Powerful, easy up to date reporting on all devices with Power BI
We support a large number of tourist park operators and accommodation providers running NewBook, a cloud based reservation system. We got in touch with the developers last week and asked if we could get API access to a test tenant to see if we could connect NewBook to Power BI. We wanted to create some cool Business Intelligence dashboards with up to date reporting for our customers.
NewBook’s developers responded the same day with the details, and I spent the weekend putting it together. I had a lot of fun getting this working, and I think the end result is so powerful we’ll be offering it as a standalone service.
The architecture of the solution is pretty straightforward, though it took me a few iterations to settle on this one.
The solution works via a .Net console app running on Microsoft Azure. The app pulls up to date booking and revenue information from NewBook and sends it on to Azure Table Storage. Power BI connects to the table storage as a data source. We used Power BI desktop to create some interesting graphs and charts, and published the results to a Power BI dashboard where it can be viewed on all devices.
What does it look like?
Here’s some sample charts that I put together yesterday, though you don’t have to be restricted to the below examples. One of the coolest things about Power BI is its powerful natural language Q&A feature, you can ask it pretty much anything and it’ll build the chart instantly - I’ll add an example of that below.
See a snapshot of your current guests:
Dive into the data to gain more insight. Dashboards link with the reports we published from Power BI Desktop. Clicking on a charts segment will update other charts. Now we can see that 8 of our 36 bookings are here on business, most of them booked direct, and are staying in a permanent cabin or van.
We can also view historical financial and booking data. This can help you get an understanding of your business’ performance over time.
Even better on mobile
Power BI apps are available for mobile devices too, where the charts become even more interactive. Tapping the charts and rotating them by touch unlocks more information.
Here’s the natural language Q&A feature. You can ask it questions about your business and it’ll generate a chart that you can pin to your dashboards.
Dashboards can be created, annotated and shared amongst your team. You can display them on TV’s, interact with them on phones and tablets or just use them via your PC or laptop.
Interested in Power BI and NewBook?
If you’re interested in Power BI, or if you’d like to get your NewBook reporting set up like this, get in touch with us.
Interested in using Newbook to manage your resort or tourist park property? Find out more here.
