PBI self-service integration

Project description

The main research question:

How can the current PBI dashboards be modified in such a manner that the user is able to generate visuals through self-service functionalities?

Context

BDO is an accountacy / advisory firm that uses Power BI to analyze the finances of their clients. For each client, depending of the sector they're in, a general dashboard is made. But often the client or BDO employee have a request for data they want to see visualized in the dashboard. Because of the workload of the BDO developers these requests are not always possible or on hold. That's why BDO wants to research the potential solution of Power BI Q&A tool, where users can create their own visuals through forming a question.

Results

We've researched multiple solutions and considered alternative tools but in the end this is our conclusion:

Utilizing the available Power BI Q&A feature is by far the most cost-effective and straightforward solution, although it may require some effort from both the developers and users.

On the other hand, the constraints of the offered Power BI Q&A feature can be rectified, and the Q&A tool can be utilized to fulfill all of the users' demands by building the own custom Q&A functionality only for BDO based on the available Q&A provided by Power BI.

We suggest that BDO initially adopts the available built-in Q&A tool as a means to evaluate user response, acquire valuable insights, and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages through practical usage. Subsequently, if deemed beneficial, BDO can allocate resources towards developing their own Q&A functionality to address any deficiencies in the existing tool. As the MijnBDO environment is going to be rebuilt in the next few year, BDO can consider at the same time develop their own Q&A functionality. Should the built-in Q&A fall short of expectations and necessitate modifications, BDO can explore the option of integrating an embedded Q&A solution to enhance and tailor the Q&A experience accordingly.

About the project group

We're all coming from the Fontys Business semesters and we've done a specialisation in Artificial Intelligence. Wycliffe and Anh have already finished their minor and are looking for an internship for next semester while the rest of us are going into the minor next semester.

This project we worked on for 14 schoolweeks, spending 5 days a week, 3 days on site and 2 days of working from home. Because of personal development, workshops and other events the working hours on the project varied over the weeks.