As I have explained in another article earlier on why MS-Excel may not be the right application every time, we now need to explore and grow with other tools/technology in the finance industry like BI tools, RPA and so on.
Today I want to focus on PowerBI and how this can be a friend to finance professionals. I have chosen this tool as it is quite friendly with less coding (DAX) and also has an active online community to guide a beginner. This tool from Microsoft, however, seems to be used as just a visualization tool. Yes, PowerBI is a great tool that provides interactive and real-time dashboards, with a wide range of visuals being available and the list growing every day with community contributions, (https://app.powerbi.com/visuals/) but the tool also provides the finance user with much more than this.
- Multi-Source Connection
- Data cleansing and Transformation
- Data Modelling
- Collaboration
Multi-Source Connectors: The tool connects with a wide range of sources/connectors, be it online or offline. (https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-desktop-data-sources/ )
Collaboration: The reports can be shared in the cloud for analysis and collaboration with managers around the world. These reports can be shared with access rights control to reduce the risk of the data breach. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/collaborate-share/service-collaborate-power-bi-workspace)
Data cleaning & Transformation: The tools help the user remove data that does not belong in their dataset. Also, helps in converting data from one format or structure into another.
Data Modelling: With multiple sources of data being used, the tool can also be used for efficient modelling/structuring for the expected outcomes one might need for financial analysis.
As we look into other features like visualization, these might require some level of technical skills. Knowing the growing importance of data and the impact of real-time decision-making, and what the finance function can provide to the management team for decision-making, it is crucial that the finance functions adapt and step into this role to facilitate the best of decisions.
