Microsoft Power BI Reviews

A client used Power BI mainly for banking reports. Another client was working in the field of laboratories, and they requested Power BI for the analysis of laboratory-related data for COVID-19. There were also some use cases where we used predictive analytics or utilized the power of Power BI services in the cloud.

It can be deployed on-premises and on the cloud.

It helps in automating the process of filling the data or refreshing the data to give you timely calculations for all the aspects of the dashboards that you have built. You can easily see all the real-time data with Power BI.

The good part of it is that you can do whatever you want with it when it comes to building BI. In terms of languages, it supports Python, and it also natively supports R.

You can integrate it with the cloud. On the desktop level, you just install the desktop installer, which is about a hundred megabytes or something like that, and it connects to the cloud. So, on the desktop, you can utilize the cloud power for AI and machine learning to help you with predictive analytics.

Most of the dashboarding tools have prebuilt graphs. So, you have to stick with them, unless you are going to use a third-party tool to create them, and then you are going to upload them to the BI tool. In Power BI, they started supporting this functionality and created a tool for that, but it isn't yet complete and mature. It is still exceeding the expectations and is better than most of the BI tools when it comes to creating custom graphs, but it needs more enhancement and simplification. It would be good to have a design tool provided by Power BI to design the graphs that we want and set the figures that we want on them.

I have been using this solution for six years.

It is stable. Solving dashboard issues on other products, such as Oracle, took us a lot of time, whereas solving issues in Power BI was so simple. The language they're using is also easy. In Power BI, you use the DAX language, which is derived from Excel. So, anyone who knows how to write Excel code would know how to deal with Power BI. It is going to be so simple.

The cloud version is scalable.

It is super easy to set up. I've been giving training on this to new employees, and they quickly learn how to work with the whole product. It doesn't take them more than one or two sessions.

The installation of Power BI Desktop on a computer takes a maximum of 10 minutes. You just have to install it on the computer, and that's it. Most of the services are over the cloud. When you do the subscription, you just connect or sign in with your company email address that has been registered, and that's it.

The on-premises version requires extra staff. It requires an engineer who knows how to implement AI algorithms and then connect them to the offline Power BI solution.

Power BI is subscription-based, and you have three options. The Pro edition, which is the standard one, is about $9 per user. The Premium edition, which provides AI and cloud capabilities but at a limited size, is for small to medium enterprises. It is about $20 per user. For large enterprises, such as manufacturing facilities, there is an option for the capacity. The capacity subscription is about $4,000 per capacity level.

They also have an option for the on-premises version, but it is not common to see someone going for the on-premises version. The on-premises version requires a specific license that is attached to SQL Server. I believe it is about $17,000, but I'm not sure about it.

It has an on-premises version as well as a cloud version. I usually recommend people to work with the cloud version. In the on-premises version, if they want it to go with the artificial intelligence part, they are going to require engineers to configure it, whereas it is already there in the cloud version. It is already configured and affordable. The cloud version costs between $9 to $20 per user, which makes it very affordable, and you also have the capacity option, which costs about $4,000 per month per capacity. The capacity option is usually for huge enterprises. Regular companies, even banks, can work efficiently with the cheapest option, which is $9 to $20 per user.

After working with Power BI, I would rate it an eight out of 10. There is huge competition in the market when it comes to BI tools, and there are fractional differences between Power BI and some of its competitors.

I use Microsoft Power BI for data visualization and IT studies. It is used primarily in my academic studies and courses, particularly in my visualization course, which is part of a master's program for individuals currently working in the industry. Students also use similar programs like Excel to monitor various issues.

Using Microsoft Power BI has significantly helped in analyzing large datasets. The solution allows for visualizing and connecting different Microsoft applications, which is beneficial for academic purposes.

The best features of Microsoft Power BI include its integration with other Microsoft products and its ability to connect applications within the Microsoft ecosystem. The product's overall integration within Microsoft's ecosystem is one of its strong points.

There are a few areas where Microsoft Power BI could be improved. For instance, spatial data support should be enhanced. Currently, it supports only topoJSON format for spatial files; other formats such as shapefiles or KML should also be supported to broaden the library.

I have been using Microsoft Power BI for at least five years.

The stability of Microsoft Power BI is quite good. I would rate it a nine out of ten. However, there can be some difficulty in handling very large datasets, but overall, the stability is strong.

