The Clearly Podcast

In the last of our Machine Learning Trilogy and final episode of Season Two, we talk about applying ML in the context of Power BI. We once again try to trick the algorithm with mentions of Excel, and end with a summary of our thoughts on Machine Learning. Artificial Intelligence in a more general sense is also the topic of this year's Reith Lectures.  Just to prove how important and topical The Clearly Podcast really is.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

Our highly anticipated Part Two to our Season Two Grand Finale on Machine Learning!This week we discuss how to decide if machine learning is the right choice for you; Do you have enough data? Are you prepared to be transparent about how you analyse customer data? Will your data create an AI monster?!  Next week, in the last of our mini-series, we will look at how you can use Machine Learning inside Power BI and other tools. Artificial Intelligence in a more general sense is also the topic of this year's Reith Lectures.  Just to prove how important and topical The Clearly Podcast really is.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

As a big finale to Season 2, we thought we'd bring you a mini sub-series on possibly the biggest buzz word of the year: Machine Learning.This week, we look at what machine learning is, and where you might have come across it in your day to day life.  We go on to discuss why business might want to use Machine Learning and the sorts of problems it can solve.Next week we will go on to talk about the considerations you will need if you want to use Machine Learning and in the final episode we look at using ML components inside Power BI and other tools.Artificial Intelligence in a more general sense is also the topic of this year's Reith Lectures.  Just to prove how important and topical The Clearly Podcast really is.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week, we talk to Haseet Sanghrajka from City Dynamics about Microsoft Dynamics and Power BI. Well, that was what we were meant to talk about.It's difficult to approach this subject without starting with the range of reporting options used by Dynamics customers. And it is a broad range from our old friend Excel, to Jet Reports and FRX, Power BI and many more in between. Haseet takes us through the choices and use cases for the multiple options out there.We also talk about how the life of the Dynamics partner has changed over the last 20 years. Personal indulgence on my side.We end with a discussion on how Dynamics customers are specifically adopting Power BI as their chosen reporting/BI application. Ease of purchase and price point has been a significant contributor to why many customers start Power BI projects. And once it's started they see all of that BI goodness…Haseet was a fascinating source of insight on this subject and if you have any interest in the intersection between Dynamics and how customers consume data – this is the one for you.  If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

In this week's Clearly Podcast our friend Jon Styles makes a second appearance to talk about the current job market. In season 1, episode 11 "So You Want To Be a Power BI Consultant", we talked about how to get skilled and approach the job market as a Power BI consultant. This episode continued that theme, albeit with a heavy focus on the current job market and what that means for candidates looking to move job or enter the market.So what does the market look like right now?As we come out of the pandemic restrictions there's high demand for experienced IT consultants across a broad range of disciplines. In the implementation partner space which remains a big employer and currently has the highest demand, we're seeing poaching of staff between partners.The demand for inexperienced individuals is far lower as employers want new hires that can be deployed on projects immediately.What does this means for you? If you're experienced, there's a thriving market out there.If you're inexperienced we talk through some strategies to help you get into the current market.Leverage your past experience. Do you have detailed vertical knowledge or professional skills that can be easily cross-trained? Remember the basics of job hunting. Use a tailored and concise 2 page CV/Resume, do your research and prepare for interviews.Work with 2-3 experienced and well connected recruiters.We also discuss what feels like a continuing challenge with the job market - capacity. There simply isn't enough resource to meet the current demand. We've been here before and we suspect we'll be here again.

