Customize your data visualizations with Power BI

Transcription

1 Customize your data visualizations with Power BI Take your reports to the next level. Follow our step-by-step guide and get useful tips for making the most of your data Paweł Szczecki Predica s CEO Expert in Azure and Advanced Data Analytics Dawid Detko Microsoft MVP Data Platform Expert in Advanced Data Analytics Joanna Sypuła Team Lead Data Lab

2 Data visualization has been one of the most important areas of Business Intelligence for a long time. In order to be useful, and at the same time provide user convenience, data should be presented in a form suited to the user s needs. It also needs to be demonstrated in a transparent and effective, as well as engaging and friendly way. Well-visualized data means greater involvement in the use of BI solutions and fast insights into data, which translates into project success and a significant improvement in the efficiency of the decision-making process within the company. In this e-book, we want to show you how fast you can build interactive dashboards that will allow you to easily analyze your business data. We would like to present our idea for creating reports that show the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. From this e-book, you will learn step by step how to build your own interactive reports to analyze your business data, based on a case study. You will find three sections that will give you all the necessary information allowing you to build your own reports based on the data that you have see the table of contents on the next page. 2

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO POWER BI Power BI licensing 4 Power BI connectors 5 CASE STUDY FROM PREDICA Introduction to the CRM system 8 Data connection 11 Best practices for organizing your data 14 Effectiveness of marketing campaigns at Predica 15 Case study: Marketing campaign reports 17 Embedding Power BI reports in CRM 20 PRACTICAL TIPS FOR POWER BI REPORTS Simplicity 22 Context 27 Filters 30 Hierarchies 33 Meaningfulness 35 Customization tips 36 Key takeaways 39 3

4 INTRODUCTION TO POWER BI Power BI is an easy-to-use tool for advanced business analysis. Automation saves time and data is immediately segregated. Plus, Power BI has many tools for visualizing data using a lot of templates and presenting them in the form of graphs, charts or tables, making them more easily digestible. The software offers many advanced functions for data analytics. However, you do not have to be a data expert to use it. In fact, it can be a very useful tool regardless of your knowledge of data which is how it should be! Power BI licensing Available versions of Power BI start with free licenses: Power BI Desktop licensed by user, with free report authoring and ad-hoc data exploration Power BI Free licensed by user; quick, easy-to-use selfservice analytics for personal use. Additionally, this tool offers more advanced versions: Power BI Pro licensed in the per-user model. Quick, easyto-use self-service analytics for users requiring collaboration, dashboard sharing, ad-hoc analysis, and report publishing Power BI Premium licensed by capacity. Power BI Premium 4

5 is offered in the form of a service based on a dedicated infrastructure, with a specific performance configuration. The use of Power BI Premium consists of creating a dedicated space for the publication of reports prepared by users having a Power BI Pro license. Publication to the Power BI Premium space is based on the Power BI application mechanism. You may be wondering how to determine the level of Power BI Premium service that will be needed to address the needs of your organization. Do you also want to know the price of the solution? If so, please contact us. Power BI connectors Power BI gives you the option to choose a connector which you can find in the Get Data section in the top panel of Power BI Desktop. The connectors on this list specify the main types of data sources that you can use for your reports. You can choose from data sources such as: File (Excel, JSON, XML, TEXT/CSV etc.) Database (Oracle, SQL Server, Access etc.) Azure (Azure SQL database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Blob Storage etc.) Online services (SharePoint Online, Dynamics 365, Google Analytics etc.) Other (Spark, R Script etc.). This list contains a lot of different types of data, but not all of them. 5

6 If you need to connect to a different data source not mentioned here, Power BI shared a feature called Custom Data Connector with which you can code your own connection provider. When you create your own connector, it will be listed under Get Data where you can also choose other connectors. Image 1. Data connection options Power BI is a great solution for data visualization and (some) data transformation, no doubt about it. Over the last few years of its development, it has gained many great features and capabilities. If you don t know them yet shame on you! I recommend keeping an eye on the Microsoft Power BI blog to be up-to-date with new features and releases. There are also many resources available on the Internet if you re looking for training materials (which is 6

