In the context of Power BI HubSpot integration, it is important to understand that a CRM system is not an analytical environment — it is an operational one. This means its primary purpose is to support the daily work of sales and marketing teams, not to deliver comprehensive management-level analytics.
Power BI adoption rarely fails because the tool itself “doesn’t work.” Most often, the problem lies elsewhere: reports do not fit into the daily work rhythm of users. They are too complex, the data is often inconsistent or outdated, and the report can take too long to load—as a result, people return to Excel. This is important because BARC research shows that on average only about 25% of employees actively use BI tools, and in large organizations even about 16%. The good news, however, is that adoption is “designable.” If we approach reporting as a product (with UX, audience segmentation, usage measurement, and iteration), Power BI becomes an everyday work tool rather than a monthly “PDF for a meeting.” How to make such a change? We’ll give you some tips!
Just a few years ago, reporting in many organizations ended with the analysis of historical data. We reviewed last month’s sales results, the previous quarter’s margin, or the level of operating costs. The problem is that such an approach answers only one question: what happened?
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.
Operational efficiency most often “slips away” quietly: queues grow, exceptions increase, and rework begins to eat up the team’s time. In such conditions, Power BI should not be just a tool for monthly reporting, but an operations control center—a place where you can see deviations, their causes, and priorities for today and the coming days. The key change is that the report should not only answer the question “how much have we done,” but also show “where the process is slowing down, why, and what needs to be changed.” A well-implemented data analysis system, such as Microsoft Power BI, allows you to translate the discussion about “feelings” into data: stage times, exceptions, process stability, team workload, and the risk of SLA violations. What’s more, when data is fed in regularly, the operational dashboard becomes a tool for everyday work: for change leaders, coordinators, operations managers, and those responsible for process improvement. And that means a real impact on unit costs, quality, and predictability of delivery. Let’s take a closer look at this topic.
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.
