Extensible data and reports with Power BI

Solution for visualizing business KPIs

For a customer who works in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector, we have developed a solution for the graphic visualization of company KPIs. The company, which already had a series of data collected in Excel and CSV documents, did not have a method to represent the information collected in a graphic and intuitive way.

The company therefore needed to create visual reports to be made available to its employees in order to effectively analyze the use of materials and the production of waste and waste. To support workers, at Dev4Side we have implemented a solution for creating and visualizing KPIs using Microsoft Power BI.

The solution we have developed is based on a simple architecture so as not to require long adaptation times on the part of users.

Solution architecture

Company employees only need to insert the Excel and CSV documents that they create based on their data into SharePoint Data Exchange and SharePoint lists implemented by us to obtain additional data necessary for the creation of KPI reports.

After uploading the data to the platform, Azure Data Factory, a component of Microsoft Azure, is responsible for transferring and processing data. This process initially takes place through pipelines that have the task of retrieving data that are then processed on the basis of some rules created ad hoc, based on the structure of the file or the list being read, and defined within the Data Factory.

Once processed, the data is inserted into the SQL database from which the information necessary to create the dashboards on Microsoft Power BI is collected.

Implementing dashboards with Power BI

KPI reports were created with Microsoft Power BI that we collect the necessary data directly from the implemented SQL database and from some tables created by us directly on the platform to collect all the information and fixed data that do not change over time.

Thanks to Power BI, we have therefore created dashboards that fully respect the needs expressed by the customer and into which elements have been inserted to show the origin of the data and how often they are updated. All reports have been customized with the company logo and colors.

Interactive KPI reports

KPI reports are fully interactive. Employees therefore have the option of using the filters we have inserted within the Power BI dashboards in the form of a drop-down menu to view only a part of the data collected based on their needs.

In addition, by hovering the cursor over the report charts, it is possible to view summary tables that show the numerical values of the data for the period of time and the selected indicators.

Presentation of data in different graphic forms

To comply with the company's request to be able to view data in different ways based on some specific needs, it was necessary to recreate some reports in order to present the data in a different way. Thanks to the combination of different graphs and tables, employees can then have a wider view of all the information collected.