In this guide, part 1 of a 3-part series, we’ll dive into Power BI Datamarts, exploring the process of building and optimizing this powerful tool. By leveraging the benefits of Datamarts, you can transform raw data into focused analytics and reporting capabilities.

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Introduction to Datamarts

Power BI Datamarts consolidate and integrate data from various sources, creating a centralized repository of valuable information. This streamlines analysis and provides decision-makers with a holistic view of organizational performance, enabling informed decisions, trend identification, and driving strategic initiatives. In addition, Datamarts also empower technical delivery roles to transform raw data into meaningful visualizations, fostering collaboration and data-driven decision-making at all levels.

The Purpose of Datamarts

In Power BI, Datamarts emerge as specialized subsets within the broader realm of data warehousing. Picture Datamarts as focused enclaves that cater to specific business functions or departments within your organization. By specializing in targeted areas, Datamarts allow for streamlined data retrieval and analysis, enabling users to uncover valuable insights quickly and efficiently. They act as repositories of curated data, carefully selected, and transformed to serve the specific needs of a particular business unit. With their purposeful design, Datamarts have become invaluable tools for decision-making, empowering users with actionable information at their fingertips. Whether it’s sales, finance, marketing, or any other domain, Datamarts offer a tailored approach to data exploration, driving informed strategies and propelling organizational growth.’

Benefits of using Datamarts in Power BI

 

Enhanced Performance:

Datamarts, with their focused data subsets, enable faster query responses and improved performance. By consolidating relevant data and optimizing its structure, Power BI can swiftly process and analyze information, empowering users to make real-time decisions.

Tailored Insights:

Datamarts provide a targeted lens into specific business functions or departments, allowing users to extract insights relevant to their unique needs. This tailored approach ensures that decision-makers have the right information at their fingertips, facilitating more accurate and actionable decision-making processes.

Simplified Data Management:

With Datamarts, you can organize and manage data in a way that aligns with your organizational structure. By centralizing and structuring data based on specific business units, Power BI simplifies data governance, making it easier to maintain and update information as needed.

Improved Collaboration:

Datamarts foster collaboration among teams by providing a shared understanding and access to relevant data. With the ability to create workspaces in Power BI, users can collaborate seamlessly, exploring data, creating reports, and sharing insights, fostering a data-driven culture across the organization.

Scalability and Flexibility:

As your organization grows, Datamarts offer scalability and flexibility. You can expand your Datamarts or create new ones to accommodate evolving business needs, ensuring that your data architecture remains agile and adaptable to changing requirements.

Datamart Design and Creation

In Power BI, Datamarts emerge as specialized subsets within the broader realm of data warehousing. Picture Datamarts as focused enclaves that cater to specific business functions or departments within your organization. By specializing in targeted areas, Datamarts allow for streamlined data retrieval and analysis, enabling users to uncover valuable insights quickly and efficiently. They act as repositories of curated data, carefully selected, and transformed to serve the specific needs of a particular business unit. With their purposeful design, Datamarts have become invaluable tools for decision-making, empowering users with actionable information at their fingertips. Whether it’s sales, finance, marketing, or any other domain, Datamarts offer a tailored approach to data exploration, driving informed strategies and propelling organizational growth.’

Creating a Datamart

1. To follow along, you can download the dataset from Maven Analytics Free Data Playground labeled “Tour de France”
2. Log into Power BI Service.
   • Link: https://app.powerbi.com/
3. Navigate to a workspace that has Premium Capacity enabled.
4. Click “New” and then “Datamart (Preview)”.
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   2. After naming your Datamart, select “Get data”.
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   3. Select a data connection, in this example we will be using the Excel Workbook data source.
      • Local/OneDrive Excel files do not require a gateway; however, you should log in using the authorization from your company account.
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   4. Select “Link to file” or “Upload File” and that your Excel file type is any of the following: .xl, .xls, .xlsb, .xlsm, .xlsw, .xlsx.
   5. When you’ve successfully uploaded or linked your file, the connection credentials should update and reflect your own personal credentials.
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   6. After your connection has been successfully established, you will then be able to transform your data.
      1. You can keep adding additional connections while in the power query data transformation stage.
      2. I’ll be adding all 4 excel files to my Datamart.
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      3. Next, we will transform the data in each of the four files. For nulls, I’m
         • When you are done transforming your data, you will click “Save” in the bottom right corner.
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      4. When the data has successfully loaded into your Datamart, your screen will look like the image below.
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      5. I will now connect the tables together by clicking the “Model” tab at the bottom, like you can in your local Power BI application.
         • 

Connecting Reports to Datamarts

1. To connect your report or dashboards to a published Datamart, go into your desired workspace and select “New”.
   • Note: The report does not need to be in the same workspace that the Datamart was created in.
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2. Select “Report” from the list in the dropdown.
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3. Select “Pick a Published dataset”.
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4. Select the desired Datamart you want and then the dropdown, near the green button labeled “Auto-Create Report”, and select “Blank Report”.
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5. Now you can start developing your report.
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Summary of Key Points

Datamart Design and Creation: 

The process of creating a Datamart in Power BI involves identifying business requirements, defining scope and structure, selecting appropriate data sources, connecting Power BI to data sources, and ensuring data security.

Benefits of Datamarts:

Datamarts offer several advantages and empower organizations to extract maximum value from their data assets. This includes improved performance, streamlined analysis, enhanced data governance, and targeted insights specific to business functions.

Creating a Datamart and Connecting to Power BI Report:

This article demonstrated how to create a Datamart in Power BI covering data modeling, data transformation and connecting to a Power BI Report in a different workspace. 

In part 2 of this Power BI Datamarts blog series, we’ll dive into various optimization techniques, present an overview on connecting PBI to a data source (with examples), and advanced company-wide Datamart configuration options.

About the Author:

Rick J – BI Developer:

As a Business Intelligence Developer, I work with clients to elevate and maintain their Power BI environments by optimizing their premium capacity performance, delivering company solutions using enhanced ETL process and architecture, and act as an advanced issue resolution specialist. I’ve managed over 3,000 workspaces as a Power BI Administrator and developed C-suite reports using cloud-based data sources. My main technology stack resides in SQL, Python, machine learning, and M-Query but I’ve been known to dabble in PowerShell and other languages where needed.