This week we talk about data lakes.  Essentially, a data lake is a mechanism to store large quantities of (typically) raw data, both structured and unstructured, bringing together data from across an organisation.In a "traditional" data warehouse solution,  we tend to think about an "Extract, Transform and Load " process, extracting the data from source, transforming it for analysis, and loading it into the data warehouse.  With a data lake, the approach tends to be "Extract, Load, and Transform", data is extracted from source, loaded into the data lake, then transformed when needed.  This can simplify the process as there is no need to transform it for every scenario at build time - so we can speed up implementation.  The down side of course is that we have to do more work at run time.  As such, there is probably not an either/or situation with data lakes vs more structured systems.The flexibility of data lakes makes it tempting to dump anything and everything into the data lake.  If this starts to happen without any curation, you are likely to end up in more of a data swamp.  Data lakes are not a way to avoid governance.The main cloud players all offer some sort of data lake:Azure Data LakeAWS Data LakeGoogle Data LakeIf you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week we discuss Azure Synapse AnalyticsThis is, in essence, a cloud-based distributed database system.  It is aimed at larger scale analytics applications rather than transactional processing.The approach taken by Synapse to processing queries is to break them down and process parts of a query across different computing nodes.  The result sets are returned to a control node where the final result is processed.  If, for example, you request an average of a field, the control node will request the various compute nodes to calculate the sums and record counts, that can be returned and recombined into the average originally requested.It is important to note that the higher performance in processing analytical queries tends to come at the expense of concurrency - but in an analytical application, this tends to be less of an issue.Finally, we should also note that given the price point of Synapse, any company embarking on a data analytics journey with any expectation that their data may get large, should seriously consider Synapse as part of the tool set they are considering.More about Synapse can be found here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week we go deep into Dataflows in Power BI.Dataflows are a method of building reusable content in the Power BI service that other users can use to help build other models. By using Power Query in the cloud, you're able to perform transformations on one or many entities, storing those transformations as a cloud-based service. When you come to build or extend a model, the transformed entity is available, so you don't need to recreate all of the steps to make the entity easier to use.We talk through the benefits of using dataflows and who we think they're for. We also discuss when you wouldn't want to use this method, relying on the “traditional” desktop tools.As we don't see this as a replacement for Power BI desktop, at least anytime soon, we position dataflows as a tool that will benefit you in certain conditions. Documentation on dataflows can be found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/dataflows/dataflows-introduction-self-serviceIf you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

In this episode we talk about how we work with social media to enhance our professional careers. Most of the conversation is focused on Linkedin.To bring expertise to the conversation we were joined by Linkedin instructor and regular contributor, Helen Wall. In this episode we cover:Ideas on how to get started creating contentOur views on the best way to write your contentInteracting with fellow users of the platformThe benefits of investing your time on LinkedinAll peppered with examples of when we created content that engaged the platform and when we didn't.If you're looking to start generating content for Linkedin, this is the episode for you - we use BI examples, but the conversation is applicable for almost anyone.As this is the Linkedin episode our profiles are:Helen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenrmwall/Tom - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-gough-b1725a50/Shailan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shailan-chudasama-202b23b/Andy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyclark3/If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

If you're after a clickbaity title - this is the one for you (our podcasts with “Excel” in the title generally get more downloads).But, Excel and Power BI continue to be BFF's for many of our users and as Microsoft develop more functionality that binds them together, that case will only get stronger.We can get purist about data structures so when the term “Excel as a database” is seen or heard we can get a little sensitive. That said, we use Excel alongside Power BI in almost all of our projects so we wanted to talk best practices for doing so.Some examples of Excel working beautifully alongside Excel are:Excel reports from line of business applications in a SharePoint folder feeding a Power BI modelProof of concepts. Quickly model and change data to make a concept work quicklyQuick and slightly dirty cleansing (recent example of a 20 year old business application where we didn't want to mess with the database but needed to change a reporting structure)So please forgive the clickbaity title but we believe, when deployed correctly, Excel and Power BI are BFFs.

Power Apps and other low code/no code platforms are often seen as a quick and easy solution to allow users to solve their own problems.  But is it that simple?What is the place for Power Apps, and if you decide to start a Power Apps project, how should you go about it?This week, we discuss how to approach a Power Apps project, why you should take it seriously, and why you need to think about data structures. Our main takeways this week are that Power Apps are software projects, and should be managed accordingly.  That you need think about the data, how it's stored, and how it's secured.  And you need to be mindful of what the platform does - and perhaps more importantly, what the platform doesn't do.Chris can be found here: http://www.cpegroup.co.uk You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

Documentation is often neglected in many IT projects.  This week, we talk about why it is so important, and the risks involved if you don't do it.Some of the most fundamental things you need to document are:Passwords - and do it securely in a password vaultData dictionary so everyone knows how measures and KPIs are definedConfiguration - so there is a clear understanding of where everything livesReasons behind decisions - because there might be a good reason for not doing something in the obvious wayHow you do it is up to you and your use case - it's important that it shouldn't become too onerous, and Agile is no excuse for not doing it - if all your developers leave with all your service account passwords in their heads, you're sunk.And documentation can be as simple as a OneNote notebook and comments in code, or something more complex such as a set of Confluence pages.But however you do it, make sure you ACTUALLY DO IT!!You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

