Power BI 2020 Release Wave 2

In October, the next major update of Microsofts business applications will be launched, which includes the apps in Power Platform and thus Power BI. Here you can read more about the ambitions Microsoft has with Power BI as well as the new functions and options that will be implemented during Power BI 2020 Release Wave 2, which will be rolled out between October 2020 to March 2021.

Get an overview of Power BI 2020 release wave 2

Microsoft's business intelligence (BI) application, Power BI, simplifies and streamlines the way companies through transaction and observation data gain insight into their business. BI contributes to creating a culture around the approach to data in the companies, where employees make decisions and determine strategies for the company that are based on facts, rather than arbitrary and subjective opinions.

To drive and support a data culture, Microsoft is investing in three key areas in the development of power BI:

Unique data experiences
Contemporary and groundbreaking BI for companies
Give company decision makers insight

Go directly to the list of new features that will be rolled out in the run of Power BI 2020 Release Wave 2.

1. Unique data experiences

With 2020 Release Wave 2, Microsoft continues their ambition to build uå a culture in the companies that supports the use of data and not least the recognition of the importance of the insights hidden in it. To achieve this, it is important that the individual employee has an immediate and familiar user experience which is combined with AI-influenced data insight.

To keep the solution up-to-date at all times, Microsoft regularly provides monthly updates to Power BI. These updates include enhanced reporting features that make it easier than ever to compile significant and relevant content for your reports. The updates also continue to focus on enabling insights that are based on AI technology and are instantly impactful and effective.

To accommodate the need for all employees, regardless of department and area of responsibility and in whatever context and where they are located, to gain insight into the data, Microsoft has developed a mobile Power BI app, which is not just the world's leading BI mobile app, but which also makes it possible to embed BI in your applications, websites and portals. This enables the individual employee across the company to operate and develop a better data culture.

2. Contemporary and groundbreaking BI for companies

Regardless of the size of your company and which industry you operate in, Power BI can be scaled so that the BI solution meets your needs. Therefore, more and more large companies are choosing to standardize their BI by starting using Power BI.

With Power BI, your company, also on a global level, can create a well-regulated, scalable and unified BI platform that meets security requirements and meets a growing need among many companies for both a self-service and a central BI solution.

In short, Power BI is a modern BI platform that is at the technological forefront, compatible and capable of meeting the company's needs for business analysis and provides key updates of semantic models at the enterprise level, reporting, lifecycle management of applications and data management worldwide.

3. Give company decision makers insight

Something that the users of Power BI value most about the solution is how the BI platform contributes to BI being integrated deep into the company's structure itself, so that the insight that is often hidden in the large amounts of data is revealed.

Confidence in security
Implementing a BI platform broadly in a company is to a large extent also a matter of trust. Therefore, the Power BI developers at Microsoft have committed to making Power BI a completely open platform. In addition, large investments have been made in data protection, which, even when exported from Power BI, protects data. In addition, Power BI has a wide range of certifications that ensure that the BI platform complies with compliances and regulations around the world.

Handling large amounts of data
No matter where your data is located, in the cloud or on-premises, Power BI is designed to be able to retrieve, manage and work with it. When users need to develop new BI, analytics or data storage projects, Microsoft has made it radically easier with Azure Synapse Analytics. With the built-in functionality for data acquisition, data preparation, machine learning (ML) and data visualization, Synapse reduces overall ownership costs and creates, by saving time, added value and furthermore delivers a unique performance in relation to handling the large amounts of data.

From insight to action to automation
For many users of Power BI, the ability to quickly go from insight into data, to action based on that insight, and to automate the actions, is an important parameter. The applications in Power Platform (Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents) together make, quite uniquely, this possible. The apps are designed to collaborate and make it easy for users to quickly and easily adapt to new or changed business requirements.

Integration and collaboration
The value of insight increases dramatically when it is shared. By integrating Power BI with Office 365, Excel, Business Central, etc., insight is shared with everyone, no matter where they work and what they work with.

New and planned features and capabilities in Power BI

Power BI Desktop
Help report developers analyze company data, gain insight into data, and achieve simple and effective visual communication with the users.

Lasso select for datapoints
On-canvas watermarks
Power Automate visual
Small multiples visual
User editing of DirectQuery query parameters
Visual axis zooming
Composite models over Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services
Apply all button for report filters
Q&A synonym improvements
DirectQuery support for Q&A

Power BI Mobile
The mobile app for Power BI continues to help and support companies that want to create and promote a data-driven culture. By providing access to business data, anytime, anywhere and from any device, the mobile app helps create that culture.

Split view support for iPad

Power BI Service
In order to be able to build a wide-ranging and deep data culture, it is important that all company employees are able to seek insight into data and collaborate on the basis of this insight.

Data lineage and impact analysis enhancements
Endorsement of Power BI reports and apps
Power BI data as an Excel data type
Azure Synapse integration
Analyze in Power BI from SharePoint lists
Data protection enhancements
Support for dataflows in deployment pipelines
Support for paginated reports in deployment pipelines
Overload alerts
Ability for Power BI administrators to upgrade classic workspaces to V2 workspaces
Dataflows DirectQuery
Dataset refresh overview
Enhanced export and subscription support for Power BI reports
New look rollout to all users
Connect to Power BI datasets directly in Excel
Power BI dataflows and Azure Data Lake Storage integration at workspace level
Azure Monitor integration
Advanced network isolation