In many organizations, Power BI still primarily serves as a tool for historical reporting, showing what has already happened. However, this type of data analysis is increasingly insufficient in environments where business decisions need to be made quickly, based on current and forecasted information.
Power BI offers a wide range of built-in visuals that, in many cases, allow organizations to analyze data quickly and effectively. However, as organizations grow and data complexity increases, there are scenarios where standard charts no longer meet real reporting needs.
Today’s management teams have less and less time for analysis and more and more decisions to make. When data comes from multiple sources and has different definitions, meetings quickly turn into explanations of discrepancies rather than determining actions. A well-designed executive dashboard in Power BI provides a single view of key KPIs, plan, and trend context, and indicates where action is needed. Later in this article, we show you how to design it to truly streamline your processes.
Do sales reports from PrestaShop really support business decision-making, or do they mainly present historical data that quickly becomes outdated?
In many companies, HR and finance departments look at people from two perspectives: HR looks for causes and patterns (why people leave, where absenteeism is growing, what is happening with engagement), while payroll keeps an eye on costs (how much it really costs and how it affects the bottom line). Power BI allows you to combine these worlds into a single, consistent data model and turn scattered HR and payroll reports into decision-making dashboards. This is particularly important because turnover is rarely “just an HR problem” – the cost of replacing an employee is estimated at between 50% and 200% of their annual salary, depending on their role and seniority. In turn, sick leave in Poland is on a scale that cannot be ignored: in 2024, 27.4 million medical certificates were registered, totaling 290 million days of absence. When we compare this data with the cost of man-hours, overtime, and replacements, we get a picture that is ideal for weekly or monthly management – not “after the fact” at the end of the quarter.
Companies running many projects simultaneously often face a common challenge: data on tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities is scattered across various tools. Trello is excellent for daily workflow organization, but it does not offer advanced analytics on its own. Power BI, on the other hand, allows you to transform data into clear reports and dashboards that genuinely support decision-making.
Companies increasingly face the challenge of choosing the tool that will best support their analytics processes. In environments where data comes from multiple systems – from ERP and CRM to marketing platforms – it is crucial to create a consistent, flexible, and scalable reporting ecosystem. This is why the comparison between Power BI and SAP Business Objects is one of the most frequently discussed topics among organizations planning to develop their Business Intelligence capabilities.
Integrating OneDrive with Power BI is currently one of the most effective approaches for managing data in companies operating within the Microsoft 365 environment. Thanks to Power BI’s ability to automatically detect changes in files stored on OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online, reports refresh without the need to manually upload data.
