We are providing BI services to clients in India who are using Microsoft BI. We are able to provide the clients with data-driven decisions by the use of the reports that we are creating using Microsoft BI. The reports are usually graphical and intuitive.
Business Intelligence Developer at lagozon technologies private limited
Helpful community support, easy for new users, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "When we are introducing Microsoft BI to our clients, if they're familiar with Excel, the transition phase will be much easier for them. They can easily switch from Microsoft Excel to Microsoft BI. The core foundation or the base technology is the same in both tools. There are a few limitations in Microsoft Excel, and this is where Microsoft BI comes in."
- "Microsoft BI can improve some of the visual level filters or visual functionality, that are available in other BI tools, such as Tableau or Qlik Sense."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
When we are introducing Microsoft BI to our clients, if they're familiar with Excel, the transition phase will be much easier for them. They can easily switch from Microsoft Excel to Microsoft BI. The core foundation or the base technology is the same in both tools. There are a few limitations in Microsoft Excel, and this is where Microsoft BI comes in.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft BI can improve some of the visual level filters or visual functionality, that are available in other BI tools, such as Tableau or Qlik Sense.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Microsoft BI within the past 12 months.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Microsoft BI is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft BI is a scalable solution. Here in India, it is a popular tool for people to implement.
The client that we are working with has approximately 500 to 600 users.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Microsoft is helpful. If you're facing any sort of issue or error, you can raise it to the Microsoft BI community.
How was the initial setup?
We work on a very concise team of three to four members for the deployment. We will be requiring only a data engineer, Microsft BI developer, business analyst, and project manager.
If the user requirement is high, we can increase the number of members in the team. However, if you have a team of four, then you can deploy the project. A minimum of four people is required.
What about the implementation team?
For its maintenance of Microsoft BI, you require only two people. If there are some backend data issues, then you will require a data engineer. However, if the issue is related to the frontend or BI report, then you only need one developer for that.
What other advice do I have?
My advice is for the companies who want to make data-driven decisions or to share the report with the security feature in it, they should opt for Microsoft BI services.
I rate Microsoft BI a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Associate Director BI-EPM at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Affordably priced, user-friendly, and simple to install
Pros and Cons
- "There is also a chart store where we can download charts, which is extremely useful."
- "The default parameters of the prompt could be improved by including a dynamic option."
What is our primary use case?
We get our reports from, NetSuite, and we prepare resource forecast and finance dashboard reports in Microsoft BI.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ease of use. It is very easy to use.
It is very user-friendly.
There is also a chart store where we can download charts, which is extremely useful.
I don't believe it needs additional features. It appears to be adequate for the reporting tool. It appears to be fine.
What needs improvement?
The default parameters of the prompt could be improved by including a dynamic option. We are unable to select any default parameters or it is not dynamic, so we must manually select that prompt value. For instance, there is a year prompt, and if it needs to be changed, someone will have to open Microsoft BI in edit mode to update it. If you have a dynamic option, it makes things a lot easier.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft BI for three years.
I work with the most recent update.
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?
We have not tried to scale this solution.
In our company, we have ten users.
We use this solution on a daily basis.
How are customer service and support?
We have not contacted technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very simple. It only takes five minutes to deploy.
Other than refreshing the dataset, it does not require any maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Microsoft BI is not expensive. It is affordable.
There are no additional costs.
What other advice do I have?
If they are looking for a reporting tool that is easy to use and expandable in terms of charts, or new charts, they should use Microsoft BI, because there are many charts on the market that they can download and use very easily.
I would Microsft BI a nine 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?
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Senior Manager: ICT Compliance at Department of Public Service and Administration
Stable, easy to use solution for streamlining business processes
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very easy to use."
- "I would like for there to be some type of user manual that shows steps on how to navigate the solution."
What is most valuable?
The solution is very easy to use.
What needs improvement?
I would like for there to be some type of user manual that shows steps on how to navigate the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
This is my third year working with Power BI.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is very stable so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product is scalable. We currently have about two hundred users.
How are customer service and support?
I am satisfied with Microsoft's support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not use another solution previously.
How was the initial setup?
We have three support staff for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I believe that the price is reasonable, at least for an enterprise solution.
What other advice do I have?
This is a solution that I would recommend because it is easy to use and they will be able to streamline their business processes.
I would rate this a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
I like its drill-down feature and overall ease of use
Pros and Cons
- "I like Microsoft BI's drill-down feature and its overall ease of use."
- "The setup took a lot of tinkering with InfoSec to allow us to do stuff."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case for Microsoft BI is reporting. It comes with the Microsoft 365 E5 license. Then you just need to secure and harden it. That took a bit of time, but you can open it up and let people use it after that. There is a desktop component that they can work on that's independent of the Microsoft license. In that case, they can create files that are like dashboards.
What is most valuable?
I like Microsoft BI's drill-down feature and its overall ease of use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Microsoft BI for about eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft BI has been stable so far.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft's support is pretty good.
How was the initial setup?
Installing Microsoft BI was relatively straightforward. It just took a lot of tinkering with InfoSec to allow us to do stuff.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Power BI nine out of 10. If you plan to implement it, ensure that you harden it, so you do not leave it wide open. Otherwise, you're vulnerable to data leakage.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director at Decision Science
Saves time in preprocessing stage, but it needs to be more user-friendly for non-technical users
Pros and Cons
- "I like the downloadable visualizations a lot. I think that they give the user a very nice starting point in creating awesome dashboards, with the right way to tell their data story."
