One of the observations that I’ve made is that many businesses have settled for Imposters of BI — Reports, Overviews, Forms, Charts, etc  — rather than BI itself.

As you read the list of imposters below you could argue with perfect utility that any of these imposters of BI can make a huge contribution to BI. This is true, but on their own they are not BI and making the mistake of labelling them as such immediately reduces the Vision that your business has for BI.

I hope this blog helps you distinguish between imposters and the real thing so that your investment into BI becomes a unified, recognized asset rather than a fragmented set of data renders.

A pioneering organic food producer, renowned for their high-quality and innovative products, partnered with FreshBI to tackle a critical challenge: the absence of a systematic approach to track and analyze the performance of their innovative items and product groupings. To address this, FreshBI integrated a SharePoint list with the company's product data, creating a robust and dynamic Power BI dashboard that offers real-time insights and a customizable analysis table.

This strategic collaboration not only saved time and resources but also empowered product managers and finance leaders with the intelligence to make informed decisions, align cross-functional teams more efficiently, and ultimately steer the company towards enhanced profitability and a strong market position. This case is a testament to the company’s dedication to data-driven strategies and sustainable innovation.

Welcome to our exploration of color theory in dashboard design, merging the art and science of color to craft visually engaging and effective data experiences. Color theory is pivotal in understanding the synergy of colors and their psychological impact, guiding the selection of a harmonious palette that not only pleases the eye but also conveys the desired message. It’s vital in dashboard design, enhancing visual hierarchy, accentuating key data, and improving readability.

The process involves considering the audience, the industry, and the company's personality to ensure a consistent and resonant color scheme. Recognizing the emotional resonance of colors—like the energy of red, the tranquility of blue, or the elegance of black—is crucial. The selection of a color palette, whether monochromatic, analogous, complementary, triadic, or tetradic, significantly affects user engagement and comprehension. This understanding is essential in crafting BI dashboards that are not just aesthetically pleasing but also intuitive and insightful, empowering users to make informed decisions.

The Council of Forest Industries (COFI) represents key producers in BC's lumber, pulp, paper, and manufactured wood sectors, advocating for a sustainable forest industry. COFI required a more efficient data delivery system for their clients needing timely forest product data, so they partnered with FreshBI, who employed Power BI and Python to automate data retrieval from Canadian lumber statistics, integrate it into COFI's SQL database, and create dynamic, interactive dashboards for real-time analysis.

This strategic collaboration significantly reduced manual labor, optimized data accessibility, and enabled COFI's clients to make well-informed decisions, marking a notable advancement in COFI's service delivery and client empowerment.

A waterfall chart in Power BI is an excellent way to visualize appreciation or depreciation in a value as quantities are added or subtracted from it.

Beyond the traditional use of a waterfall, we can further enhance its utility by integrating it into other visual elements. For instance, it could be incorporated within the structure provided by a matrix holding a financial statement to present the information in a more visually engaging manner. This integration would be achieved through implementing SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics).

Since Adam there have been 4 commandments of project management. Project Managers who can answer these questions on demand will succeed. Project Managers who cannot answer these questions on demand will fail.

In the modern world of business, Project Managers making data-driven decisions will boast successful, profitable, and high-cash projects.

If your company uses Power BI and you’d like to dial up your ROI on Business Intelligence with an injection of Artificial Intelligence, then this article is for you. With our Power BI custom visual, you can communicate with ChatGPT right from your dashboard and gain deeper insights instantly. This article shows you how.

As a business intelligence consultant and Microsoft Silver Partner, FreshBI specializes in the unique field of casino business intelligence. Our expertise lies in transforming complex casino data into actionable insights, tailoring our approach to meet the specific needs of the industry. Through our innovative solutions, we enable casinos to make informed decisions, enhancing their operations and competitiveness. Our journey in this niche sector has been both challenging and fulfilling, as we continuously strive to deliver excellence and value to our clients.

In a world of increasing opportunities to obtain and visualize data, it’s important to understand why business intelligence (BI) projects can fail in certain situations – especially when organizations have invested a great deal into resources.

In the complex world of cash flow, accurately predicting your bank balance hinges on analyzing various key elements. This includes tracking cash on hand, sales forecasts, and understanding outflows like operational expenses. Crucially, recognizing the delay between making a sale and receiving the cash, and assessing investments in inventory and marketing, are vital. By effectively correlating these factors, we demystify cash flow prediction, turning it into a strategic tool for improving financial health.