7 not what you ll find here). I assume you re a little familiar with this technology, but at the same time, you re not a hardcore analyst as you d probably know all these tips already. Use R script to create analytics and visualizations in Power BI With R code you can extend the functionalities of Power BI considerably. There are many questions on the web about how to do it, especially when building your own package with R visualization. To help answer some of them, I have gone through the possible areas of application of R script to Power BI. It will help you see your data more clearly and make better informed business decisions. To learn more, check out this article on our blog. 7

8 CASE STUDY FROM PREDICA The next step is to define a data source that you would like to analyze. There are a lot of data sources that you can connect to, but in this case we would like to show you our solution for monitoring customer relationships and marketing activities. We use a CRM system to store that data. In this chapter, we will explain how to connect to it. Introduction to the CRM system What exactly is a CRM system? Your CRM system is the hub for all customer communications. It is the perfect tool to store information about your customer relationships, sales performance, service management or marketing activities. If you enrich this information with insights from Power BI, you can create an all-in-one solution for managing your business processes. With this guide on integrating Dynamics 365 with Power BI, you can take your customer service to the next level. Find a way to connect your data with a visualization tool When you work with Dynamics 365 and manage a team or sell projects, you need to have a full overview of your situation for your company to thrive. Without writing a single line of code, I ll 8

9 show you how fast you can change the way you analyze data from Dynamics CRM using Power BI reports. Tip You can connect to your data source using one of three ways: Data import the selected tables and columns are imported into Power BI Desktop. As you create or interact with a visualization, Power BI Desktop uses the imported data. You must refresh it, which imports the full dataset again, to see any changes that occurred to the underlying information since the initial import or the most recent refresh. * This is the only option when you use a Dynamics CRM connection. DirectQuery connection no data is imported or copied into the software. For relational sources, the selected tables and columns appear in the Fields list. Power BI Desktop queries the underlying data source, which means you re always viewing current data. When connecting to SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), there is an option to either import data from, or connect live to, the selected data model. If you select import, you define a query against that external SSAS source, and the data is imported as normal. If you select to connect live, then there is no query defined, and the entire external model is shown in the field list. If you select DirectQuery, as visuals are built, queries are sent to the external SSAS source. * The only way to connect several data sources at the same time is to choose an import method. Otherwise you can only connect to one data source. 9

10 In this material, you will also find out how to: Get API from your CRM properly and establish a connection with Power BI Analyze data with Power BI directly from your Dynamics CRM Embed specific tiles from Power BI reports into Dynamics CRM. You ve covered the data, user interfaces, and management aspects, but what about data visualization? Power BI could make data more useful and provide greater insights. The next chapter will give you a clearer picture of how to combine Dynamics 365 and Power BI. Then, you can decide how you can implement this solution in your own organization. Let s get started! 10

11 How to quickly connect to data from Dynamics 365? The first way work with and reports, If you d like to connect to pre-defined ready-to-use, wrapped more in Dynamics a thematic information about data is to dashboards Content this, Pack. visit the Power BI blog The second way is to use a Web API. Depending on the region where Dynamics is located, you can receive different access links to the source. The best and most reliable way to find a dedicated link to your Dynamics data is to get it directly from your Dynamics CRM. For the purposes of this tutorial, I have chosen the second way a connection to our CRM system which contains information on the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. Before you begin, find your CRM connection URL. 1. Log in to your CRM instance, and go to Settings. Image 2. CRM view 11

12 2. Click Customization and then Developer Resources. Image 3. CRM settings view 3. At the top of this page, there is a Connect your apps to this instance of Dynamics 365 option where you can get the Service Root URL. This is the URL you want to use in the URL field after selecting Get Data in Power BI. Image 4. Service Root URL 12

13 You can use one of the six available methods for authentication, but at Predica, we usually use authentication with an organizational account through OAuth2. If you want to know more about available authentication methods and which one you should choose, contact our subject matter expert Tomasz Onyszko. Image 5. Authentication panel 13

