Having the correct information has always been crucial for business success — but for today’s companies, data is at the centre of all operations like never before. Thanks to an entirely digitised economy, each organisation collects vast amounts of data as a part of its day-to-day operations. And analysing these vast quantities of information and using actionable insights from it has become the critical competitive edge in all industries.
Using Microsoft Power BI and similar tools for data analytics has made the process more accessible than ever. However, the competitive nature of business means that only the most efficient utilisation yields acceptable results. That’s why many organisations have found Power BI consultancy necessary for improving Power BI performance. And we’ll take a look at some of the methods for doing so right here.
Limit the number of visuals in reports and dashboards
If you use too many visuals in one report, performance will slow to a crawl. Generally, keeping widget visuals to a maximum of eight per one report page is a good idea — as well as keeping tiles limited to 10 per dashboard.
Also, Power BI workshops teach us that disabling unneeded interactions between visuals can also improve performance. By default, every visual on a single report page can interact with the rest. You can disable the unnecessary interactions and lower the number of queries received by the back end.
Don’t go overboard with slicers.
Slicers are an excellent way to let users navigate data. However, they come with a cost in terms of performance. Every slicer means two queries — one that retrieves the data and another that retrieves selection details. And adding too many of these will slow performance down drastically. Luckily, the filter pane can show you what slicers people use the least.
Import only required fields and tables.
Before undergoing Microsoft Power BI training, many people don’t know how to keep their model lean and narrow. Among other things, this means importing large data sets correctly. Instead of importing them at once, partition them and process those partitions in parallel.
Standardise report development
Templates (.PBIT files) are a great way to develop branded reports far quicker than you could from an empty .PBIX file. You can set and save themes and colour palettes when you make these templates, ensuring all pages have corporate branding pre-applied. Plus, templates can connect to frequently used data sources automatically.
Reduce queries
Power BI performance is all about reducing the number of queries sent by the software — and there are query reduction settings made just for that. For example, there are different query reduction options for filters and slicers, so make sure to use them.
Use printer-friendly background colours.
Sometimes reports have to be shared in traditional, offline ways as well — which is why it’s a good idea to make your backgrounds light or white to ensure they’re easy to print out.
