Hi @PeterTest
Which kind of "data pool" are you going to build or use? Do you have to transform the data in the "data pool"? Or do you hope that those people can transform and report the data freely by themselves?
As they all have an O365 E5 license which contains access to many features including Power BI Pro, OneDrive for work, SharePoint Online, Power Automate, .etc. Here are some practices you can consider:
If you want to keep the Excel files as they are in the "data pool", you can store these Excel files into a SharePoint folder or a OneDrive folder. A SharePoint folder is more recommended as it is in a SharePoint site, not binded to a personal OneDrive for work storage. Give the people sufficent access to the folder. Then they can query data from files in this folder using Power BI. This blog introduces several methods for different scenarios: Quick steps for connecting to SharePoint using Power BI Desktop
If you hope to prepare data in advance to be used in multiple reports, you can consider creating a Power BI Workspace as a "data pool", and create dataflows in the workspace to transform and store data. Here is Introduction to dataflows and self-service data prep. When your Power BI experience steps to the next level, you can consider this.
To load Excel tables from a Windows file server (OnPrem) into a "data pool", you can use Power Automate to make this operation automatically.
There are many features and practices you can try with Power BI. As a starter, you can start with store an Excel file in a SharePoint Online folder or OneDrive folder, then connect to it in Power BI Desktop.
Hope this would be helpful.
Best Regards,
Jing
If this post helps, please Accept it as Solution to help other members find it. Appreciate your Kudos!
