Data is only valuable when it helps businesses see the big picture. It shows which products are in higher demand, which teams are working more efficiently, or which suppliers are more profitable to work with. To make analytics clear and understandable, progressive companies try to hire Power BI developers. But this is a challenge, because finding a team that not only knows the tool but also immerses itself in the business task is more difficult than it seems.
Many contractors can build a dashboard. However, not all specialists are able to ask the right questions, identify the logic of business processes, and turn your ideas into working solutions. In this article, we will look at how to choose a team that will meet your expectations. That is, one that will contribute to a quick return on investment. After all, that is the main goal, isn’t it?
Who Is This Article For?
This material will be useful for project managers, analysts, IT directors, production managers, and business owners who plan to hire an external team of Power BI developers.
This article will help those who:
- already use Power BI but face limitations of internal resources;
- wants to scale analytics without losing control over business logic;
- is looking for contractors capable of adapting technical solutions to real management tasks.
This material will help you make an informed decision when choosing a team that not only knows how to work well with the tools, but also takes into account the specifics of your business.
Defining Project Goals
Why should you start with defining goals? The fact is that a team of developers can create hundreds of visually appealing dashboards, but if they do not meet the company’s key requirements, they will only create unnecessary “noise.” Therefore, before looking for contractors, it is worth defining your priorities, for example:
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- Do you need in-depth financial reporting for management?
- Is it critical to see daily sales dynamics and the work of the marketing department?
- Is it important to integrate CRM, ERP, or other sources of information into a single system?
- Is it worth focusing on demand forecasting and resource optimization?
The defined goals will become a roadmap for the future team. This will allow you to immediately understand what competencies will be needed: for example, whether you need strong knowledge of financial models or expertise in integrating complex systems.
What Basic Competencies Should A Team Have?
For a Power BI project to truly deliver results, the team should ideally be versatile, combining technical expertise with business acumen. That is, it should be able to build a system that will live and grow with the company. To do this, it will need:
- First, in-depth knowledge of Power BI: working with DAX formulas, Power Query, building data models, creating optimized architecture. These skills allow you to work with large-scale information flows.
- Second, experience in building ETL processes and working with DWH. Often, it is at this stage that the quality of future analytics is determined. The developer must know how records are cleaned, how tables are structured, and how different sources are connected.
- Third, the ability to integrate solutions with business systems — ERP, CRM, SQL databases, APIs, and cloud platforms — is highly valued. Without this integration, analytics remain isolated: dashboards are built on fragmented data that is frequently loaded manually or not updated automatically. This creates the risk of errors, duplication, and loss of relevance of information.
- And finally, business context is important. Developers need to understand how processes work in finance, retail, or manufacturing in order to create not just graphs, but understandable tools for management decision-making.
Here is a table showing the basic competencies of the Power BI team depending on the type of business:
| Business type | Core competencies of the Power BI team |
| Retail and e-commerce | Building sales and forecasting models, integration with CRM/ERP, inventory analytics, creating dashboards to track conversions and customer behavior. |
| Financial sector | In-depth work with large transaction volumes, risk control and compliance, building KPIs for profitability management, integration with accounting and banking systems. |
| Manufacturing | Production process analytics, supply chain monitoring, quality control, cost, and resource optimization. |
| Marketing and advertising | Integration with digital platforms (Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, etc.), real-time campaign analysis, ROI and CPA visualization, dashboards for comparing promotion channels. |
| Healthcare | Working with medical records and patient indicators, analyzing clinic workload, monitoring treatment effectiveness, complying with data confidentiality requirements. |
| Logistics and transportation | Tracking routes and fuel costs, warehouse load analytics, demand forecasting, delivery time optimization. |
How To Evaluate The Technical Skills Of The Team
Technical competence is one of the decisive criteria for selecting Power BI developers. There are several ways to check whether the team really has the required level of expertise:
- Case studies and examples of dashboards. Ask to see ready-made solutions: interactive dashboards, analytical models, automated reports. This will help you understand the team’s working style. Case studies from various industries — finance, retail, e-commerce, manufacturing — demonstrate the ability to adapt solutions to the specifics of the client.
- Test task. A small practical task is a working way to test the team’s skills. This could be optimizing an existing report, building a data model, or creating an interactive visualization.
- Certifications and training. Microsoft certifications (such as Power BI Data Analyst Associate) confirm the official level of knowledge. In addition, it is worth asking whether the team undergoes regular training and updates its skills.
- Approach to optimization and scaling. Experienced developers not only build dashboards from scratch, but also optimize existing data models. At the same time, they ensure high performance with large amounts of information and take future scaling into account.