14 How best to organize your data? For efficient data analysis with Power BI, you can organize workspace in three different ways: Analyze data on your desktop via Power BI Desktop Access your reports through Power BI Service Embed report tiles into Dynamics CRM (I ll describe this in the next section). When you analyze data from Dynamics 365, you will encounter the problem of data transformation. You will need to choose entities appropriate for your problem analysis. Let me give you a little hint about the ones you should focus on. For marketing analysis, the entities you should analyze are: Lead Contact Opportunity Active Campaign Campaign Reach Social Interactions Likes Post Clicks Campaign Cost User You should be able to create and gather useful insights from your Dynamics data based on these entities. Now, let s see how you can use them to effortlessly and intimately analyze marketing information. 14

15 Effectiveness of marketing campaigns at Predica Marketing campaigns are more and more measurable, and therefore more effective. A thorough analysis of the impact of marketing activities on consumer behaviour allows effective campaigns to be run at optimal costs. At Predica we decided to take a closer look at our marketing campaigns conducted on the Internet. Therefore, we created a tool using Power BI, which in a very simple and transparent way allows us to measure the effectiveness of our marketing activities. This tool can become very useful when planning activities in the future; it can also be used during business meetings. Before you start creating reports, you have to determine what do you want to achieve by visualizing your data. You need to know which questions you want to find the answers to and in response to that, you can start creating a dashboard. We have identified some key issues that we wanted to answer: What is the effectiveness of a marketing campaign? How many leads from a marketing campaign are converted into a real project? What is the trend of social interactions in the social media? What is the cost of a marketing campaign? What is the average cost of a lead? Which of our campaigns are the most popular and what is their profitability? 15

16 What is the involvement of users in social media? The solution we have implemented has allowed us to find answers to all of the questions. Additionally, we gained a wider insight into the development of marketing activities. Now we can start building our visualisations! On the screenshots that follow, you can see Power BI reports presenting our marketing performance data. 16

17 Case study: Marketing campaign reports On the screenshot below you can see pages from our custom visualizations created to monitor our marketing efforts. Image 6. Page 1: Effectiveness of marketing campaigns summary This report shows the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Here we can see the key effectiveness metrics of marketing activities, such as: Campaign reach this is the total number of people who see your content. Impressions are the number of times your content is displayed, regardless of whether it was clicked or not Social interactions for Facebook, an interaction is considered to be a like, comment, or reaction Leads these are the potential sales contacts, individuals or organizations that expressed interest in your goods or services Contacts signify real contact with the potential clients Opportunities an opportunity is more down-funnel than a lead or a sales-accepted lead. 17

18 In addition, on the funnel, we can see how ranges built with social media translate into real projects implemented within the company. The KPI on the right panel shows the financial dimensions of the campaign. You can also see KPIs measuring the ratio of transition to the next phases. Image 7. Page 2: Marketing campaign analysis On this page of the report, we show the key indicators for analyzing marketing campaigns. With the filters on the left panel, you can analyze the results of selected campaigns. You can make a selection by date when the campaign was created, as well as filter them by name. Here we present the key information for running campaigns, such as: number of active campaigns number of experts that have published an article as part of marketing activities obtained leads an average number of leads acquired as part of one campaign. The bubble chart on the side of the report shows profitability 18

19 of the current marketing campaigns. Cost-effectiveness is shown by the cost estimates for a given campaign (X-axis) and leads (Y-axis) that were obtained as a result of the campaign. In addition, the graph allows us to analyze the results over time, a function enabled by the play button, located below. Image 8. Page 3: Facebook campaigns analysis This visualization contains statistics for campaigns running on Facebook. In addition to previously used metrics, there are also post likes and clicks which are characteristic Facebook metrics. In the first chart, we present the ranking of our best marketing campaigns. We define this by the number of engaged users, generated likes and built ranges. The second graph below shows the commitment of users over time. Thanks to the filters placed on the left side of the page, we can freely watch the selected marketing campaigns or analyze campaigns in the timeframe we are interested in. 19

