Self-service BI in medium-sized businesses requires clear structures and committed power users. We demonstrate in a practical way how we enable scalable self-service with a key user concept, central data sets, and an active Power BI community. Using concrete measures, challenges, and lessons learned, we explain how collaboration works alongside day-to-day business, what power users actually do, and how governance, training, and community building strengthen data-based decisions in the long term.

Zielpublikum: BI and analytics managers, IT and department heads, data governance managers, Power BI leads, digitalization managers—especially those from medium-sized businesses who want to establish self-service BI in a practical, scalable way without losing control.
Voraussetzungen: A basic understanding of BI and reporting concepts is helpful. The presentation is practice-oriented and easy to understand even without in-depth tool knowledge.
Level: Advanced

Extended Abstract:
Self-service BI poses a particular challenge for medium-sized businesses: limited resources, heavy day-to-day business, and high levels of dependency between departments and IT. It requires a shift in thinking within departments – away from manually maintained data and toward reliable data sources. In our presentation, we will show how we successfully master this balancing act with a scalable power user concept and clear governance.

Starting with a centralized BI approach, we gradually built up a data & analytics team that established the technical basis (Azure, Power BI, Microsoft Fabric), governance structures, and a digital mission statement. Only this foundation made it possible to open up self-service BI in a controlled manner and build a company-wide Power BI community in medium-sized businesses.

At the heart of this is our power user/key user concept:

Power users receive quality-assured data sets, including measures, descriptions, and authorization concepts, provided centrally by the data team. On this basis, they independently create reports for their departments. Production continues to be controlled via digital approval processes (Microsoft Forms & Power Automate).

We demonstrate in a concrete and practical way:

• What power users can do and do (reporting, KPI definition, technical validation).
• How collaboration works alongside day-to-day business – with clear schedules, regular jour fixe meetings, and binding responsibilities.
• Measures we use to build knowledge and ensure motivation:
• Basic training as a prerequisite for self-service
• Our own e-learning formats (CI templates, DAX basics, data storytelling)
• Interactive learning activities (e.g., BI Advent, Easter challenges)
• Monthly short videos with gamification elements
• BI consultation hours and individual coaching during report creation
• A central part of the presentation is our challenges and learnings:
• Dependence on the commitment of the specialist departments
• Lack of time for power users in their day-to-day business
• Different learning curves and data literacy. Data literacy only grows through support and clear responsibilities
• Need for clear consequences for non-compliance with schedules
• Governance is not a contradiction to agility, but a prerequisite for it.

We openly show what worked, what we adapted—and what didn't.

Today, we benefit from higher data quality, better thought-out KPIs, more complex evaluations, and significantly more data-driven decisions. At the same time, we provide an outlook on how we will further develop the approach—including the expansion of e-learning content, automation, the targeted use of modern platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, and a stronger anchoring of data literacy in the company.