Breakout sessions – Power BI Next Step

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Today, a lot of data is in SAAS solutions in the cloud. Like SalesForce, Exact Online and Dynamics 365. To use this data in Power BI you need to connect to the data via a Web API (Web Service). This can be challenging if you have never done this before. In this session I will show you step by step what to do and what pitfalls to avoid. The following topics will be covered: – Introduction to Web APIs: JSON/XML data format, REST API – Paging: often you can’t get all the data at once and you have to call the Web API several times, page by page. – Custom Functions in M: the building blocks of every Web API call – Incremental Refresh: since fetching all data can be very slow via a Web API, it is better to only load new data. – Authentication using API Token or OAuth (Access Token)

Have you been working with Power BI for a while? Then it is time to take the next step with your data modeling skills! You might have heard about Power BI composite models. But in order to implement them successfully, it is important to understand the different storage modes that Power BI has. This is key for a successful implementation and also understand the possible dangers of the storage mode behaviors. More over, let’s also talk Calculation groups! You might have been creating numerous calculations in the past for year to date, quarter to date and many other common patterns. With Calculation Groups you can limit the number of redundant measures by creating a common expression parts in a group, that can be applied on top of multiple measures. And finally, we will combine the two together. Dealing with calculation groups in composite models. Cause there are some key-elements you have to keep in mind. Potentially this combination can lead to wrong results, if you do not understand the behavior of the remote and local engine and with that dealing with wholesale and non-wholesale queries. During this demo-rich session I will take you on a tour through all above mentioned features and cases, and explain them one by one. So that after this session you will be able to; – Understand and explain different types of storage modes in Power BI – Combine DirectQuery and import storage modes in a composite model – Successfully implement calculation groups – Understand calculation groups in composite models and their behavior

You might have heard the news: Building visuals and creating DAX measures in Power BI is easier when your data model is in shape. You can consider a data model being in shape when it contains a date (or time) table and has all fact tables normalized and all dimension tables denormalized. You should also replace flags and indicators with meaningful texts, duplicate dimensions for role-playing purposes, create bin tables for range of values, etc. In this talk Markus will show you in live demos how you bring your data model in shape: trimming off the fat of your fact tables and adding muscles to your dimension tables with the help of Power Query. Follow Markus’ step-by-step guide to learn how you can bring your Power BI data model into a beach body form.

Datamarts – The good, the bad, and the ugly You may think of Datamarts as this brand new thing in Power BI – and it is. But it is also a concept coined already in the 70s. But enough history, you are probably here to learn how you can utilize the new Power BI Datamarts in your organization. In this session, we’ll cover everything A-Z within Power BI Datamarts. What you can do and how you can do it. We also take it a step further and discuss the architectural pros and cons of using Power BI Datamarts over alternative tools such as SQL Servers, Data Lakes and Azure Synapse Analytics. After attending this session you’ll be an expert on Power BI Datamarts, knowing every ins and outs of the feature, sprinkled with knowledge about overall Business Intelligence architecture principles. All in all, you should be capable of evaluating if Power BI Datamarts deserves to play a central role in your BI data architecture, now or in the future. Topics: – What is a Datamart – A-Z walkthrough of Power BI Data Marts – Strength and pitfalls of Power BI Datamarts – Business Intelligence Architecture – Using Power BI Datamarts with Azure Synapse Analytics

DAX tweaks for graphical diversification of the report Nobody likes confusing and illegible reports. How can DAX help us make reports more dynamic and graphically eloquent? We will focus on this in this lecture. In addition to the elements found in Power BI, we will also look at the superstructure in the Tabular Editor or the solution using Calculation Groups. Topics: – The dynamic ratio of TOPN products sold to all others for individual sellers – Showing Data Labels by set parameter – First & Last Values of Line Chart – Active category label next to the end of a line in Line Chart – Highest & Lowest value in the Column Chart

Working with Financial data in Power BI can be challenging. You need to understand how it is structured (e.g the concepts of a general ledger/trial balance and chart of accounts) and how it is to be presented with specific layouts as financial statements and ratio/variance analysis. In this session, Rishi (a chartered accountant and Microsoft MVP) will show how a six-step approach to working with finance data, starting with gathering requirements and designing a conceptual data model, through to ingesting and modelling financial data and building an income statement in various formats within Power BI/Excel. No prior accounting experience is necessary but attendees should be familiar with the type of requirements/challenges from finance teams and have the core Power BI experience for working with this type of data.