Possibly a sensitive subject this week - low code development.To start with some context, we love low code development and are working on low code development projects, mainly through Power Apps. We also see the marketing of low code applications and want to put forward our experience that low code is still a software development project with all of the challenges and intricacies that come along with that.In this episode we discuss approaches to low code development and ask any involved in a low code project not to forget the disciplines of working on a software development project.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

Due to some technical issues, episode 4 is currently delayed.  Please watch this space and we will be uploading as soon as we can

This week we talk about the benefits of training your users in the early stages of an implementation project. We address why you may choose to do this and the benefits. The traditional approach is based on a overloading users at the end of a project and generally leaving them to it. This approach has merit as memories fade over time - for some of us sooner rather than later!When you train early and often, users become more engaged with the project and through many interactions over time, are better able to use the developments when delivered.We discuss some of the techniques to help make this work and our experiences of getting it both right and wrong.

This week we talk about Power BI in the context of the wider Power Platform, by which we mean Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dataverse -  the oft forgotten data store underlying so many elements of the Power Platform ecosystem.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week we discuss the current state of management reporting and how it has moved on over the past decade or so.The world has moved on from flat, static reports in SQL Reporting Services and self-service reporting is becoming easier, but what about the perception of self service?  We often see that senior executives see self service as difficult and time-consuming, which with modern tools such as Power BI or Tableau, it needn't be.The breadth of what is required has grown too - from financials to sales and inventory and broader information from social media and other external data sources.Finally the questions being asked of the data have become more mature - moving from simply what happened to why it happened and what will happen.As a result, management reporting is turning into more of an application that a traditional report - from a read only report, we are writing back narratives and context.  This comes with its own data management challenges and businesses need to start asking how long that keeps having business value.For more information on snapshots in Power BI, take a look at this.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

Welcome back to the Clearly Podcast, Season 2.In this episode we discuss what we have learnt from starting the podcast and talk about the topics we want to cover.In season 2, we will be spreading our wings into some of the broader areas of the Azure data platform, the impact of low-code and no-code platforms on software development, and what machine learning to mean to your business.We will be welcoming some new guests, and hopefully hearing from some old friends too.From Monday, September 6, we will be back to publishing every Monday for the next few months.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

In this episode, we discuss our experiences of helping customers to migrate from Excel to Power BI.We talk frequently about how much Excel we see being used for data storage, manipulation and visualization when we start working with new clients. Furthermore, we talk extensively about the risks of proliferation of those spreadsheets, especially when they're replicated and changed by multiple users within the organization.So how do you move your users from Excel to Power BI? It's not as simple as merely moving the spreadsheets into Power BI models, the trick is stopping users dependency on Excel as a business tool, moving them to use structured business systems linked to Power BI where they can get a universally understood source of the truth.When doing this it's essential to understand your users motivations and dependancies on Excel so you can provide better solutions to their reporting and data needs. We work with the contention that most users don't want to be Excel formula experts so they're more satisfied when you give them better alternatives.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week we take a look at Power BI Report Server - the on-premise way to deploy Power BI reports.We consider when to use it and when not to, the limitations, and the costs.In general though, the default position should probably be to use the cloud service as Report Server will always lag behind in terms of features, and comes with bigger cost overheads since it needs to be deployed on an infrastructure that has to be purchased and maintained.The main (only?) compelling reason to use it it likely to be regulatory: that you are processing data that cannot for regulatory (or contractual) reasons be hosted in the cloud.  That is not to imply that the cloud is any less secure - indeed it is probably more secure than on-premise infrastructure - but regulation frequently lags behind technology.For more information, read this detailed comparison of features and an introduction to the pre-requisites (including licensing).You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

OK, it isn't quite yet - we still have to wait until April 2 for the GA release, but we do have a release date and price.Premium per user offers many of the premium features, licensed on a user by user basis.The main features it opens up are:Paginated reports (so we can now more easily centralise all business reporting)Increased refresh rate (so we can have nearer real time data)Pipelines (to centralise the data structures)AI/ML features.The key features excluded areEmbeddingPBI Report ServerThe detailed announcement can be found here and the details of what it can and can't do can be found in the FAQ.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

