We are a solution provider and Microsoft BI is one of the products that we implement for our customers. It is used for customized dashboarding, reporting, and self-serve analytics, on a broad scale in enterprise.
Cloud business Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Easily customizable, good reporting, and offers self-serve analytics
Pros and Cons
- "The amount of customization that you can do is good, and it's relatively straightforward to do."
- "The look and feel should be updated in terms of the types of dashboards and graphs that you can produce. They aren't as visual as some of its competitors."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The amount of customization that you can do is good, and it's relatively straightforward to do. People with limited experience in terms of coding can implement this themselves. If an organization doesn't have a high amount of skill, internally, then it's something that they can still spin up themselves, relatively well.
What needs improvement?
It could be changed to the point where it's more suited for self-serve analytics.
The look and feel should be updated in terms of the types of dashboards and graphs that you can produce. They aren't as visual as some of its competitors.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been selling and using Microsoft BI for approximately two years.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
February 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft BI is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is scalable.
We have dozens of customers that use it.
How are customer service and support?
The Microsoft technical support is not great. You need to have a partner in place that's able to handle these services for you. Customers aren't going to get answers quick enough if they're going directly to the vendor.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with a couple of other similar products but I'd only downloaded the free versions of these tools to play around with. One of these is Tableau.
Tableau is a solution that would be used more at the enterprise scale. It may be more suitable for analytics.
These days, from a visual perspective in terms of analytics, dashboards, and customized dashboards, I tend to use Google products.
How was the initial setup?
The complexity of the installation depends on what you're using it for. If you're doing anything relatively complex, such as working with AI or machine learning, then you would probably want to have a specialist service provider do it for you.
We've seen that people are tending to use solutions that compete with it, just because they are easier to automate. From a large-scale point of view, the installation could be simpler.
That said, in its simplest form, it can be used for self-serve analytics.
What about the implementation team?
A company can handle the deployment and maintenance in-house on its own. Or, if they're doing a large-scale project, they might be in need of two engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My customers pay a yearly licensing fee.
From a cost point of view, it's competitive in the enterprise space, although it's not as competitive when you add up all of the additional costs. Things like integrations cost extra and it's probably where Microsoft makes more of the money.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Senior Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Good visualizations, dashboards, and scalability, but needs better user interface, rule-based security, and support
Pros and Cons
- "Its visualizations and dashboards are most valuable. Power BI is great in terms of visualizations and dashboards. The reports that we previously had were not very nice in terms of visualization. It also provides the ability to play with the data."
- "We have a lot of servers and applications from which we want reports, and it allows us to create reports from an SQL source or some other source."
- "They can improve it in terms of rule-based security. Currently, it has very limited rules."
- "They can improve the user interface a little bit to make it more user-friendly. When creating a dashboard, it is not very user-friendly. You have to click on a certain style and use your keyboard keys to move it. You cannot drag and drop it."
- "Their technical support can be better. They normally take too long to escalate and resolve a case."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for reporting. We are using its latest version.
What is most valuable?
Its visualizations and dashboards are most valuable. Power BI is great in terms of visualizations and dashboards. The reports that we previously had were not very nice in terms of visualization. It also provides the ability to play with the data.
We have a lot of servers and applications from which we want reports, and it allows us to create reports from an SQL source or some other source.
What needs improvement?
They can improve it in terms of rule-based security. Currently, it has very limited rules.
They can improve the user interface a little bit to make it more user-friendly. When creating a dashboard, it is not very user-friendly. You have to click on a certain style and use your keyboard keys to move it. You cannot drag and drop it.
Their technical support can be better. They normally take too long to escalate and resolve a case.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Power BI for five or six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I am at the initial stage of using it. We have just deployed a report in our organization, and it is working fine so far. It seems to be stable. I am not sure if we faced any issues with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is good in terms of scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have had only one interaction with them, and it was a bad one. They took around a month to resolve a simple issue. We also had to escalate the case. The resolution was very simple, and ideally, they should have found it on the first day. They normally take too long when it comes to the escalation of cases.
How was the initial setup?
As a first-time user, I found it to be of medium complexity. You have to connect it with the SQL database or your data source. You might not find it very straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
It can also be deployed on-premises. If you have it on-premises, make sure that you meet all the prerequisites and have all permissions. You should sort these things out before deploying Power BI. I faced some issues because I missed one of the prerequisites, and it took me one month to get it resolved. That's why I recommend completing all prerequisites.
I would rate Microsoft Power BI a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
February 2025
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Technical Director, Information Management at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Good reports, dashboards, and visualizations, but needs more report outputs and better documentation
Pros and Cons
- "Reports, dashboards, and visualizations are most valuable."
- "It should have more report outputs. They should expand the report outputs. Its documentation should also be better."