Dealing with very large datasets can be a bit difficult, which impacts the scalability to some extent.

I would rate Microsoft's customer support a seven out of ten. This rating may be influenced by my location in Turkey, making access to support somewhat challenging.

Neutral

I have used several other solutions, including Tableau and Looker. Each has its advantages, but generally, I prefer Microsoft Power BI first, followed by Qlik, and then Tableau.

The initial setup of Microsoft Power BI is straightforward and can be managed without significant issues. Using it for academic purposes, we mainly use the desktop version.

For companies, the program is cost-efficient. Academically, we use Microsoft Power BI for free through the licenses provided.

I evaluated Tableau, Looker, and Qlik before deciding on Microsoft Power BI. Each of these solutions has its own unique advantages.

Given the increasing need to analyze large datasets, I would definitely recommend Microsoft Power BI. It is a valuable tool for both academic and practical applications, particularly for those involved in data analysis and IT studies.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

We use the solution to build business intelligence dashboards.

The solution's most valuable feature is the graphic representation.

The dynamic browsing tables could be better in Microsoft Power BI.

I have been using Microsoft Power BI for three years.

I have not faced any issues with the solution’s stability.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten for stability.

I am satisfied with the solution’s scalability. Our customers for Microsoft Power BI are enterprise businesses in the engineering sector.

I rate the solution’s scalability ten out of ten.

Microsoft Power BI is a simpler solution than Tableau.

The solution's initial setup is easy. The solution can be deployed in a few hours.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup ten out of ten.

Microsoft Power BI is a comparable tool that provides very quick ROI, and it's as good as or better than other products like QlikView or Tableau.

Microsoft Power BI is not an expensive solution. The solution’s pricing is reasonable.

The solution's real-time data processing feature benefits our organization because most managers want to have real-time data compilations. They want to integrate SQL and expect the data to be current. Different clients have different environments. Sometimes, the tool is deployed on the local server, and sometimes in the cloud.

Microsoft Power BI is worth trying because it's very popular and easily adopted by organizations. It's easier to adopt than third-party products. Microsoft Power BI provides good graphical overviews, good graphic preparation of data, good integration with SQL, and good data integration.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We have many projects in the company. Some of them are self-service where they can connect on their own to local on-premises databases. Some of them are with big databases on the cloud, such as Azure SQL or Azure Synapse, and some of them are with local sources, such as Excel files, etc.

It is really flexible. The charts and reports are really nice. You have the flexibility of self-service.

It is not yet ready for enterprises. For a big enterprise data model, it is not so stable, and it also doesn't scale so well.

I am not really satisfied with their support. Their support should be faster. They should also be more knowledgeable.

I have been using this solution for two and a half years.

It depends. It is not really for enterprises. Even though Microsoft is trying, it isn't yet ready for enterprise use. For self-service, it is pretty fine. If you don't have a huge data set, it is quite stable.

If you try to have a big enterprise data model, it doesn't scale so well. You wouldn't get results similar to some of the other on-premises tools.

In terms of its users, I don't know the exact number, but we have about 10,000  to 20,000 users. Its usage is increasing.

I have contacted them a lot of times. I am not really satisfied with their support. Lately, it has become even worse. They are probably overloaded, and it takes really long. Many times, they just say, "That's how it works." In reality, it is a bug.

Many times, their first-level support doesn't understand what the problem is, and they don't reach out to the proper people to get into the issue. It is not really good.

We have been using different tools, such as QlikView, on-premises OBIEE, Tableau, Excel, etc. We are trying to migrate almost everyone to Power BI. So, eventually, we will have only Power BI. Its usage is growing.

It is really easy. It is mostly automated. You simply publish the dataset. 

It doesn't take too long. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

I'm a part of the team that manages all the projects that are done with Power BI within the company. We guide them and help them with the development and all the architecture.

The number of people required depends on the size of the project. For one of the big projects we have, there are a couple of developers. There is one person for the management of Power BI. We also have 10 to 12 people doing the reports, etc.

We have premium licenses, but you can use it for free. You can share the content with anyone else, so you can use it for free.

I would recommend it, but if you want to use it enterprise-wide, you need to be really careful because you might face problems. In general, it's really a great tool. For self-service, it is more than okay, but when you try to use it enterprise-wide, it doesn't really work well.

Overall, I would rate it a seven out of 10.

