Transitioning to Microsoft Power Platform: An Excel User Guide to Building Integrated Cloud Applications in Power Bi, Power Apps, and Power Automate

Welcome to this step-by-step guide for Excel users, data analysts, and finance specialists. It is designed to take you through practical report and development scenarios, including both the approach and the technical challenges. This book will equip you with an understanding of the overall Power Platform use case for addressing common business challenges.

While Power BI continues to be an excellent tool of choice in the BI space, Power Platform is the real game changer. Using an integrated architecture, a small team of citizen developers can build solutions for all kinds of business problems. For small businesses, Power Platform can be used to build bespoke CRM, Finance, and Warehouse management tools. For large businesses, it can be used to build an integration point for existing systems to simplify reporting, operation, and approval processes.

The author has drawn on his15 years of hands-on analytics experience to help you pivot from the traditional Excel-based reporting environment. By using different business scenarios, this book provides you with clear reasons why a skill is important before you start to dive into the scenarios. You will use a fast prototyping approach to continue to build exciting reporting, automation, and application solutions and improve them while you acquire new skill sets. The book helps you get started quickly with Power BI. It covers data visualization, collaboration, and governance practices. You will learn about the most practical SQL challenges. And you will learn how to build applications in PowerApps and Power Automate.

The book ends with an integrated solution framework that can be adapted to solve a wide range of complex business problems.

What You Will Learn

• Develop reporting solutions and business applications
• Understand the Power Platform licensing and development environment
• Apply Data ETL and modeling in Power BI
  
• Use Data Storytelling and dashboard design to better visualize data
  
• Carry out data operations with SQL and SharePoint lists
• Develop useful applications using Power Apps
• Develop automated workflows using Power Automate
• Integrate solutions with Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate to build enterprise solutions

Who This Book Is For

Next-generation data specialists, including Excel-based users who want to learn Power BI and build internal apps; finance specialists who want to take a different approach to traditional accounting reports; and anyone who wants to enhance their skill set for the future job market.

歡迎來到這本針對Excel使用者、資料分析師和財務專家的逐步指南。本書旨在引導您進行實際的報告和開發場景，包括方法和技術挑戰。本書將使您了解Power Platform在應對常見業務挑戰方面的整體用例。

儘管Power BI在商業智能領域仍然是一個出色的選擇，但Power Platform才是真正的遊戲改變者。使用集成架構，一個小型的公民開發團隊可以為各種業務問題構建解決方案。對於小型企業，Power Platform可以用於構建定制的CRM、財務和倉庫管理工具。對於大型企業，它可以用於構建現有系統的集成點，以簡化報告、操作和審批流程。

作者借鑒了自己15年的實踐分析經驗，幫助您從傳統的基於Excel的報告環境轉變。通過使用不同的業務場景，本書在您開始深入研究場景之前，提供了清晰的原因，解釋為什麼某種技能很重要。您將使用快速原型方法來持續構建令人興奮的報告、自動化和應用解決方案，同時獲得新的技能。本書幫助您快速入門Power BI，涵蓋數據可視化、協作和治理實踐。您將學習最實用的SQL挑戰，以及如何在PowerApps和Power Automate中構建應用程序。

本書以一個可適應解決方案框架作為結尾，該框架可用於解決各種複雜的業務問題。

您將學到什麼：
- 開發報告解決方案和業務應用程序
- 了解Power Platform的授權和開發環境
- 在Power BI中應用數據ETL和建模
- 使用數據敘事和儀表板設計更好地可視化數據
- 使用SQL和SharePoint列表進行數據操作
- 使用Power Apps開發有用的應用程序
- 使用Power Automate開發自動化工作流程
- 將解決方案與Power BI、Power Apps和Power Automate集成，構建企業解決方案

適合閱讀對象：
- 下一代數據專家，包括希望學習Power BI並構建內部應用程序的Excel使用者；希望對傳統會計報告採取不同方法的財務專家；以及希望提升自己的技能以應對未來就業市場的任何人。

David Ding is the director and lead consultant of SDInnovation, a consulting company that provides customized decision support and training services to organizations across multiple industries. David is a certified Power BI developer with a master's degree in data science. Previously, David held multiple senior business and technical positions. This book is part of his personal mission in helping everyone to get better with data.

「David Ding」是SDInnovation的董事兼首席顧問，該公司為各行業的組織提供定制的決策支持和培訓服務。David是一位擁有數據科學碩士學位的Power BI開發人員。在此之前，David曾擔任多個高級商業和技術職位。這本書是他個人使命的一部分，旨在幫助每個人更好地處理數據。