Microsoft Power BI Reviews

I am using the solution for data analytics.

I have found the best features to be the dashboard creation, graphs, charts, and presentation bar graphs. As for now, I am able to do a lot of operations but not with much proficiency. I am just getting started with it. I am not very good at doing dashboard creation or writing reports but sometimes I do it during office hours to understand and learn the analytical tools.

I have been doing trial and error to figuring out how to do the data analyzing and modeling. There could be some improvement to simplify it.

I have been using the solution for approximately one year.

I am only working with small datasets at the moment and the solution has been stable. I am not sure how it will be for larger datasets. We have approximately 50 people using the solution in my organization.

This solution came free, it was offered by Microsoft with our E3 license.

This solution is a useful tool for the business and experts. It has plenty of features. I do not have a lot of advice because I am just starting to explore the solution but I have found it very helpful in terms of data presentation. 

I rate Microsoft BI a nine out of ten.

• Running a team to build end-to-end BI solutions for large enterprises. 
• Data typically stores in SQL Server. Some ad-hoc data pulled from SharePoint lists or Excel files.
• Use of SSAS Tabular in some models.
• Currently, no deployment of premium. A large deployment of PBI Pro.
• We also use Tableau Desktop and on-prem server, but Power BI was a go-to product.

• An easy learning curve for analysts. If they know how to use Excel pivot tables, then they can self-serve building visitations on curated data. 
• Full stack end-to-end ETL and viz in one tool. 
• Power Query for ETL, and externally easy to use. Majority of activities are low or no code.
• Creating a model and augmenting with additional calculations and measures extremely easily. 
• Viz layer build is super fast. Very much like a PowerPoint experience. 
• All elements together allowed for the rapid deployment of PoC products that could be tested and validated by businesses before being deployed. 

• Power Query: The data prep tool allows for very easy ingestion, shaping and prepping of the data before loading into the model.
• DAX: Its ability to do almost anything to create the necessary calculated fields and measures. 
• Viz layer: It's just easy to lay out a page.

The only real need is a lower tier pricing plan around premium. It’s a big step-up unless you have a very large user base (1000).

We utilize Microsoft BI for conducting comprehensive analytics by comparing data from the current year with the preceding year to identify patterns and variations. This software aids us in performing overall data analysis.

The solution can be deployed on the cloud and on-premise.

Microsoft BI has proven beneficial for my organization as it simplifies the presentation of complex data that was previously challenging to comprehend through other means. Specifically, Power BI allows for graphical representation that significantly enhances data understanding compared to raw tables.

The most valuable features of Microsoft BI are its intuitiveness and ease to use.

Microsoft BI lacks some of the scheme features. It would be beneficial if there were a way to show how we move values in a different way.

I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately three years.

I rate the stability of Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

I have plans to use the solution more in the future.

I rate the scalability of Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

The initial setup of Microsoft BI is simple.

We have received a return on investment using Microsoft BI.

The price of the license can be better. 

I rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

Power BI is used internally to track indicators like KPI, sales, and a bunch of other essential metrics for our company's strategic planning. Power BI creates reports and compiles data coming from various sources, and we create dashboards for managers and executives to monitor these indicators.

There is also an external use case. We also have a team that provides BI as a service. Let's say your company collects all your data manually in Excel sheets and creates reports. We get rid of the Excel files and automate everything using Power BI to create dashboards and reports.

Microsoft has made a lot of progress with Power BI in the past couple of years, but there is still some room for improvement. For example, Integration is one area they could work on. They are adding more integration with other Microsoft tools, but I would like it if they sped up the process.

We've been a Microsoft partner for 12 years.

Microsoft Bi is stable. 

Microsoft BI is scalable. 

Power BI has strong support from Microsoft. If you need help, they answer promptly. There are also several discussion groups where you can get information, like the product roadmap and any new things coming up. 

Everything is in the cloud, so you don't do anything. You only need to download a client, and that's it. If you have to create an embedded solution, it only takes five minutes.

The entire deployment takes a couple of hours, but you don't need a specialist to deploy it. Obviously, you need someone who understands the technology and how to follow instructions, but it's pretty straightforward stuff.

Power BI's price is good relative to its competitors. It has more than 400 or 500 different connectors. A lower price would always be welcome. The price is fine, but the licensing is complicated. Quantum mechanics is easier to understand than Microsoft licensing.

I rate Microsoft BI nine out of 10. If you are thinking about using Microsoft BI, go for it. Microsoft BI is worth it. It's one of the products Microsoft got right from the beginning. It's perfect.

