One of the secrets for creating a great Intranet is to deliver high value content that brings people back time after time. PowerBI is a great tool for building rich interactive dashboards for visualising and analysing data. The PowerBI webpart gives you the ability to add dashboards to SharePoint pages.

In this video I demonstrator how adding PowerBI webparts to SharePoint using a little dashboard I built using Cricket statistics. You could use PowerBI dashboards you already have or build a new one as needed.

Users need a PowerBI Pro or Premium license to view dashboards with the webpart. Microsoft 365 E5 and A5 subscriptions include PowerBI Pro.

How to use the PowerBI webpart:

• In PowerBI, either copy the URL or choose Embed > SharePoint Online
• In SharePoint Online, edit your page
• Add the PowerBI webpart to the section of the page you want the webpart to appear
• Edit the webpart and paste the URL
• Set the aspect ratio (16:9 or 4:3)
• Save the page

(How to embed PowerBI)

Things to consider:

• Check rendering in the Mobile App. Some layouts require the device to be held landscape.
• The dashboard will change as data updates. Consider this when creating content on the page e.g. if you reference a specific data point on the dashboard what happens if the data changes?
• Users without PowerBI Pro or Premium licensing won’t see the dashboard

Some common use cases for PowerBI webparts:

• Reporting portal where users view and interact with dashboards via SharePoint.  This is great for end users who aren’t power users.
• Adding data visualisation to News posts e.g. the monthly report showing company performance. Be careful of changing data!
• Project portals showing budget information, burn down charts etc

This webpart is a great tool for making rich data available in your intranet, especially if you already have the licensing.

Getting Started with PowerBI

PowerBI Licensing