What is our primary use case?
It is used for data visualization and analytics. We have its latest version.
How has it helped my organization?
It has provided better and deeper analytics for our data. It has also been helpful for custom visualizations as per client requirements.
What is most valuable?
Reports, dashboards, and visualizations are most valuable.
What needs improvement?
It should have more report outputs. They should expand the report outputs.
Its documentation should also be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is fairly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable based on licensing. You would need premium and additional organizational licenses. Mostly everyone in the organization uses this feature. We have around 4,000 users of this solution in our organization, which includes a lot of project management people.
We don't have any plans to increase the usage in the future. We are currently content with its usage.
How are customer service and technical support?
They exceed expectations and provide good quality support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had other solutions, but they were some form of ad hoc databases and spreadsheets. We switched to this solution for integrating various data sets from different data sources and for richer analytics.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward. It took two weeks.
What about the implementation team?
It was an in-house job. For its maintenance, we probably have a staff of about 20 people.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten. It is a really well-developed product, but it has some room for improvement.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manager, BI & Analytics at Perceptive Analytics
User-friendly, offers a flexible measure creation capability, scalable to large datasets, and has good community support
Pros and Cons
- "Two valuable most features are the ability to create columns and create measures."
- "In my opinion, the software is a little bit limited in terms of the flexibility it offers, with regard to the design of the visualization."
What is our primary use case?
I am currently a management consultant and, before my current employment, I was a management consultant as well. I also had a stint with an online retailer in India. My usage with Power BI has been in the area of practical day-to-day operations, web host operations, and equipment status monitoring.
What is most valuable?
Two valuable most features are the ability to create columns and create measures.
The create measures feature offers you a little bit more flexibility. You can define what kind of measure you need using a formula, and the way Power BI works is very similar to Excel. In fact, most of the functions that you use in Excel are present in Power BI as well. When you create measures or columns, you just write the formula as you would in Excel, which will allow you to visualize that data in the way that you want.
What needs improvement?
In my opinion, the software is a little bit limited in terms of the flexibility it offers, with regard to the design of the visualization. By comparison, if you look at some other visualization tools, such as Tableau, for instance, the range of designs, or the range of graphics that you can create with Tableau is far greater than what you can do with Power BI.
Of course, they do provide an option to download templates and use them, but every time, you have to go to the Power BI store, search for those templates, download them and then use them. I think it's a growing universe of visualizers that they have, so probably, they are also working on the same thing. I believe, in terms of the designs of the visualizations that the tool can create, there is some room for improvement.
One more aspect that needs improvement is the formatting of visualizations that we create. Formatting in this context is the colors or the font style or font sizes. The formatting options, I believe, could be made a bit more user-friendly than the way things are right now. It's a little hard to figure out where to go and how to change the formatting of a particular chart or graph. So, I think the formatting options could be made a little bit more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Power BI for more than three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft BI is definitely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is scalable and in fact, I have worked on it with fairly large datasets. It also gives you the option of publishing onto a server. When the dashboard/report is published to the Power BI server, we get a link that can be shared with others in the organization. At the enterprise level, it is possible to give access to a list of users who will have a need to look at the report frequently. These users can just click on the link and view the report whenever they want to. It is also possible for them to use filters and interact with the report.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am fairly comfortable with the tool and to this point, I really haven't felt the need to reach out to Microsoft with regard to the specific features of the tool. In case I do need some help on a particular feature, what I usually do is Google what I am trying to find and I get some links to the Microsoft community, or something similar, which answers my question.
To that extent, it has been very convenient to find help in whatever we are required to do with the software. The simple things are taken care of automatically. In case there is some trouble with the visualizations, you can always find help or assistance on the Microsoft community pages.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have also worked with Tableau and I think that each of these tools has its advantages.
I believe the cost of the software plays a deciding factor in a company's decision to implement either of the two. While each product has its pros and cons, if you're looking for something that's more value for money, then I think Power BI is the better choice.
On the other hand, if you are willing to choose an expensive option that gives you a lot more flexibility, then I think that Tableau would be a better choice.
It ultimately depends on what you are going to use it for. If you're using it for a variety of visualizations that you want to create, Tableau will be a better choice. On the other hand, if people have budget constraints then Power BI will provide a good value for the money.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. You just download the software from their website, install it, and sign in.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product offers good value for the money.
What other advice do I have?
In a nutshell, I recommend this product and I would suggest implementing it. It has a very good range of features that it offers. For organizations starting on their business intelligence journey, I believe Power BI is a very good tool to start with. It's very user-friendly and it provides a graphical user interface where users can just drag and drop their required fields into particular templates of visualizations. It means that you get the charts quickly. There's no complex learning curve involved. From that perspective, I would say that it's definitely worth a try.
