Why Use Power BI?
Power BI is used by Information Technology for building and publishing public and internal metrics and dashboards to provide performance and trend awareness, as well as to help identify areas for service improvement.
To get the most from Power BI, simple data sources (e.g., Excel files) must be stored in a place that is always accessible. That excludes storage on personal computers. Box has proved problematic due to authentication issues.
As a result, the data for IT dashboards is stored in a single location in SharePoint, in the Documents folder in the IT Dashboards site at https://csuchico.sharepoint.com/dashboards. If you need access to this site, please get in touch with Tony Dunn.
Location of Documents
All dashboard source documents (except for specific databases), should be kept within the IT Dashboards site in Documents>Dashboard Data.
![Location of Dashboard documents](https://support.csuchico.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=0b55f6d4-2d4a-4306-8972-db2f50b1a516.png)
Adding and Updating Files
The easiest way to add and manage files in this folder is to sync the folder on your computer. This will allow you to treat the folder like any other folder on your computer. You will have access to all files in the folder, will be able to open, edit, and save the files just like any other locally stored document.
- To sync the Documents folder, click on "Documents" in the site navigation and then click on the "Sync" button.
![Sync](https://support.csuchico.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=ba8e4b32-4c67-4627-8558-352e7d078b2f.png)
- Office 365 will ask you to "Sync now".
- If you do not have OneDrive for Business installed on your computer, you may need to install that first.
- Click on the "Sync now" button.
- You may be prompted to select an application.
- Select "Microsoft OneDrive for Business" if it is available. It may take a few minutes for the initial sync to occur.
![Sync now](https://support.csuchico.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=effe29ce-fe6a-4d78-aede-03a92e26b37c.png)
- Once synced, you will see "SharePoint" appear in Windows Explorer. Clicking on that will show the "IT Dashbaords - Documents" folder.
![SharePoint Synced](https://support.csuchico.edu/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=44774410-b2e6-4025-b2c3-776641df01f0.png)