Microsoft Power BI Reviews

I've been a consultant, so I've built some reports for some clients. I use and prefer its desktop version. 

It is a little easier at buildings charts and graphs than Tableau.

At the enterprise level, it is a little expensive. To get the full capacity of integrations, you need to go premium.

It has limited performance capabilities in terms of connecting to large transactional databases, but it is fine for simple and quick queries from Excel spreadsheets or one table. The premium level is going to be more applicable for the higher transaction-level databases. 

I've been in the Business Intelligence Industry for about seven years. I use this product off and on.

It is complex to scale. There are just too many things you have to put in place. You got to have the gateways, and you got to have the premium service. There are a lot of components that get involved. It is not very straightforward. 

We sell our own BI tool. So, we have hundreds of clients. They are mid-sized organizations. We're building out our Power BI stack because people do like it, but right now, we have most of our stuff in Tableau.

I also use Tableau. They're very comparable products. I worked for different companies that built their own proprietary stuff, and mainly for visualization, Tableau and Power BI were the connectors to go to. So, there wasn't a switch.

I really like Tableau's web version over Power BI's web version. It is just easier to drag and drop things and blend data on the backend. It has a little simpler process in that regard. I don't like the charting in Tableau. Its charting is a little more complex than Power BI's charting.

Calculations are a little harder in Tableau. They can be a little more complex in Tableau as compared to Power BI. Tableau is a little more detailed in terms of creating calculations. You can't just add two columns together. Tableau should have the ability to add or subtract columns. They should make it like a wizard.

The simple stuff is easy. When you want to get into the calculations and building DAX-type formulas, I don't think DAX is that great. I find Tableau's coding a little easier.

Its pricing is reasonable for the desktop stuff, but for enterprise-level, it is a little expensive. 

I would advise others to just do their research and figure out what they want to do with it so that they know if it is going to be hard or easy.

I would rate Microsoft BI an eight out of 10.

We are using it for analyzing transactions. In the products that we develop and supply to our customers, there are some applications that are connected to payments. We analyze the trend of transactions or payments that are done in our system by our clients. We want to understand how our clients are using our solution and if there are some conditions that are making them use our product more than others. We also analyze who is paying and how much, and how and at what time are they using our system.

It is stable enough. It has a lot of powerful functions. It can also be customized with the DAX language. 

It is also intuitive enough and incremental. You can start with something simple, and then step-by-step, you can increase the reports and dashboards according to your needs. 

When you go to the cloud, its licensing is not intuitive. It is a little bit complex. When you have to purchase a new license, it is difficult to understand on their website what exactly you need to pay and how you can group. It is something that is applicable to all Microsoft products. They're not always so simple and clear when it comes to licensing.

Their support can also be better in terms of explaining how they resolved an issue and what steps they took to resolve it. They are able to resolve the issue, but they can be better at explaining the approach they took to resolve the issue.

It could have something in the direction of machine learning. It can have some kind of integration with machine learning where you can ask for some reports with natural language.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is stable enough.

It is easy to make it grow as a product. Our organization is not big. We have a total of 10 to 15 people who access this solution. We will continue to use it for sure. 

In general, we are producing applications that we sell to our clients in a SaaS model. All data of our clients is inside our database. The clients have to manage the service. All this data that they are loading in our server can have interesting information for them. So, we are using it to understand our clients and the behavior of the user.

We had to use some support for licensing. They were fast enough, but sometimes, they were not very clear. We had a few calls with them. In the end, they solved the problem, but they didn't have a very clear approach. It was more of a communication problem. Their support can be better in terms of explaining how they resolved an issue and what steps they took to resolve it. 

Its installation is easy on the cloud as well as on the desktop. You can also easily move and publish from desktop to the cloud. We had issues with licensing, but after you have received licenses, it is easy. 

It is also good how the data that is being collected on some servers for different data centers is automatically synchronized. It is easy enough to do automatic scaling or collect the data from the source and the publisher.

We did it ourselves. At the moment, we are not using a consultant. It is intuitive enough for our use, and there is one type of analysis and one type of role. However, in the future, we might require a consultant for customizing the dashboard and the reports and splitting the data according to different roles. We would require analysis of different roles based on different sets of data. For machine learning, we'll surely require a consultant.

