• and click “Get Started.”

Wrap Up

We have explored Power BI in Office 365. You get to work with Power BI within a familiar Microsoft 365 environment.

This makes the learning curve more gentle. You also get to work with the same provider, rather than multiple ones.

We began by defining Power BI in Office 365. We learned how to access Power BI in Office 365. We then learned the benefits of Power BI in Office 365, and some best practices.

Some best practices include limiting the number of visuals in dashboards and reports and removing unnecessary interactions.

We then used ChartExpo’s Sankey Diagram to learn how Power BI elevates data presentation in Office 365.

Eventually, we answered some frequently asked questions.

We hope that this article gets you started on your journey to explore Microsoft 365 Power BI.