Power BI is a business analytics tool from Microsoft that helps build various dashboards and reports and can quickly deal with millions of rows of data. In contrast, Excel is also a tool from Microsoft with various built-in tools and functions that we can use for mathematical calculations, iterations, forecasting, and creating graphs and charts.
Key Differences
Data Size: One of the key differences is handling the capacity of data quantity. With Power BI, we can handle millions of rows together with fast speed, but with Excel, it is annoying to handle large amounts of data.
Cloud-Based Features: Once the dashboard building completes in Power BI, we can publish the report to the end-users with Microsoft’s cloud-based services. But, when it comes to Excel, we need to share the large data with the dashboard via email or any online sharing tool.
Visualizations: In Power BI, we have plenty of visualizations to design the dashboard, but with excel, we have only limited visualizations.
Custom Visualizations: Power BI allows us to import visualizations that are not there in the file by going to the marketplace, but Excel does not have that luxury.
Item
Power BI
Excel
Availability
Recent product, so you cannot see this with all Excel users.
Commonly known and available to most people.
Learning
Requires considerable knowledge of Power Query and Power Pivot DAX formulas and techniques to use it.
Universal language spoken in almost all the offices worldwide. Most users find it easy to learn.
Cost to Acquire
Free to download and use for personal use, but it takes $10 per month per user to share reports with others.
Free
Working Flexibility
Not flexible, especially if it just shifted from Excel to Power BI. You cannot do everything, everywhere.
Flexible to use and create summary reports in simple steps and formulas.
Visuals
Wide variety of visualizations.
Only a few built-in charts.
Chart Customization
Possibility work with only one chart.
Possibility to create another set of charts only using built-in charts.
Dashboard Interactivity
Power BI not only has slicers but also has a wide variety of other slicers. Cross filters, visual level filters, report level filters, and drillthrough filters.
Excel has slicers to make the dashboards interactive with the user.
Size of the Data
Can handle large amounts of data with the Power Pivot engine model.
Struggles to handle a large amount of data and often says “Not Responding” error with a large quantity of data.
Accessibility
Cannot be accessible everywhere unless you have licensed software.
Access from everywhere.
Formula Language
DAX language for its formulas and functions.
MDX language for its formulas and functions.
Data Security
Possibility to restrict the data view to individuals by setting rules.
When you share the dashboard with external stakeholders, you need to share it with data, which does not guarantee data security.
Data Source
Can get data from everywhere with Power Query.
Can get data from everywhere with Power Query.
Power BI and Excel have many similarities in terms of functionalities and how the data is presented or how we make the connection with the other data sources. Excel is much easier to use than Power BI, but Power BI has a certain upper hand, like better visualization. We should also remember that Excel is very limited to sharing reports which Power BI overcomes.
You can read more about Power BI vs Excel – Differences here.
Teknita has the expert resources to support all your technology initiatives. We are always happy to hear from you.
BOX announced new innovations in the Content Cloud that empower teams to work securely together from anywhere, on any type of file, in any application — all while delivering better, faster results and great experiences. With Box, opportunities are truly limitless.
Collaboration and workflow updates include:
Box Canvas for interactive visual collaboration and whiteboarding.
With Box Canvas, hybrid and remote teams can truly connect and collaborate in new ways that go beyond traditional communication styles. So whether you’re building out a new process or conducting a workshop, Canvas gives you infinite space to bring processes to life and provides all the shapes, sticky notes, connectors, and more that you need to:
Brainstorm and share ideas
Solve problems, strategize, and analyze
Create high-level design diagrams, plan projects, and even teach new concepts
The all-new Box Notes for secure, real-time collaboration from anywhere.
Box Notes give users a secure, real-time experience for quick and seamless content collaboration. Notes can also help teams tackle more extensive documentation, project management, and development-type tasks.
Content Insights for visual analytics that show the impact of your content.
Content Insights will allow users to see how your content gets consumed, how often, how much, and on which days. Given the exploding amount of digital content being shared and distributed, this type of visibility is critical.
Box Sign capabilities and integrations to address more e-sign use cases.
Box Sign e-signature capabilities is added to Individual (free) and Personal Pro accounts, so every one of the customers can take advantage of native e-signatures.
In frictionless security and compliance, Box has added:
Zero trust security features for more granular and flexible controls
Ethical walls as an information barrier between different user groups
Malware deep scan enhancements
Stronger protection against ransomware
More flexibility to Box Governance retention policies
New US public sector certifications for cybersecurity
And when it comes to the tech stack:
Enhancements to integrations across Salesforce and Slack
Updates to Box for Microsoft integrations
Rich insights in the Admin Console for increased transparency and visibility
Managing paper documents and using an inefficient computer system can be extremely difficult, particularly when you need to share, modify, sign, or transfer important contracts or agreements quickly. If you’re looking for an organizational solution to help manage the large volume of files and documents within your organization, start by making it easier for yourself and your team by switching to cloud storage. With cloud file management, you can transfer your entire organization to a centralized location where your team can efficiently collaborate on content without wasting valuable time searching for files.