- "Some kind of expression wizard, where the user can build a complex expression without any knowledge of DAX, can be a good addition to the product."
What is our primary use case?
Since we are a consulting company, our cases vary from customer to customer and from department to department, but mainly we have found two "standard" cases: Business users connecting to a DWH, or trying to consolidate several Excel workbooks to create business dashboards.
In the DWH cases, it is simpler since most of the data transformations and modeling are done by IT, but in the 'spreadsheet world', it becomes more complicated.
Users try to move from a huge table filled with numbers and "color-coded" cells to data visualizations, sometimes not even knowing how to write a simple Excel expression.
How has it helped my organization?
The biggest improvement comes from a "do it once, refresh many" concept. The users used to perform a lot of massaging on the data itself prior to the analysis phase. Now, they build their reports and refresh the data, so they have a lot more time to perform analysis, which is the real added value to the business.
Unlike other tools (like Tableau), getting to this point took a lot of resources in training, but when the users got there, it is a real time saver for them, allowing them to focus more on analysis, not on data manipulation.
What is most valuable?
I like the downloadable visualizations a lot. I think that they give the user a very nice starting point in creating awesome dashboards, with the right way to tell their data story.
Data Modeling is very simple and powerful for an experienced user, but I think it needs some improvement for the non-technical people. Besides this, it allows us to save a lot of time in data "massaging" prior to the analysis phase.
Reports are quite easy to build, even when some programming concepts are needed. Some users struggle with DAX a lot!
What needs improvement?
I think Power BI needs to focus more on the end-user (i.e. the business user). Solving things in DAX is not a nice approach to a user that has no knowledge of IT nor wants to get it.
Some kind of expression wizard, where the user can build a complex expression without any knowledge of DAX, can be a good addition to the product.
I see a lot of materials on how to go about doing things in Power BI, but Microsoft can add a "learning path". It would instruct users where to start, then what to learn next, etc, to sort out their learning journey.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft BI for ~four years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manage Client Partner at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Feature rich, functional dashboard, and plenty of charting visuals
Pros and Cons
- "I have found the best features to be the dashboard creation, graphs, charts, and presentation bar graphs."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
I am using the solution for data analytics.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This solution came free, it was offered by Microsoft with our E3 license.
What other advice do I have?
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.
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: partner
Head of Digitalization at a mining and metals company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft products, but can be made simpler to operate
Pros and Cons
- "Its seamless integration with Microsoft products, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Excel, is the most valuable."
- "They can provide a user-friendly and easy way to use this tool for people who don't know about programming or technical things. It will be quite good if they can improve the look and feel and make it simpler to operate. They can make it easier to create some of the reports. They can also include predefined templates that you can directly use."
What is our primary use case?
It is mostly used for monthly cost reports for our department. We are also using it as a dashboard for giving some overview for management purposes. We are using the latest version.
What is most valuable?
Its seamless integration with Microsoft products, such as Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Excel, is the most valuable.
What needs improvement?
They can provide a user-friendly and easy way to use this tool for people who don't know about programming or technical things. It will be quite good if they can improve the look and feel and make it simpler to operate.
They can make it easier to create some of the reports. They can also include predefined templates that you can directly use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft BI for almost two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is quite good as long as you have proper sizing from the beginnings. If you do the right sizing keeping in mind the current usage as well as future growth, it is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. We have around 65 seniors managers who use it on a weekly or monthly basis. Some reports are done weekly and some monthly.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not contacted them so far. I am from the user side. We contact our centralized IT department for any issues. If they have a technical issue that requires further escalation, they will directly contact Microsoft technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite simple, but for the product use, you need to have people who have got experience of at least three to six months in using these applications. It took us two months to deploy across the company.
What about the implementation team?
We have a core team that gets training from a Microsoft partner. We then deploy it ourselves. After six months of using this solution, some of the key users get advanced training.
We also maintain it ourselves. We have around ten people for its maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is somewhere in the middle in terms of price. Licensing is quite clear.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We reviewed some other intelligence tools, and we just used them for trials.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution, especially for the companies that mostly use Microsoft products and ecosystem. I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private 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.
Director Research and Development at Projects Factory
A comprehensive source for visualizations and analytics
Pros and Cons
- "Because this solution is very easy, and very visual, you can have results in minutes."
- "I would like to see a feature that connects with a Machine Learning platform like a RapidMiner or Azure Machine Learning Studio. It would be great to have a Machine Learning application link to connect."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use this for creating dashboards and reports for the oil and gas industry.
What is most valuable?
Power BI is always updating. I receive multi mail from Power BI with new visualizations, new analytics, new webinars and I'm going to Microsoft here locally in order to have a updated presentation about the new features of Power BI. For me it's very versatile. I can publish on my iPad. I have a Power BI application in order to manage the visualization of my report and my dashboard. Also I can speak to Power BI and ask about production and Q&A. But, I don't have compilation with other tools yet. For me, Power BI is the best.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see a feature that connects with a Machine Learning platform like a RapidMiner or Azure Machine Learning Studio. It would be great to have a Machine Learning application link to connect.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward. We had no problems with implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is fine for our company. It is reasonably priced.
What other advice do I have?
Because this solution is very easy, and very visual, you can have results in minutes.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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