What Are Content Packs?

If you already use Power BI, then you know that one of the best things about Power BI is its organization system. Power BI streamlines your data organization, funneling widely distributed and seemingly unrelated data into a centralized location. As a result, you can use all your relevant data and avoid missing out on any important pieces of the business intelligence puzzle.

Of course, once you’ve gathered your data, you can then use that data to create visual reports, collaborate with your team members, and provide all the necessary data analysis tools based on each team member’s role. If you’re new to Power BI, then you may still be discovering all that Power BI’s organization has to offer. For example, have you thought about content packs? With content packs, you can make your Power BI collaboration experience even more effective for your business intelligence projects.

What are Content Packs?

A content pack is a feature that you can access if you have either the pro or premium version of Power BI. With Power BI in general, you have shareable reporting options, such as dashboards. A content pack lets you boost your collaboration and organization within your reporting efforts. With a content pack, you can gather and store the information that you need in a single space, and then you can share those contents with your team members. You might think of content packs as virtual boxes. You can have several boxes, each containing the data that you’ll need for a specific project. In those boxes, you can place items such as:

• Dashboards
• Datasets
• Reports
• Excel workbooks

Then, instead of sending your information piece by piece, you can share the entirety of your content pack to your colleagues. If you have the premium or pro version of Power BI, you can create a content pack with the following actions:

• From your Power BI navigation panel, click on “Workspaces.”
• Click on “My Workspaces.”
• You’ll see a new navigation panel. Click on the cog icon.
• Click on “create new content pack.”

Now all that’s left is to name your content pack and add the data that you need for your project. As the creator of the content pack, you’ll be the only person who can edit, add to, or delete it. The team members with whom you share your content pack will see a “read-only” version. However, team members can copy the content pack and customize their own version, should the need arise, based on their role.

A Note on the New Workspace Experience

Microsoft recently upgraded the Power BI workspace experience to create more flexibility and better project communication. The new workspace experience works well for a lot of users. However, it’s important to note that new workspaces won’t allow you to create content packs. To keep using and creating content packs, you can upgrade your content packs to apps, or you can revert to the classic workspace experience.

What Can You Do With Your Power BI Content Packs?

If you do use the classic workspace, what can you do with your content packs? Just like with Power BI as a whole, you can share data, collaborate, update reports, and more. The content pack format simply provides a highly organized and compartmentalized way to perform those actions.

Additionally, you can send Power BI content packs to specific divisions and have each division create their own customized version of those content packs. This way, each team has the same set of data through the original version, but those teams can also work within their own departments on the content that matters most for their roles. Should you happen to delete the original content pack or remove people from the project, those who made customized copies will still be able to access them.

What Makes Content Packs So Effective?

Power BI contains several ways for team leaders to create and share reports, so what makes content packs a preferred choice for so many creators? For a lot of these creators, the fact that content packs are stored in the AppSource makes them an ideal choice. Because of its AppSource location, you don’t have to send project information via email. The information stays in a centralized location, and all your team members can access it easily. Everybody stays on the same page because they’re working from the same source.

Content packs also appeal to owners of large and complex businesses because they offer heightened compartmentalization. If you have multiple projects involving business intelligence, content packs can help you maintain all those projects effectively.

Furthermore, because content packs let you keep a central, standardized version of the content while letting others customize their own versions, you can maximize efficiency while minimizing confusion.

How ChristianSteven Helps You Maximize Your Content Pack Benefits

ChristianSteven offers several solutions to help you expand the capabilities of your Power BI service. Take PBRS, for example. This software allows you to export reports in whatever format you prefer, so you don’t have to limit yourself to Excel. You can also schedule automated reporting, and you can send your reports to any destination. This way, you can share your data with as many offline users as necessary, and you can do so under a single Power BI license.

PBRS is just one example of ChristianSteven solutions, though. Our solutions are designed to help you get the most out of your business intelligence tools. Whichever service works best for your needs, we’ll help you make sure that none of your necessary data goes to waste.

Explore Our Solutions With Your Free Trial

You can try PBRS or any of our other solutions for yourself. With a free trial and/or a demo, you can get an idea of how these solutions can expand your data capabilities and smooth your decision-making process. Contact us today if you have any questions, or take a look at PBRS and other product options. Whether you use content packs or other Power BI tools, using ChristianSteven solutions can add to your reporting capabilities in exciting and dynamic ways.

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