How to Apply Data Governance Policies to Power BI?

Applying data governance measures to corporate analytics systems has become an imperative for companies and businesses. Bismart has created a set of tools intended to empower organisations to apply data governance policies to Power BI: Power BI Viewer and Power BI Analytics.

That data is an indispensable business asset in today's scenario is undeniable. Practically all businesses already have their own data sets that are used in the development of the vast majority of their entrepreneurial actions. In this sense, it is essential that organisations establish data governance policies to guarantee the quality and security of their data, ensure compliance with current regulations and promote trust in the data within the organisation.

Nowadays, not trusting your data means not trusting your own business. Data governance measures are undoubtedly a work in progress for many corporations that still do not have comprehensive and established data governance policies, as we already concluded in the article 'What We Have Learned After Two Years of GDPR: Data Quality and Data Governance'.

Data governance in Power BI

As we already announced in the post 'How To Use Power BI For Data Governance', data analysis and data governance are related in that they share a common purpose. Enterprise data governance policies should encourage data analysis tasks by including them in business intelligence workflows.

On the other hand, data governance policies cannot be conceived without a previously consolidated data-driven culture that prioritises the appropriate treatment of data by the entire organisation.

As a result of the symbiosis between data governance, BI and data analysis, an increasingly pronounced need arises: to be able to apply data governance measures to one of the most prolific analysis tools in the business environment: Power BI.

Power BI has become the preferred environment for the development of business intelligence tasks that help companies generate business opportunities. On the other hand, Power BI is also the environment for the evaluation of business performance and the consequent decision-making process.

As organisations grow, it is common for them to accumulate more and more data sets, reports and dashboards in Power BI Service. The multiplicity of information, content and users can create confusion, hinder information sharing and slow down workflows - especially in companies with multiple departments or teams.

The problem can escalate when the team leaders are unable to manage the environment, the content and the user's activity in Power BI Service. Lack of control and understanding of one's own assets can even affect overall productivity and lead to unnecessary costs.

How to promote data governance in Power BI?

At Bismart, as a Power BI partner and a preferred Microsoft Gold Partner in Spain, we have a long experience using this set of tools for the development of our solutions. In addition, we have helped many organisations to optimise their workflows and make the most of its possibilities. However, our extensive background and expertise in Power BI, have led us to identify certain shortcomings when using analytical tools for business purposes, as well as a number of challenges that most organisations face when working with analytical systems.

These include the management of publishing reports, granting access to users with divergent roles, empowering advanced users, and securing data and content. In addition, monitoring the use and activity of multiple users with different roles and giving them the autonomy they need without undermining governance and control over data and reports can be an extremely complex task.

In order to address the most common issues companies face when working with Power BI, Bismart has created a set of data governance solutions for Power BI.

Power BI Viewer: Viewing and report management environment for users with Power BI Embedded licenses

Power BI Viewer is the ideal report visualisation and management environment for companies that have Power BI Embedded licences and need an interface where they can access, view and manage their Power BI content. In addition to extending the data governance capabilities of Power BI Service, it merges the capabilities of Power BI Embedded and Power BI Pro, enabling users with embedded licenses to benefit from the full capabilities of Power BI Pro.

Power BI Viewer has no users or reports limitations and allows reports to be shared freely and securely with both internal and external users, without the need for them to have Power BI licences.

On the other hand, it is a fully customisable environment and includes advanced configuration options that allow the layout and presentation of the environment to be adapted to the business needs of each company.

With Power BI Viewer you will be able to:

• Share without limits: Share an unlimited number of reports and dashboards with as many users as you want.
• Share with anyone: Share reports and dashboards with users inside or outside your organisation, whether or not they have a Power BI licence.
• Share safely and securely: Protect your company's data and reports with security layers, custom codes, and access and autonomy restrictions.
• Access all your reports from a single place: View and manage all your Power BI reports, data and dashboards from a single, easy-to-navigate environment that builds a centralised, tailored user experience.
• Adjust report publishing to your needs: Organise your reports by thematic or departmental categories and customise the presentation of report publishing.
• Save money: Installation available as a SaaS service and on-premise. Share reports with other users without the need to purchase multiple Power BI licenses.

Want to learn more? Go to the Power BI Viewer website or watch the solution's webinar:

Power BI Analytics: Analyse the activity of all Power BI Service users

Power BI Analytics is an analytics environment that can be integrated with Power BI without limits of time, space or capacity.

The tool includes unlimited historical register that tracks all Power BI Service activity and stores it in an exclusive data repository, overcoming the monitoring limitations of Power BI Service, which only records one month's activity.

The solution empowers managers to review what their employees are doing, allowing them to visualise all actions taking place within the service. It also turns Power BI into the environment in which to analyse the activity data.

Designed to boost business productivity, its unlimited storage capacity provides the environment for managers to study the evolution of their performance, compare metrics over different time periods and, ultimately, gain valuable insights into their productivity.

With Power BI Analytics you will be able to:

• Discover which users are working on which reports, for what purpose and how often.
• Manage user activity through Power BI's administration API.
• Find valuable insights into user productivity and business performance trends without leaving the Power BI Service.
• Identify which reports are most accessed and why.
• Free up storage space by getting rid of reports that no one uses.
• Reduce costs and gain capacity by discarding unproductive content.

Would you like to learn more? Visit Power BI Analytics' website or watch the solution's webinar below:

Power BI Viewer and Power BI Analytics are, in short, two data governance solutions that enable governance, control and management of all Power BI's activity. They also support knowledge acquisition and empower decision-makers to optimise business productivity.