We built a BI system to provide clients with access to the data that we collect. They can access the data report and various reports by using Power BI.

It is built into the Azure cloud. You can't deploy it otherwise.

We have a product called ED Tracker, and we allow clients to subscribe to this product, and they use it through Power BI. It enables us to offer new services to clients and basically allows them to work on the data or report themselves, rather than sending them data with PowerPoint decks, PDF reports, etc. So, we work with our clients through this platform. They need to have the license. If they want to access the system, we just tell them that they need to get a license. The license is very cheap. It is $10 a month per user. It is not very expensive, and once they have the license, they can access our cloud solution.

Its connectivity with other Office applications, mostly with Excel, and the ability to deploy it very easily are the most valuable features. It comes sort of bundled with the cloud, so you don't need to set up a server and a standalone infrastructure. So, getting into the system or building something that you can deploy is very easy and very cheap. With other systems, you need to have a server, and you need to have a license for the server. The initial setup is very costly.

It is an evolving solution. So, it still has some rough edges. As compared to Tableau or QlikView, there are some things that you can't do when you want to. For example, giving specific access to some reports for users. You can get it up and running very fast, but some things are a bit trickier, and for some of the things, you need to actually write code. 

It is sort of a work in progress. They're catching up on the competition, but it still takes time. Other solutions are more mature, and they have been in the market much longer, but it is catching up. It has come a long way in terms of how it was working two years ago, but there are some things that you still can't do with it. For example, permission management and user access management are still a bit limited. It is basically based on the idea that everybody from the organization can see everything or limit the type of data they can see. If I want you to see only one report and the other guy to see another report, I can't do it. There should be a better way to manage permissions and users. It should also support external users much better.

There should be the ability to export to PowerPoint or PDF. It should be more efficient. It's rather clunky right now. Sometimes, the system is inconsistent in the way it does things. 

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is adequate in terms of speed and stability. It is very stable. Sometimes, it is a bit slow. It can be faster, but you need to subscribe and purchase additional packages or resources, and then it becomes more expensive.

We haven't scaled yet, but you have the ability to have a dedicated server on Azure with CPU. You can increase and have an SQL Server, so you can scale it.

As of now, we have around 10 to 12 users internally and externally. Some are internal, and some are external clients. We do have plans to increase the usage because we're trying to sell and market the product to other clients as well. So, we do have plans to increase the number of users. One of the benefits is that it doesn't matter if we have 10, 20, or 50 users. It doesn't inflict any costs on us because they go directly to the cloud. They don't come to us. It is very indirect, but we do plan to extend the usage of that system. We might also extend it internally.

Their technical support is absolutely magnificent. A week ago, we had an issue related to permissions, and we couldn't find out how to do that. My colleague contacted the support of Power BI. They not only answered us by mail; they also had a half an hour session with us on Teams to better understand what our issues were. They wanted us to send them the files. They reviewed them and told us that there were still some limitations, but they were working on them, and they will let us know.

We were stunned that someone from Microsoft is interested in what we're doing and someone is willing to go online and have a half an hour session with us so that we can explain what we're doing and what is our issue, and they can think about how to resolve it. We're a small client. We're not a big company. So, we were stunned by their support. Their support is amazing.

A few years ago, we've tested QlikView and Qlik Sense. Their deployment costs were rather high, so we decided to use Power BI.

It was very easy and straightforward. It was rather quick because you can launch it. It is very easy to publish. They give you direct access to their cloud. For small solutions or datasets like ours, the initial setup was a matter of days. We started with the desktop on-premise, and then we published it to the cloud. It was rather easy. It was a matter of days to a week or two.

We used our own team. Its deployment and maintenance are taken care of by a PM and a colleague of mine. It is very easy. You just press publish, and it's off to the cloud.

In terms of ROI, it is a 10 out of 10.

Its price is very low. It is like $10 per user, per month. The clients pay for their own licenses. It is not on us. 

There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees. That's the beauty. With other systems, you need to spend a couple of thousand dollars just to get started, and then you need to spend $500 per year for the license, which becomes much more costly. You have a system here where for $120 to $140 a year, you can start with two people and start developing and deploying. You can see why the cost difference is huge, especially when you are on a low scale, like us, and you're not building something very huge.

