Power BI Will Launch With Office 365 Groups, Content Packs and More!

When Power BI v2 launches on July 24, it will be delivered with some new features previously unavailable in the preview version.

Support for Office 365 Groups

Power BI will support Office 365 groups for team collaboration.  If you are already using Office 365 groups you will be able to repurpose them in Power BI and/or you can create new ones for collaborating with colleagues around your datasets, dashboards, etc.

Organizational Content Packs

Content packs are deployable and sharable collections of datasets, dashboards and connections to data sources that you can prepare and then share with the rest of the organization.  Similar to an app store model, content packs will be both available from commercial vendors as well as deployable from private organizations through their own private distribution point.

Extended Support for Excel

Power BI will bring in the features of Excel Online into its native experience and support visualization of a number of Excel features such as:

  • Pivot Tables
  • Charts
  • Slicers
  • Data in tables and worksheets
  • Power view sheets

This functionality has been available in Power View and the original Power BI for a while – now it appears in the new Power BI feature set.

Replace Excel, Power BI Desktop and CSV Files in Power BI

if you create dashboards based on excel files, CSV files or a Power BI Desktop definition you won’t have to re-create them if you need to replace the original file.

Row Level Security for On Premises SSAS Tabular Models

Power BI now respects row level security rules and permissions defined in your on premise SSAS tabular models.  Dashboards connected to your on premise SSAS tabular models will only show data that the authenticated user is allowed to access.

Christopher Woodill

About ME

Enterprise technology leader for the past 15+ years…certified PMP, Six Sigma Black Belt and TOGAF Enterprise Architect. I collaborate with companies to help align their strategic objectives with concrete implementable technology strategies. I am Vice President, Enterprise Solutions for Klick Health.

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