20 Embedding Power BI reports in CRM Responding to the question about organizing workspace, Dynamics 365 has advantageous features. In particular, it allows you to publish chosen tiles from Power BI dashboards directly into your Dynamics panel. Power BI and Dynamics 365 run on the same O365 account, thanks to OAuth2 authentication. It is, therefore, possible to nest reports without providing additional credentials. Moreover, low-level security and other functionalities are also migrated and enforced in nested reports. What you should know is that we do not use Power BI Embedded reports, and instead get tiles directly from the Power BI service. More precisely, we get tiles that pin to dashboards. The advice from this is that you should first publish reports to Power BI Service and pin chosen elements to the particular panel. Then, you ll be ready to start nesting your tiles in Dynamics CRM. Tip Before you start, you should also enable the possibility of nesting Power BI reports in Dynamics 365. To enable and configure this, go to your Dynamics CRM, click on Settings > Administration > Reporting, and then tick the checkbox. 20

21 The final step is to create a new dashboard in Dynamics 365 and select Power BI from the grid. Now you can choose specific reports or tiles to embed from the drop-down list. In steps: Enable Power BI tiles in Dynamics 365 Publish report to Power BI Service or connect to a ready-to-use content pack Choose specific tiles and pin to dashboard Go to Dynamics 365 and create a new dashboard Select Power BI from the grid and select tiles to embed from the drop-down list. 21

22 PRACTICAL TIPS FOR POWER BI REPORTS Tip #1: Simplicity don t go too fancy on visualizations Following the idea of delivering a message There is an increasing number of visualizations available in Power BI which you can get from the gallery. Some of them are pretty complex and can show you relations between data elements in an unordinary way that can make sense quite rarely (for example, if you re a hardcore analyst). For most of us ordinary people and I m saying, probably 98% of us simple means better, easier, clearer,...er [put here whatever you think suits]. So, focus on simplicity! In most cases, a (boring) bar or line chart will surely suffice. Also, don t fear the old-school and ugly tables they are still the best way to present raw data, which is sometimes all you really need (and what you keep using Excel for!). For example, I try to avoid pie charts and treemaps for a very simple reason you cannot see the difference between pie fields which have similar values. The following report shows the volume of marketing campaign reach compared by type try to tell if light or dark blue is bigger or by how much they differ: 22

23 Image 9. Pie chart of marketing campaign reach Notice how the pie chart makes it hard to differentiate between Content Marketing Productivity (light blue) and Webinars campaigns (dark blue). The next report shows reach volume per campaign after changing the visualization method from a pie chart to columns. Notice how easily we can see the difference in the reach of our campaigns and immediately notice the winner: Image 10. The same report presented in a bar chart 23

24 The general rules-of-thumb about visualizations: 1. Remember that people read from top left to bottom right, so put the most relevant stuff (KPIs?) where users go first Image 11. Key metrics 2. Vertical bars for general data display avoid rankings, use sorted data, it s easier to read Image 12. Vertical bar chart of campaign reach 3. Horizontal bars are actually best for data rankings Image 13. Horizontal bar chart of campaign reach 24

25 4. Line is usually best for time series when you need to compare multiple series of data, but for single bars it works just as well. Using a chart as in the picture below, you can determine the trends and seasonality, as well as check when your marketing activities were the most popular. Image 14. Line chart of campaign reach 5. Bar/line mixed to present two values of different types (like money and percentage). In this example, we have data showing in column: Facebook users post clicks Facebook likes and in line: Campaign reach The below graph gives us the opportunity to present data on one diagram using two scales: Image 15. Line and clustered column chart of social media profitability 25

26 6. Bubble to present 4 different number values (two axes, bubble size and bubble color intensity). In this example, we wanted to show the profitability of marketing campaigns. To monitor this indicator, we used: X-axis campaign cost Y-axis leads that were obtained as a result of these campaigns bubble size using this dimension, we have determined the number of likes received by posts linked to this campaign. By using this chart you can simultaneously see which marketing campaigns were profitable for your company, and which despite the large financial contribution did not bring the expected results (in the form of leads and user reactions on social media). Image 16. Bubble chart of social media profitability 26