We didn't evaluate other options because we have had some past experience with other solutions. We knew that QlikView might be good, but you need to spend a couple of thousand dollars just to get started if you want to do something. We knew the costs, and the entry cost was much higher. So, we decided to go with Power BI. It is also integrated with Office and Excel, so it's very easy to go along and do some of the things that you can do in Excel. It is very easy to transition between them.

If you are looking for a good BI solution for a small business that is very easy to deploy and not costly and that can use the cloud in terms of security, Power BI is probably the best solution in the market.

I would rate it a nine out of 10. There are other solutions that might be better than this, but they're more costly. It is the cheapest BI solution in the market. It is not the best in terms of features, but it is the best in terms of value for money. For the volume of work that we have, there is absolutely no competition.

We have created the reports and are continuing to work on them. We are deploying them to the proxy, and the users are utilizing them for various business processes.

I work in Tableau or Tableau and Power BI. It can handle large data sets. You can just get the raw data. When it comes to Power BI, if you have to get the raw data and want to refresh it, the refresh at a point in time would degrade performance.

One of the key benefits of Power BI is how easy it is to develop reports. Even non-technical users can easily download the report and learn to include slicers and data filters once provided with a template. The platform is very user-friendly. Another advantage of Power BI is that if the report developer encounters any issues, they can quickly find solutions through Microsoft’s help resources. You can get your assistance by visiting the Microsoft support site or posting queries. This makes developing and delivering reports much easier. Microsoft Power BI provides much support and flexibility, making it a great tool for report generation.

It can integrate with different data sources. You can connect seamlessly to Databricks, SQL Data Warehouse, third-party sites, and multiple other sources.

We identified a couple of issues in the reports. Some reports took too long to load, particularly at the end of our data refresh. To address this, we optimized the data model using multiple tables, improving performance. Now, all reports are refreshing properly using DBP, and we’ve implemented these improvements in Power BI.

I have been using Microsoft Power BI for two years.

The availability of Power BI is excellent. Once a user is set up, they can easily access and work with the Power BI files from the repository. There are also various modes for adding features, allowing users to combine data in different ways to make informed business decisions. 

Based on business discussions, there are 25 to 100 business users. The users work with templates, and we collect UAT feedback from them.

The initial setup was straightforward. Based on the current requirements, I've been able to develop the reports independently. It's easy to use and allows for faster reporting.

Once we generate the reports, we schedule and publish them on the website and then share the process with the users.

We're able to refresh the Power BI reports and create data models to support the business at this stage.

I'm working with a company that manages detailed sales data for the clothing industry. We're tracking orders, brands, seasons, and which facility handled the order, along with audits. We're focusing on metrics like fabric consumption and fiber content for reporting. 

We can develop reports in Power BI, including RxTx reports. Many of the business teams are also using Power BI. For support, we use Slack to manage tickets and TableLab for some tasks. Power BI offers a trial version, and you can get a pro license at a relatively low cost, with users having access to AV accounts. The main advantages are that it’s easy to use and more affordable compared to other reporting tools.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use it specifically for pure data analysis. 

I like the speed of building a visual and the transformation feature where you can make changes to the data, and then revert back very fast. These features, where you make transformations and then delete that step when you don't need them, are some of the best.

Power BI's integration with other tools is very good. With Power BI, if there are other systems on the network, you can easily connect to anything like SQL Server, Oracle, Amazon, Salesforce, SAP...anything you can easily connect. I have not faced difficulties with that.

The real-time data refresh capabilities is one of the things I had issues with. The refresh sometimes doesn't really work very well because there are two ways of connecting: direct and import. 

When it's direct, it's refreshed, but then you have limitations. But when you import the data, I feel there is always a limitation in the refresh. It is kind of like a room for improvement for Microsoft Power BI to work more on these real-time data refresh capabilities.

Microsoft Power BI changes almost every month; make changes regularly. I sometimes even see features that disappear, change, and update. So, I'm not keeping up. They are already doing a lot of changes. They keep updating regularly.

I have been using it for six to seven years. 

It's quite stable. Power BI is very stable.

It is very scalable. Almost everyone in our company uses it. 

I personally use it daily. 

I don't usually deal with customer service and support. It's our technical team that deals with them, but I don't see them complaining.

I used Excel. Power BI can crunch the data faster, and you can build a dashboard nicer and faster. Building a visual in Power BI is always easier, quicker, and simpler than Excel. It's Excel on steroids. 

