As you build and establish your Power BI environment it is important to remember that Power BI tends to go viral within businesses. That is a scary thought for those trying to manage and protect your business. Cost management challenges also affect how finance looks at Power BI. Having a plan goes a long way.
The conversations I have had with colleagues and Microsoft Customer Success Team Members have always come back to the same requirements. Firstly having data layers where data will be present and report layers where access is granted sounds complex but when you look at it in six months you’ll find it was simpler than having everything mixed up together. Secondly, remember that it is important to support both highly structured and also ad-hoc or less structured.
One thing that you must do from day one is to use Apps for people to access reports and then Teams to grant that access. It’ll seem like complete overkill when it’s your manager asking for “Access to the weekly report”, but invariably they will add people or you should be adding people. With that in mind avoid sending out links to reports and or apps, get people into the habit of using the Power BI homepage, your IT Service Desk will think you. I’ve had to deal with so many calls from the service desk “Jeff can’t find the email with the link to Melissa’s report, do you have the link?”, the whole thing would be much simpler if Jeff had been directed from day one to go to the Power BI home page and then click on apps.
Check out our Friday video for a more practical view.