27 Tip #2: Context interrelations between elements One of the coolest features of Power BI is the cross-filtering capability. It means that once you have two charts with connected data next to each other, when you click on an element on one, the other will be filtered based on what you clicked. This greatly helps with data comparison, types of visual drill-downs, and simple analysis. But what might not be obvious at first sight, is that you can actually use three ways of filtering and connecting data to make your analysis experience better and easier. Let s consider a project management example, where you re interested in seeing the time reported by people (top bar in the below example) and time reported each month (the bottom bar), where you can see the different behaviours the interactions provide: 1. None. No filtering happens between elements. In the example clicking on the bar in the top chart does not influence data displayed on the bottom: Image 17. Facebook campaign statistics overview 27

28 2. Highlight. The filtered value is displayed in the context of the total use when you want to show how much of the total the selected element forms. In the example clicking on the bar in the top chart fades out the bottom chart leaving only the part of the bar highlighted which is applicable to the clicked element: Image 18. Facebook campaign statistics highlighted Highlight is a form of filtering that after clicking on one of the top bars changes the color of the relevant data displayed on the bottom. 3. Filter. The actual filtered value is displayed use when you want to see what hides behind the selected element, when you are interested in the detailed data and not its relation to the total. In the example clicking on the Expert s Name on the left side panel filters out all of the charts on this page and leaves only the data applicable to the clicked element: 28

29 Image 19. Facebook campaign statistics filtered Filter. When you click on one of the positions on the left panel filter, it will display just the relevant data. As you can see, all of the charts and metrics on this page show only campaigns in which Tomasz Onyszko participated as an expert. So, depending on the context in which you are viewing your data, it may have a significant difference to what relationship you will select. Especially, when there s a lot of data elements, it might greatly influence the ease of use of the report, especially for not advanced users (which we usually create such tools for). 29

30 Tip #3: Divide and conquer (or slicing and dicing) filters The most basic concept of data visualization, yet you might still be surprised by how many filtering possibilities there are in Power BI reports there are 5 obvious ones. Basic report filters panel: Visual level filter filter data only at the selected visual level, which can be particularly useful if you want to have some background (not visible in the chart) data used only for filtering Page level filters apply to all elements on the page Report level filters apply to all pages, which can be particularly useful when the user is supposed to move through the pages to see the data in the same filtering context, but with a different view presented on each page once you select the filter and move to the next page, the filter stays selected which allows you to see the data in the same context: Image 20. Report filters panel 30

31 Report filters panel is best for those who are supposed to go through pages to see data in the same filtering context. Once you select the filter and move to the next page, the filter stays on. Two in-canvas filters: Slicers (in-canvas filters). Filters are available as single or multiple selection checkboxes or dropdowns. I found them not particularly useful, as they take up canvas space and considering cross-filtering capabilities of most visualizations, they do not provide much value. Also, like the page level filters, they work only on a particular page which in the majority of cases I worked with is rather limiting, as when you go to the different page you lose the context of the data you worked with. Image 21. In-canvas filters panel Using this filter however helps you to easily search the information that will be interesting to you. In our example, you can choose 31

32 the period of the campaign, the expert who participated in it or choose a specific campaign and then the whole page of this report will present data only for this campaign. Cross-filtering (as described in the previous point). The additional idea behind these filters is that they can be used instead of (somewhat dull ) slicers to include additional information (selected metric). If instead of, for example, a checkbox list, you create a vertical chart, you can use it just for filtering just click the bar to filter out everything else: Image 22. Filtered social media campaign report Notice: if you click the bar on the top chart you filter out everything else. 32