We all have different communities we rely on. When working in technology those communities can become essential to our development and understanding of what we do. Whether that's getting help from a forum or meeting fellow like-minded professionals to share experiences and help each other when facing a specific challenge, communities are an important part of our daily lives.In this podcast, we talk about community. It's a slight diversion from our normal subject matter, although focussed on our Power BI communities with 2 community leads in Glen Accardo (Houston, Texas Power BI Community Lead) and Tom Gough (West Midlands, UK Power BI Community Lead). We also have the pleasure of being joined by Jena Coffie who has worked establishing, growing and maintaining numerous communities. Of particular interest is Jena's thoughts and advice on how companies can setup communities for their own products and services and how the voices of those communities can guide product development.This is a really interesting discussion on how community has effected our professional lives and we hope you enjoy it.Our guests can be found on Linkedin as follows:Jena Coffie https://www.linkedin.com/in/jena-coffie-47663428/Glen Accardo https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenaccardo/ You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week we talk about Application Lifecycle Management.It is important to remember that BI projects, like all software projects, should be considered in a cycle, rather than a linear process.  That is to say that the deployed report (or application) should provide a base for iteration.Most organisations are good at managing the environments to promote code from development to release, but all too often this becomes the end of the chain.  We now have deployment pipelines that give something of a DevOps deployment experience.  Source control is the big problem with Power BI because PBIX files are databases and therefore stateful and resistant to source control.  The template file can be source controlled, but as a binary does not make it easy to use source control tools, such as branching and merging.Application Lifecycle Management is also applicable to the wider Power Platform, although since the codebase is essentially stateless, source control concepts are a lot easier.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week we talk about colour.  Colour is generally a central element of branding, but we must also think about accessibility and the emotional response colour generates.  Red is frequently associated with stop or bad, whereas green with good or go.  Similarly, we may say we feel blue when we're a bit down.  At the same time, we need ensure our choice of colours are accessible to people with colour blindness, and not relying entirely on colour to tell your data story.If you want to select an exact colour from an image, and get the RGB code, you can use a colour picker, such as this one.  You can use a theme generator to create a selection of complementary colours, and put these colours into a theme file.  If you don't want to create the JSON file from scratch (and let's face it, who does?),  you can use this handy tool from PowerBI.tips.  Coloring for Colorblindness gives a reasonably simple  introduction to creating accessible colour schemes.Finally, make sure the colour is included in the non-function testing - including testing the colours on different screens.  If you're not yet doing non-functional tests, you should be.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week we talk to special guest, Reza Rad, about governance.  If you have read any of the previous podcast descriptions, you will probably be familiar with Reza's work.  If you're not aware of Reza yet, you should fix that as he is one of the leading experts in the world in Power BI.Today, we cover all aspects of data and BI governance, from data sources through to outputs via training and encouraging a data culture.One of the key aspects of governance is getting the overall architecture right.  If at all possible, this should be in place from day one.  Often, though, with the increase in "citizen developer" tools we can end up in something similar to the old "Excel hell" and a lack of a single source of truth.The more code that can be re-used, such as creating shared datasets, the easier your task will be.  We will talk a little more about this in a future episode on Application Lifecycle Management and how it applies (and doesn't apply) to BI projects.Beyond the technological measures, we also need to think about the cultural and "soft" elements of making the architecture stick.  Key to this is creating suitably tailored training to the different audiences in an organisation, and providing the appropriate documentation.One of the critical challenges thrown up by modern BI tools is an increased expectation that everything can be done quickly - bypassing the normal controls.  At the same time, you don't want to just kill everybody's enthusiasm.In the wider Azure context, tools such as Data Loss Prevention policies and Azure Information Protection can help, but be wary of being too reliant on technology over policy and organisational culture. Finally, the Centre of Excellence tool kit can provide a valuable accelerator to governance on the Power Platform more generally.Reza's website Radacad is a treasure trove of information across all things Power BI, and also the place to go to download Power BI Helper.  Reza can also be found on Twitter and LinkedIn In addition, Tabular Editor and DAX Studio are fantastic tools to help manage development.The Power BI Summit takes place on line this April and tickets are available now.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

The capabilities of business intelligence tools have changed over the past 15 years. In the past a specialist or IT function would build and deliver reports. Modern tools such as Power BI now have the capability for users to create and edit their own reports and we see many users taking advantage of that development and devolving report creation across the organisation.While this is an important development, self service BI needs to be planned and part of your reporting strategy. In this episode we talk through all aspects of self service BI from the basics of how we define it all the way through to self service strategies, tips for being successful and some experiences of what to avoid.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://www.clearlysolutions.net/

