Tom Martens
Solution Architect @ Munich Re
Hamburg, Germany
Thomas "Tom" Martens has been awarded as an MSFT Data Platform MVP and works as Solution Architect at Munich Re (www.munichre.com). For 20+ years, Tom delivers Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Analytics solutions. His current interest is in data visualization and applying analytical methods to small and large amounts of data, next to providing the Power BI Platform to users for tackling analytical challenges. Tom is a regular speaker at international conferences and user meetings. Tom is the co-author of the book "Pro DAX with Power BI."
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Area of Expertise
Topics
Data modeling - thinking out of the box
It's a good idea to stick to the star schema paradigm whenever we create a data model inside Power BI or Analysis Services Tabular. Dimensional modeling is key to the analytical power and the performance of our data model. But sometimes, sticking to a concept prevents us from finding creative solutions for many problems. In this session, I will showcase data modeling solutions for topics like the event-in-progress challenge, helping to create more simple DAX statements, and for this reason, also performing fast on top of large sets of data. But data modeling can also help to overcome challenges for data visualization. Next to the event-in-progress challenge, I will demonstrate different approaches to data modeling to help solve the "dynamic axis content" requirement.
Next to the gains we can achieve through data modeling, I will also cover the costs we have to pay. Costs don't necessarily mean money, but the time it takes to create a model (of course, time is money) and model complexity.
Power BI and large datasets
This session explains and demonstrates how the Power BI Premium Gen 2 architecture and new features help to grow the size of datasets. After introducing the Premium Gen 2 architecture, new features will be demoed. Features like hybrid tables, on-demand load, and asynchronous refresh are essential for successfully managing large datasets and enabling new solutions.
Power BI Workspace - So much more than a simple container
From time to time, I realize that the Power BI workspace is considered a nuisance that has to be selected before another fantastic report can be published to the service and shared with others. It's true, one of the ruling principles of Power BI Service, one workspace, one app, made me rethink the organization of content more than once.
I will share my findings from the last years supporting large enterprises and small organizations on using workspaces. I will explain why I consider the separation of data and content (reports and dashboards) a good idea and the XMLA endpoint's role. I demonstrate the importance of workspaces in combination with deployment pipelines and how they relate to data governance.
Power BI Service Administration and Governance – from the trenches
During this table talk Nicky van Vroenhoven, Štěpán Rešl, Nikola Ilic, and Tom Martens will share their experiences in administering and governing the Power BI Service. The service helps our users succeed by getting insights from data to make impactful decisions.
Over the last couple of years, we have learned that being a Power BI Service administrator is much more than just turning on or off the Power BI Admin settings (no matter how vital these settings are).
The focus of this table talk is not only the Admin settings, as we Power BI admins are also impacting the data culture of an organization. We can discuss aspects of sharing data inside and across organizations. But we can also talk about what has to be done to meet the requirements of data governance and compliance rules requirements.
In this session, we will try to answer all the questions you bring to us. We provide the answers based on our experience and what's important to our clients, the organizations we work for, and why this is important. We will back this up with relevant blogs and documentation as much as possible.
Sharing artifacts inside Power BI – the next level
Sharing resources is not only strengthening our social ties. The joint use of resources is vital to achieving more.
This session will explain and demonstrate more advanced topics of sharing artifacts inside Power BI! I will cover the latest features like multiple audiences, sharing datasets with external users, and how artifacts coming with datamarts can be shared. I will not just show how this works but also talk about use cases and how this can add value to your team and the entire organization. In this session, I will also provide a short recap of more simple sharing scenarios like sharing reports between users and the needed requirements because, from my experience, this is still unclear.
Power BI Universe - Mapping the hive ( EN )
In this session, an Azure-based solution will be created that maps your Power BI tenant. This solution, of course, also contains a Power BI report is part of this solution, which allows you to see the data sources that are fueling your datasets, how many workspaces exist, and a lot more.
This solution uses various Azure-based services, the Power BI Rest API, and of course Power BI Desktop for the visualization.
DAX - Musings about foundational concepts
Selected questions from the Power BI community (https://community.powerbi.com) will be discussed. All these questions are touching foundational concepts ranging from table iterator functions like SUMX, the scope of variables and of course the weird filter context. These questions provide some additional and unusual perspectives to some common and not so common problems.
Each question comes with its own slides documenting the underlying concepts and a separate PBIX file using additional explaining measures.