My biggest complaint is that it's a bit limited right now, in terms of the choice of visualizations it offers.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Identifies customer purchasing patterns and provides good visualization
Pros and Cons
- "It has provided customer purchase patterns and great visualization."
- "This solution needs integration with SAS and more deep analysis functionality."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use for this solution is geospatial analysis.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution has provided an accurate analysis of our customers repurchasing the same plan for telecom Jio. It has provided customer purchase patterns and great visualization.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the visualization and integration with Office365.
What needs improvement?
This solution needs integration with SAS and more deep analysis functionality.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft BI for five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Interim Manager Supply Chain / IT at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
It is connected to every database: Whatever and wherever it is
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy to work with and very chic."
- "Its connection to every database: Whatever and wherever it is."
- "The look is simple, and could be a little more professional."
What is our primary use case?
Its primary use case is for CIPs from the purchasing department. It performs perfectly. It is very quick and easy to use.
How has it helped my organization?
We approve it for use with SAP BI, so it has been more effective for our users and much cheaper. So, the costs are small and the benefits are high.
What is most valuable?
Its connection to every database: Whatever and wherever it is.
It is easy to work with and very chic.
What needs improvement?
The look is simple, and could be a little more professional.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good. We have no problems.
We receive an update every month with new functions, so we are not missing anything.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good. It works for a large community just fine.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not needed to use technical support. We are able to do everything by ourselves. That is one of the main reasons that we like the product.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have SAP BI working. It has cost us more than a million Euro, and it does not work. This was one of the reasons to change.
Power BI is very easy to use and much sleeker.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. 30 minutes, and it runs perfectly.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Power BI as the best working solution.
Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: Usability of the solution.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Principal at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Gives business power users the ability to do their own work, without help from IT
Pros and Cons
- "In the early stage of an implementation, it not only helps decision making, but it allows people to have insight into problems with data so that they can go and get it corrected."
- "Allows business users with a mission to solve their own problems, without an IT person."
- "One thing I would like to have is the scripting language, as they already have within Excel. It's already within a Microsoft business product, because Excel is the number one business product out there. So it would be nice to have the scripting capability in order to automate certain processes."
What is our primary use case?
I have started a consulting business. So my use case is typically what my clients are doing. I've used it for healthcare analysis, headcount analysis, financial and performance analysis.
How has it helped my organization?
One thing it's doing in the early stage of an implementation is, it not only helps decision making, but it allows people to have insight into problems with data so that they can go and get it corrected.
What is most valuable?
The ability for business users with a mission to solve their own problems, without an IT person.
What needs improvement?
One thing I would like to have is the scripting language, as they already have within Excel. It's already within a Microsoft business product, because Excel is the number one business product out there. So it would be nice to have the scripting capability in order to automate certain processes.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's not only stable but it's constantly improving.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scaling is dependent on the data source itself, so it's not dependent on the solution. SQL Server, which is one of the strongest enterprise databases, makes that a good thing.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were previously using Excel, and Excel did not have the ability to deploy nor did it have the ability to easily do some of the things that people were asking for. The switch was driven by being overwhelmed in the Excel world.
My most important criteria when selecting a vendor are
- usability
- the ability to develop solutions in an agile fashion
- the ability to have power users on the business side able to do their own work.
How was the initial setup?
It's very, very easy to get started. The complexity is the typical complexity in deployment, in that you have to have people make decisions on who has rights to what data. As far as the implementation, it's quite easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing, that's where Microsoft beats Tableau. It is priced much cheaper.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The short list was really only Tableau and Microsoft, and frequently clients have Microsoft products already installed so they have the security, the Active Directory, as well as the use of Excel, and the use of the collaboration tools like O365.
What other advice do I have?
I'd say that Microsoft and Tableau are both nine and a half out of 10, and it's per the requirements I already mentioned. They both are very high-quality, easy to use, stable, they both allow business users to do a level of development, and they're both highly deployable.
My advice to a colleague would be that they actually do short trials with each of the products they're considering and the check the vendors' support.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
BI Expert with 501-1,000 employees
Taboo? Microsoft in Higher Education
In a recent post, I discussed the changes in the business intelligence landscape as outlined by Gartner in their 2013 Magic Quadrant. Today, I wanted to focus solely on Microsoft as a vendor in this space. Yes, I mentioned Microsoft – and I work in Higher Education!
In working with a number of higher education institutions over the years, I often hear direct concerns about “Microsoft.” In the academic world, we are concerned about the most open way of doing things. We like to share – and you may have noticed by the adoption of Sakai and the Open Source Portfolio (OSP).