This week we discuss an often neglected part of many BI implementations: testing.  It isn't glamorous, it isn't the headline-grabbing side of a project, but it is vital.  After all, what use is a report if it doesn't show the right information.We talk about different approaches to testing, from structured tests following a script to unstructured exploratory testing.  We discuss why both are important elements of a rounded test plan, and why it should never simply be left to the developers to test their own reports.  And to be clear - we are not suggesting development teams would cynically pass on reports they know to be broken, but rather that when you have been working on piece of code for weeks, it's hard to see where errors might be creeping in.Finally, we talk about non-functional testing.  This is probably the most neglected part of an already neglected process.  It is vital that a report performs well, has readable fonts and suitable colours.  If any of these aren't the case, the report consumers will quickly be turned off and revert to other ways of reporting data.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

In this episode we discuss project management for business intelligence. The complexity of BI projects has increased  significantly in the past 10 years so a structured approach to implementation is required. The historical approach to business systems implementations has been to use the standard reports that come with the application and amend at the end of the project. The complexity of BI means those days are long behind us.We discuss how a program management approach is required to modern implementions where BI is a separate project in of itself that can be implemented alongside a business system. We also discuss approaches to BI project management and how to make your implementation successful for the long term.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

As we seem to mention this on almost every episode, we decided to devote an entire podcast to it - pre-aggregation.To start off with, a matter of terminology.  The official terminology is "aggregation".  In the title we talk about pre-aggregation - this is a matter of clarity since every aggregate function (sum, average etc) carries out an aggregation.  What is officially called aggregation is a technique that aggregates the data in-memory during the loading process and link these aggregations to your measure definitions.The documentation describes the basics of how to build aggregations, but as ever, Reza Rad has a fantastic tutorial on how to do this.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

In this episode we offer practical advice to anyone thinking of starting a career as a Power BI consultant. We talk about:What a Power BI consultant doesIf an average day in the life of a Power BI consultant exists, what it looks likeWhat experience and skills are useful to build onSkills v character and what we value the mostQualificationsWhat we look for when hiring consultantsCV/ResumesInterview preparationHow to approach the market and the companies you may like to work forHow to work with recruitersIn this episode we're joined by Jon Styles who leads specialist Microsoft recruitment agency Northcote Dynamics. Jon can be found at:www.northcote-dynamics.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-styles-91858b35/You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/If you have any specific questions about any aspect of our podcast please send an email to podcast@clearlysolutions.net.

Hugo Soto is the author of the Analyst Mindset a book that details the necessary mindset needed to make data driven decisions in corporate & small business settings, focusing on understanding, cleaning, dissecting, and presenting data, to create actionable business insights.In this episode we chat to Hugo about the journey that bought him to publishing the book and practical application of the Analyst Mindset to everyday work to help refine the decision making process. We also look at the Business Intelligence market and get Hugo's views on how organizations can unlock more value from the tools that are currently available.To purchase The Analyst Mindset on AmazonTo connect with Hugo on LinkedinHugo's website https://dailygametheory.com/

This week, we are mostly being rude about pie charts.  To be clear – we like pies, just not pie charts.  At the heart of the issue, is that bar charts give a better view of overall magnitude as well as the relationships between categories.We then move on to 3D charts – which are not in the standard visualisation set in Power BI – which always end up much harder to use than their 2D counterparts.  Be careful of overcrowding the page.  This not only looks cluttered and confusing but also creates a performance issue.  Multiple pages with drillthroughs can create a much clearer story with the data.Think about how you are going to maintain the report into the future.  Around 6 visuals on a page would be a good rule of thumb.Be careful of custom visuals since they don't work with Power BI Report Server (ie hosting on premises).When it comes to maps, think about how you can use the data to make real-world decisions.  Shailan's fly tipping report can be found here.  ArcGIS is generally the better mapping tool in Power BI, but one to use mainly if you really need mapping and can make use of its additional layers of data.The Decomposition Tree is a great way of managing the interactive exploration of data that our older listeners may remember from such tools as Pro-clarity and Performance Point Services.For the developers amongst us, you can create your own custom visuals which may allow you to work with libraries like D3JS.  Once again, do you really need to do it?You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