Success in using cloud services largely depends on how your teams organize files and content in the cloud. While using a cloud solution can be the answer to many of your organizational problems, it’s important to choose the right one that meets your business’s needs and keeps your content secure. Your company likely needs multiple ways of storing and organizing files, so choosing a cloud platform that doesn’t offer this flexibility could bring you right back where you started — poor organization and more downtime.
It’s important for company to have a solid management system in place. A document management system (DMS) is a strategy businesses use to store, manage, track, and control the flow of files and documents. The purpose of a DMS is to let users modify, recover, and archive documents as necessary. A DMS often uses cloud computing technology and cloud storage to enhance security and reduce the risk of lost files.
Cloud-based document management allows you to:
Digitize your files
Use security controls for verification
Enable e-signatures
Quickly share documents, no matter how large
Restrict access to certain content
Use cloud backup to restore or recover data when necessary
Enhance collaboration and accelerate workflows between on-site and remote teams
Important steps to remember about file storage.
1. Develop a folder naming system
One of the first steps you should take when developing a file system is properly naming your folders so you can organize files and retrieve them quickly when needed. If your organization has many different departments, naming your folders with the department name or relevant keywords can be helpful. While the cloud will show you the date of a file’s or folder’s creation, keeping information organized by name can help you and your team quickly search for a specific document.
2. Move your files
Drag your documents and files to their assigned folders. You can select multiple files at once to make this process easier.
3. Assign tags
Another tip for keeping track of your files within the cloud is assigning relevant metadata tags to each one. By right-clicking on any file, you can generally select the option to add descriptors that will help you properly index your files. Whether you add a subject, category, title, comment, or tag, it will enable you to later search for keywords within your content.
4. Create subfolders
Managing a large number of files and documents can be stressful if you spend half the time trying to find them, so creating subfolders within your folders can eliminate this struggle. Subfolders make it easier to find a document within a folder of the same topic or assignment. Keep in mind, you should use the same naming system for your subfolders as your original folder.
You can read more about Keeping Cloud Organized here.
Teknita has the expert resources to support all your technology initiatives. We are always happy to hear from you.
The term Big Data describes a massive volume of data that cannot be stored and processed by the traditional data storage / processing systems. Lately, data is generated at a rapid pace and in huge volume. It is being used by businesses toprocessandanalyzeto uncover hidden patterns and discover useful insights which add values to the business.
Big Data is commonly classified into three different categories.
Structured Data
Semi-Structured Data
Unstructured Data
Structured Data is characterized by the well-defined structure or schema. It follows a set of rules and constraints. Structured data usually consists of well-defined columns and stored in databases. The popular storage and processing system is called Database Management System (DBMS) or Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) such as MS SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 etc.
Semi-Structured Data is another form of structure data which follows only few characteristics of structured data and it does not comply with the formal structure of RDBMS data model. But the semi-structured data is also popular and useful in data processing such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), Comma Separated Values (CSV) file etc.
Unstructured data is completely undefined which means it does not follow any schema of formal data models. These type of data does not have any consistent format or fixed format. The commonly used unstructured data is image, audio, and video files.
Metaverse is the next evolution of digital technologies. It includes 3D virtualization and will transform digital technologies in the next 5–10 years. It is a collective virtual space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality. In other words, it is device-independent and is not owned by a single vendor. It is an independent virtual economy, enabled by digital currencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
A Metaverse represents a combinatorial innovation, as it requires multiple technologies and trends to function. Contributing tech capabilities include augmented reality (AR), flexible work styles, head-mounted displays (HMDs), an AR cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and spatial technologies.
There is a lot of excitement around Metaverse, much of it driven by technology companies preemptively claiming to be Metaverse companies, or creating Metaverses to enhance or augment the digital and physical realities of people. Moreover, activities that currently take place in siloed environments will eventually take place in a single Metaverse, such as:
Purchasing outfits and accessories for online avatars
Buying digital land and constructing virtual homes
Participating in a virtual social experience
Shopping in virtual malls via immersive commerce
Using virtual classrooms to experience immersive learning
Buying digital art, collectibles and assets (NFTs)
Interacting with digital humans for onboarding employees, customer service, sales and other business interactions
Elements of a Metaverse
Gartner is a technology research and consulting company. It described the elements of a Metaverse in the below diagram.
Gartner expects that by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse for work, shopping, education, social media and/or entertainment.
