Data Acquisition & Transformations 

The process of connecting to and combining your data from any number of sources, either online (OneLake, Azure, Snowflake, AWS, etc.) or on-premises, where it can be transformed, shaped, or cleaned to align with any business requirements. Then loading the transformed data into the Data Model. All of this is done with a revolutionary data shaping tool built into Power BI, called Power Query. Learn the best practices and techniques for connecting and transforming your data within the Fabric Platform.

Data Modeling

After going through the Data Acquisition process, it's important to learn how to leverage data modeling design principles. Principles such as: building fact-type vs dimension-type tables, star vs snowflake schema performance impacts, and writing DAX measures optimized to create advanced metrics and insights. All these principles work together to transform your data into insights, and something that tells a compelling story.

Report & Dashboard Design

Equal importance needs to be placed on the design of reports themselves. Discover the art and science behind visual cues, chart types, color theory, and minimalist design approaches. Report design can also be enhanced by adding elements such as: drillthrough, bookmarks, report page tooltips, what-if scenarios, conditional formatting, and custom visuals. All of these, plus many other design techniques help deliver feature-rich reports that are intuitive, easy to use, and aesthetically pleasing.

Sharing, Governance, & Administration

Another common hurdle people experience is figuring out how to share reports and content and the data culture surrounding it. There are important steps involved when it comes to sharing reports online effectively and securely, with clear implementation within your governance or administration policies. Important next steps include sharing content with the correct users, scheduling automatic refreshes, creating workspaces and apps, standing up a center of excellence, and implementing row-level security so the data is secured. Additionally, Power BI can be embedded in custom environments such as Dynamics 365 or secured external websites.

Enterprise CI/CD, DevOps, & Version Control

For many clients, it is important to have the correct architecture to allow for secure version control, automated deployment pipelines, or effective tools to allow for multi-authoring for datasets. All to service a continuous integration / continuous deployment experience. Within the Microsoft stack there are many tools available to provide these enterprise-grade features.

Within the Fabric Service considerations can be made for using Power BI Premium, Premium Per User, Deployment Pipelines, Metrics/Goals, One Lake, Data Flows Gen 2, Embedded, and more! Additionally within the Microsoft Fabric Platform, Power Apps creates app-like experiences and Power Automate creates powerful workflows. Lastly, there are a number of Azure (Machine Learning, Synapse, Purview, Databricks, Gen2 Storage) and Dynamics 365 (CRM) data integrations for Power BI.

Office Hours (Remote Consulting)

Are you facing a pressing issue that requires immediate attention? Our team of experts offers remote consulting services for all aspects of the Fabric Platform.

We'll happily setup a remote meeting using Teams, Zoom, or whatever remote conference software you prefer. From there we can help to diagnose and fix whatever issue you might be having.

If you are interested in setting up remote consulting, or if you just have general questions. Please visit our contact & support page below.

On-Site Trainings

Are you ready to empower your team with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed with the Fabric Platform? Look no further than Havens Consulting's instructor-led trainings, available both on-site and remotely.

Our approach to training is hands-on and personal, with expert instructors guiding attendees through the process of building and sharing stunning visualizations and valuable data insights using the tools within the Fabric Platform. Our curriculum, designed by Havens Consulting founder Reid Havens, mirrors the report development process, allowing attendees to easily apply their new skills back at the office.

Reid has developed a variety of training content for Havens Consulting and other organizations, delivering it to dozens of companies around the world over the past ten years. He has also developed college-level classes for The University of Washington and Bellevue College, so you can trust in his expertise.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to enable true self-service business intelligence and insights for your team. Check out our standard training offerings below and get in touch to learn more.

Designing Impactful Reports in Power BI

(One Day)

This training covers essential design principles and the necessary features available to build impactful reports in Power BI Desktop, and then share in the Power BI Service.

You will learn about methodologies such as: visual cues, chart types, color theory, and minimalist design approaches. Students will also learn about how to enhance report design by adding elements such as: drillthrough, bookmarks, report page tooltips, what-if scenarios, conditional formatting, custom visuals, and more.

Best practices and recommendations will build upon the methodologies and features to provide a strong report design foundation.

This training will appeal to those new to Power BI and report design, and also for those already working with Power BI (for these individuals, this training will help fill in any gaps in your knowledge).

Advanced Analysis, Calculations, and KPI’s with DAX

(One Day)

As an intermediate/advanced user, you should already have a good foundation in the basics of DAX, including using basic aggregation functions such as SUM, as well as more advanced functions such as CALCULATE and FILTER. You should also be familiar with model relationship types and filter propagation, as well as external tools like DAX Studio and/or Tabular Editor.

In this course, we will take your skills to the next level by diving deeper into these topics and introducing you to more advanced functions and practices.

You will learn about advanced DAX techniques such as: advanced time intelligence functions, multiple date and time dimension tables, applying context transition, creating semi-additive measures, working with many-to-many relationships, implementing Row-Level-Security (RLS), incorporating variables, and more.

Best practices and recommendations will build upon the methodologies and features to provide an enhanced DAX language understanding.