For its deployment and maintenance, we have three or four people for each specific competency. Some of them are more experienced in the data that has to be collected, and some of them are experienced in how data can be collected from the in-house server. There are also some people who are more competent in the business domain.

We pay for users who are publishing on the cloud. The desktop version is free.

Its licensing is on a yearly basis.

I would recommend this solution. It has many features that are good. It mostly needs improved licensing. 

I would rate Power BI a nine out of ten. 

We primarily use the product for running the reports and all data extraction in our organization.

The solution is a wonderful tool overall. 

Power BI is very powerful and very easy to use. Its user-friendliness is one of its most valuable aspects. It has a very nice user interface that makes everything easy to navigate.

The product can go easily go and extract data and it can put it into any format.

It's a very good data analytic tool.

The initial setup is pretty easy. It's pretty straightforward in general.

I can't say that anything glaring is missing from the offering at this time.

Microsoft is doing a lot of research on it and they're coming up with a lot of good release items.

I'm not overly technical, and so I can't really speak to any shortcomings from a technical standpoint.

I'd like to have more time with the solution to evaluate it to see if there's really anything missing. We don't really go in-depth with the product.

I've been using the solution since about 2017. It's been a few years now.

The stability is very good. It's a Microsoft product and therefore they wouldn't put anything out that wasn't tested and worthy of release. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's quite reliable and offers good performance. 

While the scalability is there, the cost is what you have to factor in. It has to scale as if there's more data, it needs to meet that demand and be able to extract and analyze it.  

Technical support for the most part has been very good. They are helpful and responsive. We are satisfied with the level of support we receive. On a scale of one to 25, I would give it a mark of 20.

We've found the initial setup to be pretty straightforward. It's not complex. A company shouldn't have too much trouble getting everything up and running.

I'm not sure of the exact cost of the solution. It's not an aspect of the product I need to worry about.

I am aware that we currently have an enterprise license.

I personally haven't evaluated or compared any other solutions. I don't have any knowledge in terms of how it compares to other options.

We are customers and end-users. We don't have a specific business relationship with Microsoft.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten overall. We've been pretty satisfied with the product.

We use Power BI to manage all business indicators. Our customers' files, operations, number of transactions, satisfaction levels, history. We have a very powerful dashboard we use in Power BI and all our customers use it. I use it to drill down data from customers, to make decisions regarding business and other things. We are Microsoft partners and I'm a board member of our company.  

Power BI has a unique set of APIs to connect different databases on different systems. It means that I can extract data from a variety of sources and systems. It's very flexible. I work with numerous systems. We have new systems, super fast systems, and I have very old systems that run very well. They don't need updating because they run so well. Power BI has the power to connect with different sources, and I have a data scientist that orchestrates all that data because it's also about understanding the data, the application of intelligence and strategy on the data, and exposing it on the dashboard. 

I think that they should improve the mobile application that they have, it's very poor. We generally have a very huge area to cover, to move blocks and data. But sometimes I need a small set of data that I can see in my personal iPhone. But the iPhone solution, and the solution from any smartphone, tablet, etc., is so limited. It's particularly important now when so many people are working from home. Sometimes I need to reply to a call from my support or customer teams, they might be asking for a concession for a customer. I want to be able to look at the data on that customer. I take out my phone and I have no data. It's the worst. I think that if they improve the mobile solutions, it would help me and my team. 

I've been using this solution for five years. 

The stability of the product is very good. Microsoft solutions are very reliable. They're very mature and deliver reliable solutions. 

The scalability is good and powerful. Everyone in the company uses Microsoft tools, predictive tools. Microsoft 365, Power BI, SharePoint, Teams, Word, PowerPoint.

Technical support is a challenge, it's a complex question. Microsoft has different levels of support, it's all very customized. Different kinds and sizes of companies require different levels of support. The support is strong but it comes at a price. It's their business model. I can buy a number of hours from a specialist and get a real-time response.

The initial setup is quite complex and not easy to manage. You need a data scientist. It's not only connected to a data source, it's not only connected to an Excel sheet. For basic use that's okay but for corporate use to extract major features from the solution, you need a data scientist. It's expensive but a necessity and it's a very good investment for companies, because the data scientist enables the company to make better decisions and to help improve customer satisfaction.