At FreshBI, we are pioneering the integration of AI with our BI tools, offering real-time analytics for prompt, informed decision-making and collaborative BI tools to bridge data gaps between departments. Our custom business processing dashboards and tailored Power BI Apps for Salesforce transform raw data into actionable insights, enhancing operational efficiency across various industries. We provide continuous support and training, ensuring our clients fully leverage our innovative BI solutions for their business growth and data-driven decision-making.

Understanding cash flow in business is like tracing a river's current. It's not just about numbers; it's visualizing patterns and asking 'what if'. Tools like Power BI transform raw data into dynamic dashboards that forecast and guide decision-making. Beyond mere data, it's about making informed, innovative plans. FreshBI helps businesses navigate this transformative journey, anchoring decisions in clarity and data-driven insight.

In the swiftly evolving landscape of data-driven insights, leveraging the full potential of automation in Power BI development stands paramount. The sophisticated tools offered by Microsoft's Power BI enable not only intricate data visualization but also foster expedient and precise report creation, revolutionizing the developmental journey. Integrating Power Automate further escalates the efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, ensuring consistent uniformity in reports, and minimizing errors that are otherwise commonplace in manual processes. Moreover, it facilitates dynamic data refreshes and personalized notifications, keeping you abreast of critical data changes instantaneously. As we delve deeper, we shall unravel transformative Power Automate examples that promise to augment your Power BI experience, steering you towards a future of more effective and adaptable decision-making in the business intelligence realm.

To design an effective dashboard for a CEO, one must embody the CEO's mindset, valuing simplicity, beauty, tribal language, and data-driven insights. CEOs seek a concise visual representation of their business's health, wanting answers in under 20 seconds to fundamental questions like "Are we on track?" A successful dashboard integrates the company's branding and aligns with its culture, prioritizing significant issues and providing actionable data insights. Essentially, it should allow the CEO to swiftly grasp the financial status of the business and discern necessary actions for both immediate and future improvement.

At FreshBI, we're transforming the consulting industry. We understand your frustrations with traditional consulting - the lack of transparency, delays, and misaligned results. That's why we're different. We put you first, offering agile, tailored solutions that you'll see in as little as three weeks. We believe in continuous innovation and improvement, releasing new products weekly, all inspired by your valuable feedback. But our relationship goes beyond just providing solutions - we're committed to educating your team, helping you build your in-house Center of Excellence. And our risk-free payment model? It's our way of making sure you're comfortable and confident in our partnership. We're more than just a consulting firm, we're your partners in transformation.

Transitioning from Tableau to Microsoft's Power Platform is a game changer for businesses, as it offers an entire ecosystem of powerful, user-friendly tools. The Power Platform includes PowerBI, PowerApps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents, designed to be accessible to everyone with its low-code approach. By migrating data infrastructure to PowerBI, building custom apps with PowerApps, automating workflows with Power Automate, and creating chatbots using Power Virtual Agents, businesses can transform their operations, leading to cost savings, enhanced capabilities, and increased productivity. The Power Platform enables businesses to drive digital transformation and embrace data-driven insights, custom apps, automated tasks, and AI-powered chatbots, revolutionizing everyday business operations.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing and reshaping our interactions with technology and data. OpenAI's GPT-4 and similar AI models have the potential to bring about significant transformations in business processes, ushering in a new era of digital communication. The focus is on exploring practical applications of AI and its potential to create a meaningful impact in businesses. Imagine having the ability to converse with your company's data as if it were a team member, effortlessly obtaining information about sales trends and operational efficiencies without the need for complex queries or manual data analysis. Learn more about how Azure Cognitive Search can work for you.

As a Power BI developer, I cherish any tips or tricks that can save me time and headaches. While these may be small, the time savings can add up over time. Here are a few of my favorites:

​As the cost of health care continues to rise, hospitals are seeking solutions. According to Deloitte, the most progressive hospitals are choosing to fundamentally transform their business models to not only reduce costs, but also to better engage consumers, enhance experience, compete with new entrants, and leverage technology. Whether hospitals are looking to become specialty care operators, virtual hubs as a part of larger systems and networks, or providers of virtual care, the ability to monitor, predict, and improve operational performance is paramount.

In a world of increasing opportunities to obtain and visualize data, it’s important to understand why business intelligence (BI) projects can fail in certain situations – especially when organizations have invested a great deal into resources.