The Clearly Podcast

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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/

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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/

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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 Security

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/

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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/

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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 Geocities

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/

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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/

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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/

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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/

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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 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/