The IT department has dashboards for reporting to the higher levels of management.

The solution is deployed on a hybrid model: cloud-based and on-premise. We always get the latest version because we have the Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft.

We encourage end users to use Power BI because it's quite easy for them to interact with the menus and the navigation bar. Even for ordinary users, they can create their own dashboard using Power BI.

There's always room for improvement for Microsoft Power BI, especially for the UX and the menus to make it more accessible to business users. These improvements wouldn't be too technical.

I have been using Microsoft BI for a very long time—since it was first released.

The solution is stable enough, but I think Tableau has a better interactive UX and user experience. We are not using Tableau right now.

We have tens of thousands of users, and we are willing to increase the number of users.

Support is amazing.

I have experience with Tableau.

The license is on a yearly basis.

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10. I would recommend this solution for others. 

We don't have any other solution out there right now, so I would say we are satisfied with it. There are some disadvantages, some weaknesses of Microsoft Power BI that we have addressed to the Microsoft team.

The IT department has a good relationship with the Microsoft team, so they always give input to Microsoft's department teams.

I use this for its analysis service.

I find Power BI's reporting feature the most valuable. The solution has improved a lot. There are new features getting added day by day. In the past, they didn't even have the printing feature, but now they have it.

Every tool has room for improvement. Microsoft also has a lot of room for improvement. If you look at the new tool, even though they promised that you could do data modeling, that you could do everything from the Power BI side, if your data is really large in volume, sometimes it doesn't work on the Power BI. More feature testing from their side would certainly help users.

I've used this for eight years. I've used this solution within the last 12 months.

This solution is stable. It's a nice solution to have.

This solution is very much scalable.

Technical support is good. It's not really very helpful sometimes, but it is good.

We previously used a different solution for a different location, a different customer. If a customer decides to go for one vendor, they stick to that vendor, so changing a vendor is not an option most of the time.

Initial setup is straightforward, but it depends on the business case. It's straightforward, but sometimes it is complex, but compared to any other tool, the setup for this solution is straightforward.

My experience with them is okay.

I wasn't able to evaluate other options before choosing because it was already chosen by the customer.

Deployment for this solution in our organization is mixed: on-premise and through Microsoft cloud.

If you have a source on the Microsoft side then it's always easier to use one vendor for end-to-end solution. Even if there are some other sources, Microsoft has a big and varied area. Take the reporting ETL analysis as an example, everything's built as part Microsoft. It's always good to have one vendor than multiple vendors.

How long deployment of this solution takes all depends on how much data you have. Sometimes it takes a long time if you have a billion rows of data e.g. it could take hours. It also depends on the architecture. It depends on so many things.

There are a hundred users of this solution in our organization. The real users are customers who require reporting to make business decisions. Mostly the users are business analysts.

This solution is pretty much automated, so no maintenance. For AD, some are there as a team, so they help.

No plans of increasing usage of this solution. Maybe in the future, but not right now.

My advice to other people looking into implementing Power BI is to go for it. It's one tool that has everything, and they should always try to evaluate Microsoft compared to open source. Like in open source, you'll always have a lot of libraries, a lot of different tools that you would be using. It's great to try Microsoft Suite because at the end, you'll only have to deal with one vendor so maintenance will be less.

The lesson that I have learned from using Power BI is to try it out. Don't just rely on the features and promises about the solution. You first try it out, then share your experiences with the customer.

My rating for this solution would be seven or eight out of ten because it has everything in it and I don't see anything missing in it. It is efficient for our needs.

We are using Microsoft BI to generate point of sale reports.

The solution overall is very useful. The reports that are generated and the reporting functionality management are beneficial.

We have used other solutions and the reporting functionality should be user-friendly and have a drag and drop feature should be available, but Microsoft BI doesn't have these features. When you are creating reports and you can't change as a user. Every time you need one developer or one technical person to make the changes.

I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately six years.

Microsoft BI is highly stable.

The performance depends on the requirement. You have to complete your requirement which is a priority. After that, you understand your requirement and the performance could be better. The performance is the second.

I have found Microsoft BI to be scalable.

The installation difficulty depends on the integration, once integrated properly you can receive results. Microsoft BI can be very helpful to your business.

The implementation took us 15 to 20 days.

We use two Microsoft consultants to do the implementation of the solution.

I have evaluated other solutions.

I rate Microsoft BI a five out of ten.

If I compare Microsoft BI with other solutions, other solutions are much better, but because we have already invested in Microsoft BI. We are using this and maybe in one or two years, we will use something else. We will finalize the testing of other solutions and implement one of them.