Power BI might be where people see the data. But a lot needs to happen before that data reaches a dashboard.
Data needs to come from somewhere. It needs to be integrated, transformed, stored and modelled. And as your Microsoft environment grows, questions around architecture, governance, performance and cost become more important.
We help organisations design, build and improve Microsoft data environments with Power BI and Microsoft Fabric.
Sometimes Power BI is enough. Sometimes Fabric makes sense. Often, you need both.
They are closely connected, but they are not the same thing.
Power BI is Microsoft’s platform for business intelligence, reporting and analytics.
We help organisations build and improve Power BI environments, from data models and DAX to dashboards, governance, performance and architecture.
Already using Power BI? We can also help when things get slow, refreshes fail or your environment has simply become harder to manage.
Explore Power BI
When your needs go beyond reporting, Microsoft Fabric brings more of your data platform together.
It includes capabilities for data integration, engineering, warehousing, data science, real time intelligence and analytics.
We help you understand where Fabric fits into your existing data landscape, which capabilities you actually need and how to implement them without making your architecture more complicated than it needs to be.
Explore Microsoft Fabric
Power BI is part of Microsoft Fabric, but that does not mean every Power BI environment needs a large Fabric implementation. For many organisations, Power BI already does exactly what it needs to do.
Fabric becomes more relevant when the challenges start to extend beyond the dashboard. Data may be coming from more systems, transformations become more complex, teams need a better way to store and manage data, or different solutions start doing the same work. As the environment grows, governance can also become more difficult.
The important question is not whether you can use Fabric, but whether it adds value, which capabilities you actually need and how they fit with the technology and data architecture you already have.
Most organisations are not starting with an empty Microsoft environment. You might already have dozens of Power BI reports, data in SQL databases, Excel files, Azure and different business applications. Different teams may also have built their own models and reporting solutions over time.
Before introducing new technology, we look at what is already there and how well it is working. Where are the bottlenecks? What should stay? What needs to change? And where could Power BI or Microsoft Fabric make a meaningful difference?
The goal is not to rebuild everything in the newest Microsoft technology. It is to improve the parts of your data environment that actually need improving and keep what already works.
A dashboard is only as useful as the data and architecture behind it.
Connect data from different systems and make it available where it is needed.
Design an architecture that fits your current requirements without making tomorrow unnecessarily difficult.
Design and implement Fabric environments around the workloads and capabilities you actually need.
Build dashboards, reports and semantic models that help people understand and use their data.
Find out why reports, models or processes are slow and improve them.
Create clear agreements around access, development, deployment and ownership so your environment can grow without becoming a mess.
Moving from Qlik or another BI platform? We help determine what should move, what should be rebuilt and what might be better left behind.
Then you probably already have many of the pieces in place. The challenge is working out how they should fit together and where changes would actually improve your data environment.
These are architecture decisions rather than product decisions. We work with Microsoft technology every day, but we start with your existing data, users and requirements before deciding which technology belongs where.
Let’s look at your Microsoft environment
Need help with reporting, analytics, data models, DAX, governance, performance or your existing Power BI environment?
Looking at data integration, engineering, warehousing or a broader Microsoft data architecture?
Microsoft Data and AI brings together the Microsoft technologies organisations use to integrate, manage, analyse and get more value from their data. Power BI and Microsoft Fabric are two important parts of this landscape.
We help organisations understand how these technologies fit into their existing data environment and where they can add value. That could mean improving an existing Power BI setup, building a broader data platform with Microsoft Fabric or creating a stronger data foundation for analytics and AI.
Power BI focuses on business intelligence, reporting and analytics. Microsoft Fabric is a broader data and analytics platform that includes capabilities for data integration, engineering, warehousing, data science and real time intelligence. Power BI itself is also part of Microsoft Fabric.
The right approach depends on what you are trying to solve. If the main requirement is reporting and analytics, Power BI may be enough. If you also need to rethink how data is integrated, transformed, stored and managed, the wider Fabric platform may become relevant.
Not necessarily. Many organisations can continue using Power BI without implementing the wider Microsoft Fabric platform.
Fabric becomes more relevant when the challenges extend beyond reporting. For example, you may have data spread across many systems, complex transformation processes, duplicated business logic or a need for a more scalable data platform underneath Power BI.
We look at your existing environment first and determine where Fabric could add value rather than assuming it needs to be part of every Power BI architecture.
AI depends on having access to reliable, relevant and well structured data. Microsoft provides AI capabilities across its data ecosystem, but introducing AI does not remove the need for good data architecture and governance.
For organisations exploring AI, we look at the data foundation first. That means understanding where the data comes from, how reliable it is, how it is organised and whether it can be made available to AI applications in a controlled way.
Yes. Most organisations we work with already have technology, reports and data processes in place.
We can review an existing Power BI or Microsoft Fabric environment, identify performance, architecture or governance issues and determine what should be improved. That might involve changing parts of the architecture, improving existing models and processes or simply bringing more structure to what is already there.
Yes. We work with both Qlik and Power BI, which is particularly useful when assessing a migration between the two platforms.
A migration does not have to mean recreating every Qlik app in Power BI. We look at what is being used, which logic needs to move, what should be redesigned and what may no longer be necessary in the new environment.
Whether something’s still unclear or you’re ready to take the next step, Barry and Eric are happy to talk it through. Email us, call us, or book a meeting at a time that works for you.