I used to use Excel pivot tables a lot, but with Power BI, it's faster. It's easier to play with the data. If I want to make a list or put some formulas and stuff, Excel is good. But if I want to visualize the data, crunch it properly, and build measures quickly, Power BI is better.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with ten being easy and one being very difficult. 

It is deployed both on-premises and the cloud. 

The deployment time varies and depends on the company. Every company is different. Here, internally, we have Microsoft Power BI Cloud, so it's easy. 

But in the previous company, we did not have Microsoft Cloud. So, to install, we had to install Microsoft Reporting Server and then Power BI internally. That took quite a while. 

But if you have Microsoft Cloud in your company, that's easy. And it's quicker on the cloud than on-premises.

Maybe a third party helped with the deployment. 

Downloading Power BI Desktop is free. But when you want to use the cloud, this is where I think it's per user payment. I'm not really very familiar with the licensing because I think they have more than one level. 

But to use Power BI internally for yourself, it's free. You download it. It's a free application.

I would recommend Power BI to other people. Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

With Power BI, I create dashboards. We have an IT manager responsible for supply chain and CRM, including billing. I handle the supply chain module, receiving end-user requests for dashboards and reports.

I create analysis and measures in Analysis Services, then craft dashboards that meet end-user requirements.

My work involves using SQL Server Integration Services to integrate data from various sources, including Oracle and SQL Server, and then store them in Data Warehouse.

Power BI significantly organized our KPIs, making them accessible for immediate business decisions, like analyzing profits or losses. 

For example, in supply chain management, Power BI provides well-organized KPI data and calculated measures that aid decision-makers. Unlike before, they don't have to wait for detailed data; they get well-defined KPIs and calculated measures that offer insights into the business, allowing them to make informed decisions regarding future strategies and properties.

Power BI's collaboration functionality improves teamwork in our organization. We had a lot of entries and a lot of people who were working with Power BI. It's been four years, and some new members have less experience. We all collaborate to share information and experience, which improves collaboration.

Power BI's ability to integrate any data source, whether it's a cloud database, Analysis Services, or another type, is incredibly valuable. It allows us to make the right data available for analysis. 

Additionally, the flexibility to enhance our dashboards with new charts found online further helps with our analytical capabilities.

I also like the feature of the Page Navigator in Power BI. The Page Navigator allows users to navigate through different pages on the dashboard simply by clicking on the desired page, and Power BI will automatically open that page. 

Additionally, Power BI offers interactions where I can decide what Slicer or chart can filter another. Not all sources can filter all the others, and not all filters can be applied universally. 

I've also found Bookmarks to be a valuable feature, allowing for control over what sources are affected or whether they are visible or invisible during any interaction in Power BI. 

The dashboard and reporting features are very effective in decision-making. They enable decision-makers to determine the next steps, such as analyzing profits and losses, evaluating supplier performance, including late fees, and managing purchase timings in relation to delivery and order dates.

Data integration is very useful in Power BI. It lets me collect data from many sources, especially with IT support. I get data from tools, databases, data warehouses, and data lakes. For example, I can get data from Oracle databases and SQL Server databases at the same time.

We combine this data into a single destination—either a table or a database. This lets us analyze the combined data and create visualizations. Ultimately, we can consolidate information like customer details from different solutions into a single table. We can also change data types, clean the data, and organize it effectively.

When I create measures, sometimes the error messages aren't clear. It makes me spend more time searching for solutions. I need the error messages to be more specific.

So, I would like clearer error messages when creating measures.

I've been working with Power BI since January 2020, so it's been four years.

It is very stable. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

It works well for a large number of users. We have almost 15 to 20 end users. 

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a four out of ten, with one being difficult and ten being easy to set up.

It's difficult to set up. Sometimes, I need technical support to resolve issues.

We use it on-premises.

The deployment time varies. Sometimes it takes two days, and sometimes it takes two weeks. If the dashboard has a lot of KPIs, it will take more time. Also, if the data already exists as measures, it's less complicated.

It's accessible with some subscriptions. We have a lot of users that we can send dashboards to daily, and that would cost a lot of money otherwise. But setting up Power BI itself is not expensive.

I would definitely recommend using this solution. It's easy to use. It can get data from a lot of sources. It's user-friendly. It's easy to learn, and it's easy to search on the internet for information about it.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.