- Customer reviews and recommendations. Nowadays, few people believe anonymous reviews posted on websites. However, if the team is active on various platforms, such as social networks and freelance exchanges, you will likely find genuine impressions. Alternatively, if developers are recommended to you by acquaintances, this also gives hope for effective cooperation.
An experienced team can clearly outline the timeline and clearly describe the stages: what will be done, how, and when. This allows the business to immediately plan its budget, count on a specific result, and control it. Below is an example from a presentation by an experienced team.
Cooperation format
Once the Power BI team has been selected based on experience and skills, the next question is how to organize cooperation. Here, it is important to consider the scope of the tasks, the duration of the project, and the company’s internal resources. There are several options:
- Project work is suitable if you need to create a specific solution: dashboards for financial reporting, integration with ERP, or a separate analytics system for marketing. In this case, the team comes for a fixed term, completes the task, and delivers the finished product.
- A long-term partnership becomes relevant when a business constantly works with large amounts of information and needs regular updates and development of its BI system. This model provides stable support and quick response to changes.
- Outsourcing or out staffing allows you to scale resources: bring in external experts without expanding your staff, or add individual specialists to your current team. This is especially convenient for companies that are limited in resources or need “technical reinforcement.”
- Consulting and training are appropriate when an internal team already exists but needs an experienced mentor to build processes or optimize data models.
The right format of cooperation helps not only to implement a BI project, but also to ensure its effectiveness in the future.
Red Flags When Choosing Power Bi Developers
When choosing a team of Power BI developers, it is important not only to see their strengths, but also to notice signs that may indicate future problems:
- Lack of case studies and examples of work. If the team cannot show examples of completed projects, it is difficult to understand their level and real experience.
- Promises of quick results without analyzing business goals. BI projects always require understanding the context, working with information sources, and building architecture. If these steps are ignored, the quality of the solution will be questionable.
- Underestimating the integration stage. When specialists only talk about dashboards but do not mention ETL, DWH, or record quality checks, it means that the system may remain superficial and unstable.
- Unclear collaboration process. If it is unclear how the team organizes communication, task control, and knowledge transfer, there is a risk of losing transparency in labor costs, the validity of invoices, and the actual amount of work performed. In such conditions, the contractor may overestimate the scope of tasks, work in a fragmented manner, or demand payment that does not correspond to their actual contribution to the project.
By noticing these signs at the outset, you can weed out unsuitable contractors in time and focus on those who are capable of becoming reliable partners.
Additional Selection Criteria
Once technical skills and experience have been confirmed, the final decision often depends on the extent to which the team is capable of becoming a true partner for the business. What may be important:
- Transparent communication. It is important that specialists explain complex issues in simple language, report regularly on progress, and clearly agree on deadlines. This builds trust and confidence in the joint effort.
- Willingness to teach. Strong teams share their knowledge with the client: they conduct workshops, create documentation, and train internal analysts. This ensures that the system will not “freeze” after the project is completed.
- Flexibility and adaptability. Businesses can change their priorities, and the team must quickly adapt models and reports to new tasks without compromising quality.
- Focus on long-term partnership. When developers think not only about delivering the project but also about its future development, it is a sign of mature and responsible work.
These criteria help distinguish contractors from teams that are ready to grow with the client and support the business at every stage of its development.
Where To Find A Power Bi Team
Finding a reliable team is always a balance between speed and quality. There are several channels where you can find Power BI specialists:
- Professional freelance platforms. Upwork, Toptal, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, and Guru will help you find individual specialists or small teams with verified reviews.
- LinkedIn and professional communities. LinkedIn allows you not only to search for developers directly, but also to view their projects, certifications, and recommendations from colleagues. It is also worth paying attention to groups and communities dedicated to Power BI.
- Conferences and hackathons. Thematic events (Microsoft Data Saturday, local BI specialist meetups) provide an opportunity to meet developers in person and see their practical cases.
- Outsourcing and consulting company websites. Such teams usually have experience in various industries, are ready to take on complex tasks, and handle the entire cycle — from data modeling to visualization. You can also view offers, portfolios, and reviews there. For example, Cobit Solutions regularly publishes case studies on the implementation of BI solutions, allowing you to evaluate the expertise of specialists before working with them.
Conclusion
Choosing a team of Power BI developers is a decision that affects not only the quality of analytics but also the speed of business development. Strong specialists combine technical knowledge with an understanding of business processes, work comprehensively — from building data architecture to training users — and are focused on long-term cooperation.
To find such partners, it is important to clearly define the project goals, evaluate the portfolio, and pay attention to communication and flexibility in work. A professional Power BI team will help you turn information into a strategic resource and create a system that will become the basis for your management decisions.