You’ve been handed a report that could best be described as “visually suboptimal” or simply – “terrible”. You would like nothing more than to spend the hours it deserves in a bid to make it much more clear, concise and useable, but the simple fact of the matter is that nobody wants to pay you for spending those hours. But – sometimes closing your eyes, groaning inwardly, and passing the report up the chain just isn’t an option either. Something needs to be done, but it needs to be done quickly in order to make the report at least useable while not costing a fortune. This session will walk through every step how to turn a really bad report into something decent, discuss how to prioritize content and why accessibility is not only useful but vital for good report design. This session will not only show you what can be done but also explain why it not only may be done, but also why it really should.

You have lots of data, well Power BI can handle it. Build efficient loading data models by using Incremental Refresh in Power BI. While setting up incremental refresh is easy, what is happening in Power BI.com is more of a mystery. This session does a deep dive into what happens when you are incrementally refreshing datasets. This will be a technical dive in to Power BI Incremental refresh using SSMS, SQL Profiler, and Tabular Editor 3 Attendees will walk away with a complete understanding of the Incremental refresh set up within Power BI. Then a technical understanding of what happens at the Analysis services side inside PowerBI.com. Extra topics also covered: – Hybrid refresh policies – Advanced features enabled via the Tabular Object Model – Impact for deployment of datasets (DevOps concerns)

You know that DirectQuery performance sucks – but, what should you do when DirectQuery is the ONLY available option? You know that high cardinality increases data model size – but, what should you do when your users want to analyze numbers on a granularity level higher than day? How to reduce the data model size, while at the same time satisfying business requirements? You know that by leveraging composite models, you can gain significant performance improvements – but why do you still have DirectQuery queries even when you target the data from the aggregated table in Import mode? In this session, I’ll share tips, tricks and workarounds learned and implemented in real-life scenarios on enterprise data models. As you may assume, this session is not for rookies – I’ll assume that you already have at least intermediate Power BI/Tabular model knowledge.

Being a Power BI Admin in a large organization brings many challenges, opportunities and forces you to always be on your toes! With monthly releases the Power BI platform evolves all the time and with hundreds of Report Developers and thousands of Report Consumers in the organization, how do you balance your efforts as a Power BI Admin? Managing our Power BI tenant, four Premium Capacities and 8000 monthly active users requires a great focus on governance and the right balance between freedom and responsibility. But how do you succeed with a self-service analytics strategy when the business hire Business Analysts faster than you can update your tenant settings? Training, Governance, Community and Administration are the four pillars in our self-service strategy and in this session, we will talk about the main learnings and challenges from each pillar. We have found that you cannot do one without the other but finding the right formats and involving the users in a meaningful way can be tricky and not always turn out as you expect. Utilizing the powerful monitoring tools that the Power BI platform provides is essential to understand how the capacities are performing and the general user activity. Introducing governance principles and processes is also key to manage your Power BI tenant. But how do you make the users follow your processes? And what happens when your colleagues do not see the value in your governance framework? And what about all the consumers? 95% of our users are consuming Power BI content created by others. The consumers do not necessarily know about Power BI Desktop or the difference between Workspaces and Apps. How do we make sure they get most value from the Power BI Platform? In this session we will take a closer look on how to succeed in the life as a Power BI Admin in a large organization.

Power BI Premium – Practical Tips for making the most of it Your company is thinking about investing into Power BI Premium, or has it already taking the plunge? Quite common, I’ve encountered belief that all (Power BI related) worries will magically disappear when switching over to Premium Capacity. Out in the wild, the reality is often different. Power BI Premium Capacity requires some attention, but doing so will result in the ability to do great things! During this talk, I’ll touch base on some of the key activities your organisation needs to perform, to make sure your investment is one that pays off. Using the Premium Capacity Metrics App as our base of operation, we’ll expand into auditing, licensing, and some common dataset performance patterns, to make sure you’re up to the task!