It's very important to have a very good data scientist, without that it's very difficult. It's a key requirement. I'm only unhappy with the Windows software. I'm a Mac user for over 20 years, and, in comparison, Windows is bad. For us, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, IBM are not affordable. They're interested in larger companies. In the last few years, Microsoft seems to be happier to go for the smaller companies too.

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

We use this solution to analyze financial statements from our partners.

We build dashboards to see information on a product that is offered by one of our local telcos.

The most valuable feature is shareability, where we can publish work to the cloud and share it with team members. If you want to build a dashboard then you can publish it to the cloud, and then add people. This will give them access to the dashboard where they can review it, and modify it as well.

They have a mobile option that allows you to see the dashboard from your mobile phone, rather than having to look at your laptop.

I think that they can add more types of charts because the selection on the desktop version is limited.

I would like to see an option for adding audio to the visualizations. 

They need to add support for putting emojis into the dashboards.

We have been using Power BI for the past two or three years.

In terms of stability, this product has never failed me. I have not experienced any bugs or glitches.

The scalability is good. They allow for multiple types of data sources, so if you grow your databases or you change your data sources, it's easy to add them to the tool visually.

We are a startup with four people, and everybody is using it. We are proposing it to our clients in cases where we are selling analytics because it's a good option for them.

I have not had a reason to speak with technical support, although I've looked at the community. They do have additional features that you can download from the site, as well. I have not a problem in terms of support.

I used Tableau in 2016, but I decided not to use it in this startup company because they don't have a free option. They do have a trial version, but that expires and I would have to then look for another solution.

With Microsoft BI, they have a free desktop version. 

I have also used Cognos BI before, although it was a bit complicated. This is another reason that I settled on Microsoft BI.

The installation is direct and quite easy to do. The instructions are available online and they are easy to follow.`

I completed the deployment myself.

We are using the free desktop version of this product.

Once the trial period for the BI service is over, the cost is approximately $10 USD per user, per month, so it's quite reasonable.

My advice for anybody interested in using Microsoft BI is to set up the desktop version. It's good to start off with, it's easy to learn, and they get the trial period for the BI service. Then, once they're done with the trial period, I think the licensing per month is quite affordable.

In summary, this is a good solution. It is not perfect, although if they added audio, emojis, and more types of graphs, then it would be.

I would rate this solution 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).

It is a good solution. We use it for analyzing and visualizing data relating to warehouses and connections from other ERP systems, etc.

It helps the decision-maker to make decisions related to the data. Power BI is easy to use and user friendly. Because of that, we use it as a visualization tool for our data.

Its data visualization provides the user the ability to quickly look at data and focus on relevant information, allowing them to make an immediate decision.

It is a good product with great abilities and easy features to use.

It should be easier to use when there are multiple system sources, and simplify the connections to it.

It is stable.

It is scalable.

I watch videos and read training materials. I practice and apply them to circumstances of technical support.

The initial setup is straightforward. 

It is part of our Office 365 license.

I would recommend this solution to another user.

We are not dealing the vendor. We are using it directly from Microsoft as part of Office 365. 

The integration tool in Microsoft BI stack is one of the best in terms of understanding and together with the script component can make most data imports pretty simple and accurate. Also, the ease of use of the product.

Prior to using the Microsoft BI stack the organization was using a lot of Access and Excel applications which became cumbersome as the organization grew. These tools helped us to streamline the reports and data integration.

The robustness of the stack could be improved as it fails when we import/extract large amounts of data.

Four and a half years.

No issues encountered.

Yes, when the volume of data is large.

Yes.

Excellent with online social help and customer care from Microsoft.

There is a lot of room for improvement in technical support.

I used other reporting platforms along with the Microsoft BI stack, but never switched.

The initial setup is pretty simple for most starting users.

It was an in house implementation.

Very high, as it is a very cost effective application compared to any BI tools in the market.

It is setup by the organization, so I am not sure about the exact cost and renewal cost.

No, I did not have an opportunity to do any evaluations.

It is a great, cost effective solution if the size of the organization is only medium and easy to use and cost of finding a resource is low.