Power BI Report Builder for enterprise report creators.Each part of Power BI is available to you, which is why it's so flexible and compelling.Įxplore documents that pertain to your role: You can create a paginated report of mailable invoices, based on a Power BI dataset. For example, you can use Power BI Desktop to create reports for your own team about customer engagement statistics and you can view inventory and manufacturing progress in a real-time dashboard in the Power BI service. How you use Power BI can be based on which feature or service of Power BI is the best tool for your situation. You also might use each element of Power BI at different times, depending on what you're trying to achieve or your role for a given project. Have an idea for a new visual? Build it yourself and share it with others. If you're a developer, you might use Power BI APIs to push data into datasets or to embed dashboards and reports into your own custom applications. Another coworker, in sales, might mainly use the Power BI phone app to monitor progress on sales quotas, and to drill into new sales lead details.

Your number-crunching, business-report-creating coworker might make extensive use of Power BI Desktop or Power BI Report Builder to create reports, then publish those reports to the Power BI service, where you view them. Other people, in other roles, might use Power BI differently.įor example, you might primarily use the Power BI service to view reports and dashboards. How you use Power BI may depend on your role in a project or on a team. Read more about Power BI Report Server later in this article. Power BI Report Server, an on-premises report server where you can publish your Power BI reports, after creating them in Power BI Desktop.Read more about paginated reports later in this article. Power BI Report Builder, for creating paginated reports to share in the Power BI service.These three elements-Power BI Desktop, the service, and the mobile apps-are designed to let you create, share, and consume business insights in the way that serves you and your role most effectively.īeyond those three, Power BI also features two other elements: Power BI mobile apps for Windows, iOS, and Android devices.An online SaaS ( Software as a Service) service called the Power BI service.A Windows desktop application called Power BI Desktop.Power BI consists of several elements that all work together, starting with these three basics: Power BI lets you easily connect to your data sources, visualize and discover what's important, and share that with anyone or everyone you want. Your data may be an Excel spreadsheet, or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises hybrid data warehouses. Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights.