Power BI is a cloud-based suite of business analytics tools that enables anyone to connect to, visualize, and analyze data with greater speed, efficiency, and understanding. It connects to a broad range of live data through easy-to-use dashboards, provides interactive reports, and delivers compelling visualizations that bring data to life.
Get Started with Power BI
Benefits and Features
Northwestern faculty and staff can:
- Combine data from multiple data sources in reports and visualizations
- Quickly produce graphs and visual representations of data
- Provide dynamic filtering
- Provide drill-through capabilities to share aggregate and detail data intuitively
- Combine visualizations in Dashboards to tell a broader storyIn addition, a variety of report types can be generated from the data and published on the web as well as across mobile devices through the use of Power BI Desktop.
Power BI Desktop
Power BI Desktop is a report development tool within the Office 365 applications and add-ins, and available for download from a Windows computer. It is used to create custom reports and for formatting the data into visualizations. These visualizations can be organized in a dashboard for individual use or shared via the dashboard in the Cloud.
To share reports and dashboards with others in the organization, a Power BI Pro license is required for the developer and anyone who will be consuming the shared reports.
Power BI Desktop and Power BI Pro Feature Comparison
Available to
Cost
There is no cost to use the Standard Power BI Desktop license.
The cost to use the Power BI Pro license cost is $2.00 per month for Faculty/Staff and $1.14 a month for Students.
How to Request Service
Click the appropriate button to the right.
Access and Licensing
To request access via the Standard or Pro license and for download instructions, please complete the Power BI Request form. Departmental approval is required.
A valid Chart String is required for any users requesting a Pro License.
Comparison of Power BI Standard vs Pro Licensing
Support Resources
Power BI is a self-service portal. Users should contact their local IT support to see if Power BI support is offered.
Additionally, online resources are provided by Microsoft, some of which are listed in the Additional Resources on this web page.