8 Problems BI Admins Face Everyday
As the world continues to rely more heavily on data-driven insights, the role of Power BI administrators has become increasingly important. At Datalogz, we are delving deeper into the unique challenges faced by Power BI admins.
A Business Intelligence (BI) administrator is a technical professional who is responsible for the planning, implementation, and maintenance of a company's BI systems and data management infrastructure. The specific job role of a BI administrator can vary depending on the size and complexity of the organization.
According to Accenture, 67% of the global workforce now have access to business intelligence tools. It’s a brilliant statistic, but it highlights the immense intricacy and the significance of a BI admin’s role within an organization.
Here are a few fundamental problems a BI admin has to deal with everyday:
Data integration and management: One of the key responsibilities of BI administrators is to ensure that data from disparate sources is properly integrated, cleaned, and transformed into a format that can be used for analysis and reporting. Datalogz provides pre-built data pipelines and transformers that can save time and reduce costs associated with building and maintaining another ETL pipeline.
Data security: Business intelligence systems often contain sensitive and confidential information, such as financial data or personal information. As such, BI administrators must ensure that proper security protocols are in place to protect the data from unauthorized access and prevent breaches. This may involve implementing encryption, firewalls, and access controls, as well as regularly monitoring the system for suspicious activity. Datalogz monitors for potential threats and suspicious activity using BI activity logs providing alerts and automations to keep their BI environment secure and compliant.
Scalability: As businesses grow and collect more data, BI systems must be able to scale to accommodate the increased volume. This requires a strong understanding of database architecture, as well as the ability to optimize system performance through techniques such as indexing and partitioning. Datalogz provides a detailed inventory and lineage of BI datasource, dataset, dashboard, report, and query metadata enabling you to get the most out of your BI system as you grow. Forecast query loads and understand the impact of reducing unused objects or optimizing refresh schedules to extend the runway of your BI budgets.
Performance optimization: BI systems must be fast and responsive in order to meet the needs of end-users. BI administrators must continually monitor the performance of the system and identify areas for improvement, such as optimizing SQL queries or fine-tuning the data model. Datalogz makes it easier for BI administrators to identify areas for improvement and optimize the system to meet the needs of end-users. These tools include advanced query optimization techniques, such as indexing and partitioning, as well as real-time performance monitoring and reporting of users, queries and their runtime stats.
User adoption: Ensuring that end-users adopt and effectively utilize the BI tools and systems is a critical aspect of BI administration. This may involve conducting training sessions, providing technical support, and working with end-users to understand their specific needs and how the BI system can best support them. Datalogz can work with BI admins and report builders to understand their specific needs and develop solutions that best support their administration and development needs – focused on how they can save time and cost to deliver on their organizations BI objectives and goals..
Technical compatibility: BI administrators must ensure that the BI tools and systems are compatible with other IT systems, such as databases and platforms. This may involve conducting compatibility testing, integrating with APIs, and ensuring that data is properly formatted for use in the BI system. Datalogz can provide documentation and automations that help extract metadata about artifacts and users and migrate these entities to new BI tools that the customer may be trying to switch to. This provides a lightweight tool to see your BI assets in a new platform which can accelerate the time to maximizing value gained from the BI environment.
Cost optimization: Finding ways to minimize expenses while maximizing value is a critical challenge for BI administrators. This may involve leveraging open-source solutions, implementing cost-saving measures such as cloud computing, and carefully balancing the need for new BI technologies with cost constraints. Datalogz provides recommendations for consolidating duplicate datasets and removing unused datasets which can drastically reduce compute costs. Additionally we find when licensing costs are being wasted on users or assets which are not using premium features or earning the benefits of the license they currently have.
Keeping up with new technologies and updates: Staying current with new technologies and updates regarding BI API capabilities is crucial for BI administrators to ensure that their company's BI systems are utilizing the latest capabilities when they result in increased ROI. Datalogz can help by providing resources to BI Admins to stay current with the latest trends and developments in BI technology, including updates to BI API capabilities. This helps ensure that the BI system remains effective and efficient in supporting the company's data analysis and decision-making needs.
Learn more about our solution here: datalogz.io/power-bi