Composite Model - What works and what doesn't
Seit der Einführung von Composite Models im November 2018, war eins der am häufigsten nachgefragten Feature die Möglichkeit auch bestendende Analysis Services Tabular und Power BI Datenmodelle miteinander zu verbinden. Seit Dezember 2021 steht dieses Feature als Preview zur Verfügung und sorgt seit dem für viel Furore.
Diese Session gibt einen Einblick in dieses Feature, erläutert wichtige Begriffe und erklärt was bei der Implementierung berücksichtigt werden muss.
Data culture, data-enabled, data governance, data catalog, Power BI - how does this all relate
The quest for becoming a data-enabled organization that will thrive in a world where a data culture sets new standards and defines the new normal using a data catalog like Azure Pureview will become more important, not just to prevent losing focus.
This session provides meaning to some of the words used in the above sentence. It explains why mapping your data estate becomes vital in the overall theme of data governance and data strategy. A live demo demonstrates how Pureview will be setup to map a Power BI tenant and selected data sources. Next to some technical tips and tricks, some aspects on how to convince data owners to prepare "their" systems for being scanned.
DAX - Fundamental Musings
Musings about foundational concepts
Selected questions from the Power BI community (https://community.powerbi.com) will be discussed. All these questions are touching foundational concepts ranging from table iterator functions like SUMX, but also the scope of variables will be addressed. These questions provide some additional and unusual perspectives to some common and not so common problems.
Each question comes with its own Power BI Report Page(s) documenting the underlying concepts that will be available for download.
DAX - Time Series Analysis, Sequences, and some other fancy stuff
Here Time Series Analysis does not mean calculating the YTD value of a numeric value. This is about discovering the clients who have been buying 10 days in a row and how concepts of time series analysis can be used with DAX. These are the requirements to have fun attending this session: a basic understanding of the Filter Context is required, this article has to be read at least once https://mdxdax.blogspot.com/2011/03/logic-behind-magic-of-dax-cross-table.html, and it's also helpful to have a good understanding of extended tables.
Power BI - The Admin Portal
Very often the settings of the Admin portal are not touched, and left unchanged. But these settings have to be treated carefully and with respect as these settings are important for almost everything Data Governance.
This session explains the most important settings from the Admin portal of the Power BI service and explains why and how some selected settings should be configured to avoid unintentionally data loss or similar dreadful things.
Power BI - The Admin Portal (Deutsch)
Very often the settings of the Admin portal are not touched, and left unchanged. But these settings have to be treated carefully and with respect as these settings are important for almost everything Data Governance.
This session explains the most important settings from the Admin portal of the Power BI service and explains why and how some selected settings should be configured to avoid unintentionally data loss or similar dreadful things.
Use advanced Power BI techniques for text mining
In the age where we are overloaded with information it becomes essential to identify what to read first. For this reason a Power BI app helps to analyze all the emails using methods from text mining and text analysis. Using just the Power BI tool stack this solution makes email analysis versatile and easy to use.
This session provides a short introduction into text mining and text analysis and demonstrates how certain concepts can be utilized using Power BI. Throughout this session some advanced techniques from the whole Power BI stack are applied, ranging from Power Query, to data modeling topics, to advanced DAX usage, even Cognitive Services are incorporated in this analytical pipeline. Technics are used to filter out stop words from the email body and to create a whitelist to easily discover emails that contain content that is of special interest.
Power BI Fest Sessionize Event
#DataWeekender v4.2 Sessionize Event
DBCC International 2021 Sessionize Event
DataBlaster Community Conference (#DBCC2021) Sessionize Event
#DataWeekender v3.1 Sessionize Event
Power BI Summit Sessionize Event
Global Azure Lüdinghausen 2021 Sessionize Event
Virtual Power BI Days Germany 2021-03-23 Sessionize Event
Azure Saturday Hamburg 2021 Sessionize Event
Global Power Platform Bootcamp 2021 - Münsterland Sessionize Event
Virtual Hamburg Power BI Days 2020-12-15 Sessionize Event
DBCC International Sessionize Event
dataMinds Connect 2020 (Virtual Edition) Sessionize Event
Munich Power BI Days 2020-09-15 Sessionize Event
DataGrillen 2019 Sessionize Event
Tom Martens
Solution Architect @ Munich Re
Hamburg, Germany
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