33 Tip #4: High or low perspective hierarchies Hierarchies are a great way of showing data analytics on various levels of granularity using the same visualizations. For example, in a social media campaign popularity report, a marketing manager may be interested in the progress of a campaign(s) and time reported in months, whereas a marketing specialist could be interested in a weekly or daily level to look into what is happening more closely. Obviously, you can create different reports for each of them, but then you will end up managing and supporting a large number of such cases. Alternatively, you can be clever and design a report in a way that means it can be used by both. And this is where hierarchies come in handy. There are three ways to use hierarchies: They can come from the data source (typically OLAP/Tabularlike). so basically present in the data model They can be simply based on date and time data here Power BI does a nice thing for us and allows to present any time data as a Year/Quarter/Month/Day hierarchy Or you can put more than one dimension in the visualization, which doesn t make them visible but allows to drill from one to the other. Once you have some dimensions, just notice the small arrows that appeared in the corner of the chart which you can use to go up and down the hierarchy levels: 33

34 Image 23. Quarterly view of the reported time of projects Image 24. Monthly view of the reported time of projects The same visualization and report are used to achieve different perspective views. Since it s easy and quick to create reports in Power BI, you may be tempted to create many of them, just because you can. But think of the poor users who will be working with these reports and how they can get confused when they get tons of reports or pages showing similar things 34

35 Tip #5 Meaningfulness above all think about the message rather than the graphics Once you let people into a tool like Power BI, the result could easily end up being a Picasso-like analytical painting with many colors, but without much real value to it. Within seconds, you can produce any number of beautiful charts showing any number of data pieces, like a well-operating assembly line. Yet, the Power BI reporting canvas is like a PowerPoint slide having no scrolling or pagination can make you feel limited. But that s the whole point the time you spend in Power BI should be spent on trying to fit and visualize the information in that space, so that it is clear and easy to digest by potential users at first sight. This is particularly important when you consider that Power BI has two display areas: Dashboard the primary point where users go to, but with no filtering or interactions. Dashboard tiles are just links to underlying reports and their purpose is to present the current status of things Reports analytical spaces with all interactive capabilities. Their purpose is to dig into data details to understand the reasons why certain things happen. Image 25. Marketing campaigns dashboard 35

36 Tip #6: Think non-standard and enhance your reports Some reports are so unattractive that we immediately turn our eyes away from them. However, good visualization is not about adding decorations, but about presenting data in an attractive way, without distractions. You don t have to be an artist to design an attractive dashboard. The main thing, however, is the knowledge of the basics of visual perception. Well-presented data is the key to success and can be something very interesting for users. However, it is very important to maintain a proper form. If it is interesting enough and affordable the data will not be boring and will catch the users attention. It may also make the users happy to use them, which can certainly have an effect on your company. At this point, it is worth noting that an interesting presentation of data is of great importance. A well-prepared report can be a ready-made tool for presenting data inside the company. Power BI offers a lot of interesting charts which you can use. By just adding a few small elements, and with little effort, you can make your report more attractive. What do I mean? 36

37 Take care of your reports background it s a little thing that changes a lot. If you add a background to the report, you will make it stand out from the others. It can be a patterned background, but also a classic color that fills the whole report Image 26. Patterned background Image 27. Solid color background Facilitate your work create a color theme Image 28. Color theme panel You can specify your own set of colors for the report. I recommend you create your Custom Theme. Full instructions on how to build your own custom theme can be found here. Try to adapt the report to the needs of a contemporary recipient make it visual. Use icons and other non-standard elements they will make your report more attractive. 37

38 Make sure that your report is ready for presenting data to the company. If you customize it properly, it will certainly be used during business meetings, and it will take less time to create a presentation. Customize your report Power BI shares many different types of visual effects that are available when you are creating or editing a report. But you are not limited to this set of visualizations. You can build your own, or choose one of the visuals created by members of the community or by Microsoft, all of which are hosted on AppSource. So, remember: it s easy to create a Power BI report, but it s a little harder to create a meaningful report. Contact us to make sure you only have the best ones! 38

39 KEY TAKEAWAYS With visualizations less can be more don t use too many different charts and choose the right one for your type of data You can view your data in different contexts make sure to clearly define interrelations between various elements Make use of filters, either in the panel or in-canvas, to better understand your data Utilize hierarchies to view the same data at different levels, without the need for separate reports Be specific with your reports choose only the most useful data, not necessarily the most visual Do not forget about recipients! Customize the look of your reports and tailor it to the group of consumers. 39

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