This week we venture into the world of hairdressing - and the 2 programming languages at the core of Power BI.In a nutshell, M is the language used for importing data into Power BI and DAX the language used to manipulate data inside the Power BI data model.Reza Rad  deals with the differences in his blog post M or DAX? That is the question.Chris Webb posts a huge amount of really good material on his blog at Cross Join.DAX Patterns is one of the richest resources for writing DAX measures, by the authors of The Definitive Guide to DAX (also on Amazon US).Once you are starting to get beyond the basics in either language, the external tools such as DAX Studio and Visual Studio Code offer much better development environments for developing your code.The full documentation on DAX can be found here and the documentation for M is here.Check out Luke McAdam's Instagram and Soundcloud for more of his music.If you are only here for the haircare products, you can also order DAX Short and Neat online.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

In this episode we discuss Row Level Security in Power BI. Data security is a subject discussed as part of every implementation and a critical consideration when implementing any IT system, not just Power BI.Key points from the discussion- What is Row Level Security within Power BI- Where to use Row Level Security and where not to use it- The administration of Row Level Security and why administration alone may be a reason not to use Row Level Security- Performance impacts of Row Level Security- Data classification for security- Other security considerations such as GDPR and how they may effect how you use Row Level SecurityYou can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

This week we look at big datasets.  And we should be clear, we are simply talking about large volumes - not "Big Data" as defined by volume, variety, and velocity.We discuss options such as using Analysis Services to offload the data processing workloads away from Power BI.  Premium per User is now in public preview, so this could offer a more cost effective long term solution for managing large datasets in Power BI.Direct Query does offer a last-resort solution but typically this is the least performant option, so should be used with caution since slow performance will put users off using the tool.We discuss monitoring performance, and managing a changing landscape.  A report with a low volume of data today could become a large dataset in time and need the approach changing.Finally, we come to data quality - and why it should get fixed at source not in the reporting tool.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

Branding is an important way of engaging with report users, and helping them to feel that the report is about their work.  In this episode, we look at how and why we should brand our reports.Microsoft has some very detailed documentation on how to create theme files here.For those less confident, Power BI Tips has create this handy theme generator.If you don't yet have a palette designed, you could use a tool such as this one.Finally, you could use a theme from the theme gallery as a starting point.For our younger listeners, here is the Wikipedia page on GeocitiesYou can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

This week, we discuss hybrid models.  In short, this involves combining data from direct query or live connection with data that has been imported into the model.There are several reasons why you might want to do this.  As we discussed last week, there are many times that you will need to use a direct query.  The problem is that not all sources (eg Excel) support direct query, meaning we need to import that data.  Equally, if you have a data source using SSAS you don't want to import that as it will flatten the structure.  Finally, we touch on using a hybrid model to provide a pre-aggregated version to access the speed of import and detail of direct query.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

This week, Andy discovers sound effects!We also talk about the relative merits of importing data into the Power BI data model vs querying the data source directly.Import is generally supported by all data sources.  Direct Query and Live Connection are more limited.  Generally speaking, databases are more likely to support Direct Query as well as import; file-based sources tend to only permit import.  A detailed breakdown of sources and supported connection methods can be found here.It is also worth looking carefully at the implications of using Direct Query before choosing it as method.Finally, remember if you are connecting to an Analysis Services model, you should use a live connection, otherwise the structure will be flattened and you will have to rebuild it in Power BI.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here.To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

Power BI Licensing may not be the most glamorous subject, but it is important to understand what options you have.This week we discuss the different tiers of Power BI pricing, and what you get for them.  Starting at the free tier, we cover what you can do without a financial investment, through to the Pro licence, aimed at business use, particularly in SMEs all the way up to Premium, offering an Enterprise reporting capability.We should note here, as it's not clear in the discussion, that even at the Premium tier, report creators will need Pro licences as well.An overview of pricing and features can be found on the Microsoft website.If you are looking at whether Premium will be cost effective for your organisation, Microsoft have produced this handy pricing calculator.Finally, Premium per User may offer a more cost effective way for SMEs to unlock premium features.You can download Power BI Desktop from here.If you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here. To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/

In this first episode, we discuss the differences and similarities between Power BI and Excel.  When should you use Power BI?  When is Excel the best tool for the job? And when should you step away from both and look at an entirely different solution?We try to explode the common myth that Power BI is just "Excel on steroids", why you still need Excel, and how Power BI can make your life easier.You can download Power BI Desktop from hereIf you already use Power BI, or are considering it, we strongly recommend you join your local Power BI user group here. To find out more about our services and the help we can offer, contact us at one of the websites below:UK and Europe: https://www.clearlycloudy.co.uk/North America: https://clearlysolutions.net/