Power BI 2023: Check Out These Features

1. On-object interaction (Opt-in): An improved way to build your visuals

The new ‘Opt-in’ aka ‘On-object’ feature has taken past user struggles with the Power BI dashboard and transformed them into a more user-friendly setup. The new dashboard acts more like your familiar Office Apps, so creating visuals becomes a second instinct.

More about Opt-in here.

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How it works:

• Right-click on your blank canvas to bring up options like “add visual”.

• Build visuals by dragging data onto a blank canvas.

• Insert new visuals from the ribbon bar and add extra fields.

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The business benefits:

• Higher efficiency with faster report-making.

• Less need for training.

• Anyone can do it – you don’t need to be a data analyst.

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2. Storytelling in PowerPoint: A powerful combo to enhance your presentations

Power BI is now integrated with PowerPoint to make building your presentations easier, helping you add some extra ‘pizazz’. You can now easily render your Power BI reports and visuals into your PowerPoints.

The result? Cut down the time you spend creating hefty PowerPoint presentations (no need to use annoying screenshots anymore), and increase the time you have to share and discuss points with your team.

More about storytelling here.

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How it works:

• Enabled in all Microsoft clouds.

• Create interactive visuals and embed them into PowerPoint slides.

• Add single visuals to PowerPoint slides (not just complete report pages).

• Use the smart narrative tool to get a written explanation of the data displayed & include in your PowerPoint.

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The business benefits:

• Get your point across clearly with relevant & clear data visuals.

• Spend less time creating your PowerPoint presentations and more time conveying & discussing your findings.

• Maintain a professional look for your content - well prepared and well presented.

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3. Power BI org app ‘Multiple Audiences’: Only see what’s relevant to you

Initially, sharing content with the right people using the Power BI organisation app was tricky. Users had to create new workspaces when sharing content to ensure that only permitted people could access certain files.

Now with the new Multiple Audience feature, you can create audience groups within the app and assign different permissions to each group – cutting off the burden of creating and maintaining extra workspaces.

It simplifies assigning content to your team members by clearly linking to who’s in charge of what. This also helps decrease duplicated content across your internal files, keeping everything clean and organised.

More about Multiple Audiences here.

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How it works:

• Share reports and dashboards via the app with a simple click.

• Review & change audiences in ‘Audience Views’ – check your permissions & everything you have access to.

• Users within an audience can browse ALL content that’s relevant to them from one place.

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The business benefits:

• Easier management: What once would have been two workspaces is now one workspace with 2 audiences, for example.

• Better time management: See all files relevant to you in one space so you can prioritise your next tasks.

• Be confident that your files are in the right hands. Following up on tasks becomes far easier.

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4. Power BI quick reports in Power Apps: Discover your insights easier.

‘Quick reports’ is exactly as it sounds – faster and easier reporting within your Power BI apps. Power BI automatically creates a visual report from your data so you can start using it to make business decisions. You click on the ‘quick report’ function then Power BI provides you with all the relevant info you need to understand your insights, including visualisations and an easy-to-understand report.

More about quick reports in Power Apps.

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How it works:

• Create a quick report with one click.

• Receive automatic data visuals in an easy-to-understand layout relevant to you.

• Easily edit your visuals by modifying your quick report.

• Save your work to access anywhere, anytime.

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The business benefits:

• Create effective data visuals faster and easier.

• Spend more time gaining insights and less time trying to build their visuals.

• Understand and explain your insights to team members easier.

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5. Quick measure suggestions: Calculate insights for multiple purposes at once

With ‘quick measure suggestions’, you can use plain language to search for calculations from your data rather than trying to find answers with tricky data analysis expressions. Power BI assumes what you’re looking for and suggests relevant prompts that then lead you to the calculations you’re after.

Example: Instead of writing DAX expressions to calculate the “Total sales amount where state province is Auckland and year of date is 2023”, you can just ask in simple terms, “What is the total sales amount for Auckland 2023?”.

More about quick measure suggestions here.

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How it works:

• Use natural language to describe the calculation you want.

• Automatic prompts are suggested so you search for the most relevant info to you.

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The business benefits:

• Saves your time and sanity.

• Anyone can learn (you don’t need to speak fluent data analyst language).

• Easier to make important calculations from your data to inform business decisions.

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That’s just a glimpse into our favourite Power BI features of 2023, and more cool updates are being released monthly - stay tuned to get the most out of your data.