Quick Summary
A Microsoft-owned business analytics tool, Power BI, packs a punch for finance businesses looking for the best outcome using modern analytics platforms. Power BI brings multiple data analytics services under one roof from effective visualization and mapping of vital business data.
Thus, financial analysts with minimum technical knowledge can have the latest data at their fingertips to create interactive visualizations. It also dramatically reduces the time spent collecting, extracting, formatting, and presenting data for key business decisions.
You know how they say “Time is money” and “Money is time”. The concept behind this aphorism is a simple one where time is viewed as a currency. And that makes sense, more so for the financial services industry predicting business wins and failures.
One might think the time spent accumulating data to draw business insights is worthwhile. But that’s not always the case. The time you invest in chasing data can translate into delayed responses for your customers. Given fast-shifting market conditions, it’s never a good idea to keep your customers waiting.
You never know when your customers will pick an alternative. That’s where a tool like Power BI comes in.
From saving valuable time to driving key business decisions with interactive visualization, Power BI development is imperative to success for forward-thinking companies.
This article revisits the concept of Power BI in financial services, addresses the challenges of modern data analytics, and explains how Power BI can be a game changer.
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What is Power BI?
Power BI as a tool is perhaps best explained by its tagline, “Bring Your Data to Life”. For starters, this Microsoft-owned business analytics tool harnesses the power of the cloud to introduce multiple data analytics services, systems, and apps under one roof. The key objective here is to visualize and map vital business data interactively.
As a mature and collaborative tool, Power BI promises a full monty with features like custom data visualization, data warehousing, reporting, interactive sharing, data discovery and organization, and a lot more. For what matters, financial data teams can now save at least 80% of their valuable time earlier spent on finding, formatting, and organizing data.
The Chief Data Officer at investment bank Goldman Sachs says that information in financial services is our currency. Data is a first-class concept for decision-making.Neema Raphael
Moreover, financial analysts can always have the latest data at their fingertips, ready to be translated into interactive visualizations. What’s even better is that presentations can be connected directly to key information sources, thereby mitigating errors and reducing the time spent on data conversion.
Winning It For Financial Services: Benefits of Power BI For Modern Analytics
Data plays a pivotal role for finance companies, where a major chunk of time is spent connecting, analyzing, and visualizing information from different sources. The challenges aren’t obscure to scan.
- Lack of end-to-end viewing of events: With data scattered across multiple locations, businesses struggle to get a complete picture of what is happening.
- Struggling to manage multiple data sources: Data present across multiple locations is a bummer for secured retrieval and updation.
- Data is not available to the right users at the right time: Financial companies require up-to-date data at the click of a button. Thus, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work, as different roles demand different sets of data and access
As a cloud offering, Power BI offers deep and rapid business insights, enabling ad hoc analysis with a simple data structure. Interactive reports and dashboards further allow for the consolidation of cloud-based and on-premises data. Plus, you get a 360-degree view of all performance indicators and key metrics that contribute to data-driven decisions irrespective of the IT architecture.
Here’s a closer look at the key benefits of Power BI for financial services companies using modern analytics platforms.
Key Benefits of Power BI for Financial Services Companies
- Fast and effortless consolidation of large data sets
When it comes to working with large data sets, the limitations arising out of complexity, volume, and nature of data can be a bummer. Power BI has zero limitations for reporting financial data no matter the size or complexity. - Unmatched projection mechanism
Data without projection is data wasted. Power BI’s inherent data visualization feature allows businesses to make vital decisions minus any to-and-fro. For example, the “what-if” parameter within the data projection mechanism of Power BI can create interactive projections for effective comparison and assumptions. - Staying up to date with data trends
Power BI has a built-in intelligence feature that allows smart data arrangement using different parameters. Thus, it becomes easy for financial companies to spot data patterns and trends from before or predict several years in advance. In turn, it contributes to drawing vital conclusions making key decisions for profitability, and reducing expenses. - Driving year-on-year financial decisions
Power BI relies on data analysis algorithms to stand out, especially with features like “Quick Insights”. It takes into account different facts and implications and draws final conclusions from the user-provided dataset. This helps immensely if you want to run a year-on-year projection using the financial statements of your company. - Do more for your data
One of the most essential features of Power BI is Power View, which allows users to create interactive charts and graphs. Users are free to use multiple financial datasets and consolidate data to draw vital conclusions and make critical business decisions. - The best-in-class data collaboration and security
Power BI allows easy data sharing and accessibility for users while following strict security measures. Thus, financial teams working in silos can collaborate better and work in sync using different dashboards and reports.
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Why Modern Data Analytics Is The Ultimate Answer to Financial Service Industry Demands?
Finance businesses have long struggled to draw real value from data. That being said, traditional analytics systems couldn’t be of much help as they are downright complex and have zero room for scalability. No wonder there are limited use cases with intervention from senior tech-savvy analysts. For most businesses, this calls for added expenditure and time loss.
As new-age companies prioritize connected experiences, data democratization has taken center stage. Thanks to modern data analysis platforms living up to the market demand for data extraction, storage, processing, analysis, and presentation. These are essentially cloud-based SaaS solutions that are easy to set up, agile, and flexible. Besides, these platforms operate on the principle of self-service. So, business users with little to no technical knowledge will no longer require IT support for key tasks like:
- Asking questions in natural language
- Explore large datasets themselves
- Draw real-time insights from daily information
The end result is data that is widely accessible, attainable, and, above all, easily consumable to decision-makers across different levels of an organization. Modern data analytics uses a blend of emerging technologies like AI and ML for its key components that help shape easy-to-deploy, cloud-native solutions.
