Microsoft Power BI Reviews

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.

In general Microsoft, BI is used to build dashboards, and the analyzing of data as well as some econometrics.

Primarily, it's all about visualization and dashboards. My organization is large, and I don't believe Power BI as a tool has changed or revamped the entire organization; rather, it assists us in creating dashboards. It made things easier. 

The most valuable feature of Microsoft BI is its visualization and its ease of use.

I would like to see more visualization options. I have noticed that it's more driven by corporate data when you look at it. Because I work for the IMF, my data is slightly different, and the corporate solution does not always work.

I have been working with Microsoft BI for one year.

We are using the most recent version.

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

Microsoft BI has been good. I don't believe I have any issues with the stability aspect of it yet.

Scalability is good; for the time being, it serves the purpose of what we are trying to achieve. However, we haven't attempted to scale it very much.

There should be more than a hundred users in our organization. I'm only referring to the people who develop and implement changes, whereas people who use the dashboards and view them on the entire URL on that page represent the entire organization. There are about 100 or 200 people who actually work and develop things.

For the time being, we are only using it for dashboards because we have other tools for analytics and other things.

I have not contacted technical support.

We work in such a way that we can use any tool and accomplish whatever we want. That's the way it works. I wouldn't be able to say that every team uses Power BI for the same purpose, but we have Power BI available to us and can use it however we see fit. I know that it is primarily used for dashboards at this point.

I installed my own personal version of it, and it appeared to be pretty straightforward.

We have a large IT team to update and maintain this solution.

In most cases, the setups are completed by our vendors. We only receive the finished product.

I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.

We use Power BI for dashboards and various reports. It's primarily a visualization tool. We don't use it for business intelligence— just visualization.

I like that I can use Power BI to upload data. That is very important for me. The visualization is also convenient and easy to use.

The maps in Power BI could be improved. You deal with many maps over the years, like maps of America and Saudi Arabia. The maps aren't detailed enough, and there aren't enough visualization tools. Whenever I want to use a map, I struggle with choosing the right visualization.

We've been using Microsoft BI for about three years now.

Microsoft BI is scalable. There are some limitations depending on the amount of data you need, but it's enough for me so far. We have about 50 users, and we'll likely increase our usage in the coming years as Microsoft adds more features and our people train themselves to do more with it. 

Setting up Microsoft BI is straightforward. It took about one week if you include training on how to send reports and other things. We were able to do it by ourselves with a team of about five people. 

The license is annual. If you need a fancy visualization, you have to pay a bit more, but a valid license covers everything else. I'm developing reports and rolling them out to some users who are not developers, so I need the visualization and have to pay for the license. In the case of Tableau, you don't need to pay, or maybe you spend a little less because you're not a developer. 

I rate Microsoft BI 10 out of 10. 

The stability is good.

It's pretty easy to set up the product.

For the most part, users can scale the solution.

Technical support is okay.

It's a great option if a business is already heavily involved with other Microsoft tools. 

I can't speak to any missing features. We haven't used it that long and I haven't come across anything that's stood out as needing to be fixed. 

I've just started with the solution. I've used it for under a year so far. 

The solution is stable and the performance is pretty good, From what I have experienced. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

That said, we haven't used it for a full year yet, and it's hard to gauge its stability for the long term. Right now, based on the information I have, I'd rate it at 70% stable. 

While, for the most part, it is scalable, it still has its own limitations. 

We have three customers that currently use the product.

We've dealt with technical support in the past. They are okay. I'd describe them as average. We haven't necessarily had a bad experience. 

I wasn't directly involved in the implementation process. From the feedback from the engineers working on it, in terms of if it is an easy installation, t's not that difficult. The difficulty level depends on the experience of whoever is installing. It depends on the experience of the guy behind the installation or the software guy. My understanding is that there is no difficulty region to region. 

We have about five people who can handle deployment and maintenance duties on our team. We have a mix of managers and admins. 

We are able to handle the implementation process for our clients. 

The client does need to pay for a license in order to use the product, however, I can't speak to the exact lengths of license agreements on offer or how much they cost. 

Beyond the standard licensing fees, the only other extra cost would be support. 

There are other options, however, it depends on the client's services. If clients have already made up their minds and they know what they want to go for, we simply help implement. We can give them more options of solutions to choose from. However, many prefer Microsoft as most of their other applications are already Microsoft. It makes sense to stay within the brand. 

I'm an integrator and reseller. 

I'm not the one in charge of the installation or the technicality of the product. I'm more on the business side.

I always let clients have options and guide them to go for the one that best fits what they want to achieve. Other solutions have areas of strengths and weaknesses. You need to look at everything and examine everything before making a decision. 

Currently, I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. We haven't yet used it a year, and we're still learning about it and seeing what works well for clients. Over the next few months, we'll likely have a fuller picture of the product.