Business analysts, the people who spend their days using Excel and Power Point, are the blue-collar workers of the corporate world. They are the ones who build the spreadsheets, assemble the review decks, and create the analytical reports that are the lifeblood of the modern corporation. Analysts know the key performance indicators, the most important line items in the P&L statement and which variances indicate a real problem. Business decision makers rely on analysts to provide the information they need to make decisions because there’s no one who knows the business better. It’s usually not a surprise, then, that when organizations adopt business intelligence tools like Power BI, analysts are the ones most often selected as the first to begin using the platform. ​

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When asking experienced Excel analysts to begin producing reports and analyses in Power BI, there’s often an implicit assumption that analysts already have the skills and knowledge needed to use Power BI. While there are many points of intersection, using Power BI effectively requires mastering a number of concepts that are largely unfamiliar to Excel users. Examples of these concepts include data tables, star schemas, dimension tables vs fact tables, and one-to-many relationships. Without understanding these fundamental concepts, analysts can struggle for months to use the tool correctly and efficiently.   ​

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Blue Collar BI exists to help organizations integrate Power BI into their workflows and to make the most of their investment. Jeff Lumpkin, BCBI’s CEO, has worked with hundreds of organizations to understand their analytics requirements and build reporting platforms to meet those needs. As a Microsoft Finance analyst and controller for 15 years, and a Principal Program Manager on the Power BI team, Jeff brings his hard-won experience and passion to every engagement. Blue Collar springs from Jeff’s vision that with the right knowledge, any organization can fully and quickly realize the value of their Power BI Investment.