Power BI has allowed users to address their own needs through out-of-the-box value and define their own needs through predefined content, the ability to develop and share reports and dashboards. Thus, resulting in access to insights that have proven to have organizations adapt to more data-driven cultures. The October release will feature several innovations that further the accessibility of business intelligence across the operation.
Power BI Desktop
New features in the Power BI Desktop will make it easier for users to have a strong focus on the fundamentals. It has unlocked new scenarios for large enterprises – including more accessibility for reporting and a continued focus on improving SAP connectivity.
Power BI Desktop will have new ways for report consumers to adjust visuals to answer specific questions about their data. This feature allows users to do so without having access to the report, support for a pivot table-like expand/collapse on the matrix visual and continued advances to Q&A usability in Power BI.
For authors of Power BI broad capabilities have been added to advance the experience and authoring power. Complex models will allow mashups across Direct Query and import data sources. This feature will provide authors to expand data sources with additional insights. The new navigation options will be more flexible theming and branding, and expression-based formatting will provide authors with the features they need to create rich Power BI content.
A new Power BI connector in Power BI Desktop will let authors add entities from Power BI dataflows to their data models, which can be used to create progressive reports and visualization leveraging the standard plan of the Common Data Model. Authors will now even be able to build fully customize solutions with the mash up of dataflow data with other sourced data.
By influencing new telemetry from Power BI, partners can learn how Q&A is being used in their Power BI apps and use that data to improve the results. Additionally, the new capability will get Quick Insights on more metrics and allow the report author to ensure their users the best results when working with Q&A and Quick Insights, a result of leveraging both AI and specific domain knowledge only the author can bring.
Power BI Service
Self-service data will be expanded in the Power BI to assist analysts in extracting insights from big data. Using the Power Query experience of Power BI Desktop and Excel users, business analysts can ingest, integrate and enrich big data with Power BI. Users will directly map data to known entities, modify and create and/or customize other entities with Power BI. The Common Data Model will now allow you to map your business data with the expanded Power BI workspace. Additionally, with the new tools you can augment your data with Microsoft and third-party data and gain simplified access to machine learning.
Be able to comment on reports and dashboards to provide context and ask questions. @mentions will allow you to engage others in conversation.
Filters for report sharing will allow you to create personalized views tailored for different audiences.
Unifying access to data between Power BI and Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 will help in collaboration. Business analysts can seamlessly operate on data stored in Azure Data Lake Storage with the self-service proficiencies in Power BI, while data engineers, data scientists and other users can cover access to insights with advanced analytics and AI from complementary Azure Data Services.
Power BI Home provides an at-a-glance view of the most important metrics for users. It will also act as launching point to navigate to content.
Publish SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports (*.rdl format) to a Power BI Premium workspace and view reports within the Power BI web app. Examples are above.
Power BI Mobile
The Power Bi Mobile apps with enable business users to securely access live Power BI dashboards and reports to any device.
The drill through feature will allow business users to drill through to a different report page with matching filter context for other comprehensive information. It is activated from the visual tooltip and when the user selects a data point and drills through, the data is then filtered by that value. Power BI can be configured to take the user credentials from the Windows operating system and use them to sign into Power BI, providing a unified experience for business users.
Large screen presentation will be available on the Power BI Mobile App that will allow you to use a large touchscreen in a creative way. This experience will include Chromeless view, proximal filters and single sign-on. The dashboard-level commenting allows business users to participate in conversations about their data directly from their mobile app. Push notifications can be enabled to provide a quick update or reply if your name is mentioned in conversation. In addition, users will now be able to share filtered reports in a different state, through bookmarks. This enables better collaboration on data that needs the user’s attention.
Power BI Service Apps
Power BI apps will allow no-code/low-code experiences for Power BI partners to build Power BI apps and distribute them in AppSource for all Power BI customers. This will assist partners with building, marketing, selling and growing their business faster. Included is an additional ability to enforce partner license and to monitor an app’s usage for partner business growth.
API’s will be expanded to manage and embed Power BI Service Apps. The ability to embed reports and visuals from Power BI Service Apps in services and applications like SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365.
Power BI Custom Visuals
The Power BI custom visuals can be used like any other native Power BI visual. Custom visuals such as color theme, high-contrast mode and keyboard navigation will now be available for users. Developers of custom visuals in the marketplace can choose to go through an additional authorization process for improved security and quality to get authorization from the Power BI team. Certified custom visuals will be clearly discoverable in the marketplace by filtering the “Power BI Certified” category, this will be in both AppSource and in the integrated UI.
Custom visuals will aid the bookmark feature of Power BI, support users persistent filters and support report tooltips. The organization’s visuals are the way Power BI administrators can arrange and manage custom visuals in their organization with support for web publishing, external sharing and the capability to deactivate visuals and edit or update listings.
Power BI Embedded
Power BI Embedded enables software as a service (SaaS) application designers to effortlessly add Power BI analytics within the applications developed.
The October release Power BI Embedded features:
- Making embedded analytics part of the main flow of an application through a set of APIs that improve the application user’s interface with analytical objects.
- Integrating with Azure capacity management to allow developers to easily manage and control their Power BI objects or resources in Azure.
- Adding automation for application lifestyle management (ALM).
- Adding a quicker, simpler onboarding experience for new developers to start using Power BI Embedded.
New developer portal for Power BI developers automates processes for their Power BI solutions and build custom visuals.