These include:
- Data transformation tool to shape up easy-to-query data and make it user-friendly
- Data Pipeline to ingest and connect data coming from multiple sources
- Data Warehouse to store collected data in one place
- Data Visualization using Power BI for an effective and interactive presentation, and
- Data Governance for data security
Challenges of Modern Data Analytics and How Power BI Can Help
Data is only valuable post-analysis when we draw beneficial insights for a business. That way, one can make informed decisions and respond to changing market conditions. However, things are easier said than done.
The surge in data availability and the urgent requirement for businesses to swiftly discern significant patterns have driven the necessity for enhanced, adaptable, and elevated data and analytics platform (DAP) functionalities, reveals Delloite research.
Similar to any other business process, data analysis has its fair share of challenges. Luckily, Power BI can address the challenges and make modern data analytics easy. Power BI is a tool that is equipped with modern analytics that can ease such data complexities.
Head-to-Head Data Warehouse vs Data Lake vs Data Lakehouse Comparison
Challenge 1: Extracting and working with quality data
Inconsistent and unreliable data often results in poor decision-making and inaccurate insights. While a modern analytics platform has built-in tools to prevent data enhancement and duplication, non-standardization can also be a problem (for example, when working with different currencies and date formats).
How Power BI helps: Power BI has a dedicated data cleaning feature that can clean, shape, and format any data you throw at it. For financial companies, such features can help them create accurate reports and visualizations, which, in turn, help them make informed business decisions. You can access the cleansing feature using the Power Query Editor embedded within the Power BI Desktop.
Challenge 2: Poor Data Visualization
Transforming complex data into charts and graphs not only makes it easy to understand but also keeps things accurate and tangible. However, wrong data visualization methods can do just the opposite, leading to misleading conclusions and incorrect business decisions. On the flip side, oversimplification and input errors can misrepresent things.
How Power BI helps: Power BI is a smart, versatile, and robust data visualization tool that can handle all structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. Whether you’re looking to create interactive dashboards or present simple, easy-to-understand reports, Power BI can recommend the right data visualization technique to drive better business decisions. Here are a few tips to consider.
Always know your audience: Remember that the report you present to a CEO will be very different from what the Sales Manager wants. So, understand the requirements correctly and choose a visualization pattern accordingly.
Choose your visualization depending on the purpose: Identify the key message that you want your audience to understand. There are many data visualization options in Power BI, but you need to understand which one is the right fit. For example, scatter plots are recommended to establish relationships between two or more variables, while line charts are good for representing trends over a specific period.
Always try to keep it simple: Stay clear from unnecessary use of elements that add to the clutter. Stick to a minimal color palette for your data visualizations to ensure readability.
Challenge 3: Controlled Access for Data Security and Privacy
Data security and privacy have been a perennial issue as finance companies struggle to establish robust access control for different teams and roles. Additionally, data storage and analytic systems need to be thoroughly compliant with all data privacy guidelines across every step of data collection, analysis, and distribution.
How Power BI helps: Power BI uses a practical data classification feature, allowing users to tag dashboards depending on the sensitivity level of the data. Data classifications can be easily enabled and configured at the tenant level, following which a tag remains visible across dashboards. Besides, the use of sensitivity labels from Purview Information Protection classifies critical content without hampering productivity and collaboration.
Challenge 4: Keeping Up With Changing Technology
Modern Data Analytics is an evolving field with new tools, functions, and emerging technologies. Take Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, for instance. Such emerging technologies are equally being used by business users, scientists, and researchers. For a business, it means introducing new tools and techniques at intervals to keep it relevant and accessible.
However, not all organizations can afford to invest. Besides, not every modern analytics tech is compatible with legacy systems. The result is messed up data integration that needs custom-coded connectors.
How Power BI helps: As a cloud-based analytics tool, Power BI promises a smooth upgrade with new features and functionalities. The latest versions are always auto-available and do not require any manual intervention. Thus, compared to an on-premises system that needs updating in a year or so, Power BI is always a befitting option.
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Real-Life Examples of Power BI For Modern Analytics
Despite technological advancement, modern businesses are fighting all sorts of odds. Whether it’s ever-changing customer demands or narrow profit margins, the key to vital business decisions is always driven by data. Here are some case studies where Power BI helped finance companies bend the curve.
Company 1: Metro Bank
Challenge: Time-consuming reporting and manual data entry lead to inefficiency and inaccuracy
Solution: Metro Bank embraced Power BI intending to automate financial reporting. Over time, this improved the collection and reporting process with accuracy and reduced time.
Impact: Metro Bank’s adoption of Power BI not only helped make fast, data-driven decisions but also boosted responsiveness and operational efficiency.
Company 2: Allstate Insurance
Challenge: Complicated claims settlement and risk assessment undermining the company’s ability for a prompt response
Solution: AllState turned to Power BI to accelerate data-driven decision-making. This ensured the company gained comprehensive insight into claim trends and determined inherent risks.
Impact: By responding faster to claims, Allstate improved its operational efficiency, strengthening customer trust and service delivery.
Time To Uncover Agility and Flexibility With Power BI for Modern Analytics
So, you see, investing in Microsoft Power BI for Modern Data Analytics can be a foolproof solution for financial businesses. However, to make the most out of it, you will need a reliable Power BI consultant who can design a successful implementation strategy.
At X-Byte Analytics, we’ve coined a niche for forward-thinking businesses with our Microsoft Power BI consulting services. Our dedicated Power BI consultants have helped medium and large enterprises leap ahead by transforming their proprietary and third-party data using custom Power BI solutions.
If this sounds like everything you could have asked for your business, we’d be more than happy to help you.
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