The emergence of open-source tools was prevalent over the last few decades. You now see many organizations running miscellaneous versions of Linux, open source wiki tools, Drupal-type content management systems – and now many have implemented Google (Google Drive, Google Docs, GMail). If you mention “Microsoft” – you’d better start running. You’ll have someone from IT chasing after you pretty quickly – and not in a good way!
Ok – you’re not Jack Sparrow, so you can relax a bit! But, you can imagine the feelings of many of these IT organizations when you start to implement enterprise-level software that holds a significant cost and the source is proprietary. Think Sungard’s Banner (now Ellucian), or PeopleSoft, and maybe even Workday now in some cases. Somehow, Oracle has slipped through the cracks as many of these large ERP vendors require Oracle’s database platform. Oracle was also smart and acquired mySQL – so they have an almost natural support of the open source community. Oracle is an investment, too.
You’re probably asking – what’s your point? My point is that Microsoft isn’t bad. It’s actually very, very GOOD! Besides the educational licensing, and the obvious love for Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, et al) – let’s look at some of the benefits of Microsoft’s SQL Server platform. Let’s start with a basic point that is often overlooked. It is a suite of tools, not simply a database platform. I have listed a basic table below, but you can read more on Microsoft’s website.
Server components | Description |
---|---|
SQL Server Database Engine | SQL Server Database Engine includes the Database Engine, the core service for storing, processing, and securing data, replication, full-text search, tools for managing relational and XML data, and the Data Quality Services (DQS) server. |
Analysis Services (SSAS) | Analysis Services includes the tools for creating and managing online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining applications. |
Reporting Services (SSRS) | Reporting Services includes server and client components for creating, managing, and deploying tabular, matrix, graphical, and free-form reports. Reporting Services is also an extensible platform that you can use to develop report applications. |
Integration Services (SSIS) | Integration Services is a set of graphical tools and programmable objects for moving, copying, and transforming data. It also includes the Data Quality Services (DQS) component for Integration Services. |
Master Data Services | Master Data Services (MDS) is the SQL Server solution for master data management. MDS can be configured to manage any domain (products, customers, accounts) and includes hierarchies, granular security, transactions, data versioning, and business rules, as well as an Add-in for Excel that can be used to manage data. |
The great part of purchasing Microsoft SQL Server is that these tools come out of the box – and are included with the license for the database platform. There are several different editions which provide more or less horsepower as your project requires, but this is an added bonus that Microsoft bundles these tools.
Here are a few thoughts from my experience and why I enjoy working with Microsoft BI tools:
Technical Benefits:
- Relatively easy to deploy and installation is wizard-based
- Learning curve to adopt SSRS and SSIS is reasonable in comparison with other tools
- Direct integration with Windows operating system and Active Directory (this is great if you have a nice active directory structure already in place; not so helpful if you do not).
- Direct integration with Team Foundation Server (TFS) for version control
- Platform is sophisticated enough to handle complex tasks (i.e. stored procedures, SSRS data driven subscriptions)
Functional Benefits:
- All-in-one solution (combine with SharePoint for full functionality)
- End-user tools are intuitive and within a familiar Microsoft interface
- SharePoint can be used to pull information together in a one-stop-shop
- Office integration (i.e. Excel, PowerPivot)
Cost Benefits:
- Educational and non-profit discounts are a nice way for Microsoft to give back.
- License costs, on average, are lower than combining multiple tools from multiple vendors (this always depends on your situation and the license agreements that you have in place).
- Total cost of ownership (TCO) tends to be lower. This is due to the license fees and also the availability of technical resources that are familiar with the Microsoft platform. Again, this is completely dependent on your situation, but this is what I have seen with other clients. It may also be indirect, but by having all of these tools with one vendor, you spend less time managing 4 or 5 invoices for maintenance and renewals as well. And, if you need to renegotiate anything – it is again done with a single vendor not 4 or 5.
My Favorite Features:
- SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) – it seems silly, but this a great tool and I enjoy testing my queries within SSMS prior to loading them into SSRS. It has some really nice features built-in for ETL developers as well (i.e. the ability to script the creation/deletion of a table with a mouse click)
- SSIS Package Variables – I use them frequently to make dynamic filenames in my SSIS routines. They are flexible and allow SSIS routines to handle a number of complexities that would otherwise be very difficult to address.
- Data-driven subscriptions – this is a great way to deliver tailored content to your user base. Same report…different content. In a previous consulting organization, I used data-driven subscriptions to improve internal processes and implementation times for external projects.
- PowerPivot – Let’s be honest. It’s just cool! In-memory BI is a hot topic. We also like tools like Tableau and Qlikview.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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I am a fan of Microsoft and totally love this write-up. Thanks Robert. Giving back to education and organizations that run for non-profits is a good way of giving back to the society at large.