I like how the Query Editor lets me manipulate the data, and the available visuals are good. You can do everything using the UI.
Director at Magnamious Systems Pvt. Ltd.
I like how the Query Editor lets me manipulate the data
Pros and Cons
- "I like how the Query Editor lets me manipulate the data, and the available visuals are good. You can do everything using the UI."
- "Integration with artificial intelligence would help. Humans take time to review the data and eliminate errors. Artificial intelligence based on machine learning and understanding can bring the same functionality."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
Integration with artificial intelligence would help. Humans take time to review the data and eliminate errors. Artificial intelligence based on machine learning and understanding can bring the same functionality.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've worked with Microsoft BI for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Power BI has been stable so far.
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November 2024
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Power BI is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't called technical support about Power BI. I've consulted the documentation when necessary and checked blogs to rectify my issues.
How was the initial setup?
It's fairly easy to set up Power BI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I think the price is fair, but I can't speak for most Indian customers.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Bi nine out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Managing Partner at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Great on the cloud, easy to expand, and have a good community around it
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is stable."
- "The cost of the solution can get high."
What is our primary use case?
We use Power BI in cloud solutions in other systems. There are lots of products in our environment that work with Power BI. One use case is we use it to track the real-time sensor data to Power BI using Azure.
We have lots of customers. We make premium subscription projects for them. We have a Tableau portion. We are also Tableau partners and resellers. As a company, we make lots of Tableau projects.
What is most valuable?
The most powerful site of Power BI is the cloud site. You can do everything in power BI. There are lots of things that the solution provides. If you have a huge data warehouse in the cloud, Power BI fits.
In some cases, there are some add-ons that you can put together in Power BI - for example, data factory, data bricks, and also data lakes. Some Microsoft solutions work together and are integrated already. You don't need to worry about that.
If you know what you do, Power BI is a good solution.
The solution is stable.
The product can scale.
What needs improvement?
There are some limitations of Power BI. The front end, for example, is not fancy.
The solution should not be used in some cases.
The cost of the solution can get high.
There is a strong community around the solution that can help users learn about the product and troubleshoot.
When we compare Power BI with other solutions, we can see there are lots of things that should be done. Some things are there, however, they are not working well. Microsoft puts lots of solutions in one place and declares it a complete solution. However, in the practice, you can see that this STK is not working properly or the request is not giving the same results. You discover that when you open a ticket to Microsoft. They will tell you that they are still in development on that product so it will available in the future.
When you use the Power BI as an enterprise solution, as a consultant, you find out that the product is not fully ready for enterprise. In that way, we suffer a lot. That said, every version becomes better.
They need to have an analytics suite of some sort.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with BI solutions for 20 years. I've been using Power BI for two years so far.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable. For one of our customers, there are one thousand clients connecting to the same report. Everyone gets their own results and can search them. It needs more power. It can consume a lot of energy.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the product is great. It's on the cloud, which makes it easy to scale.
How are customer service and support?
There are good communities and groups that can help you troubleshoot if necessary.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I'm also familiar with Tableau.
We are SAP partners and resellers also. We make lots of SAP business intelligence solutions and do business intelligence projects.
How was the initial setup?
Step-by-step implementation is easy. The difficult part is when you enter the infrastructure site. There are lots of Power BI developers, however, they do not know the other cloud environment. In that way, they can only design the front site. That said, they should know the architecture. They should know the other infrastructure and know the data also. If they do, they can produce lots of things. As an example, Microsoft offers a flow integration so that you can create a data flow that consumes the data and give the results to other services. Also, there are lots of things that you can do, however, you need to know the Azure environment in order to do them.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In some cases, Power BI can be expensive.
What other advice do I have?
We are using the current version of the solution.
I'd advise new users that there are lots of communities and lots of user groups that deal with the product. They should attend them. They should watch the videos about Power BI. It's important to extend your knowledge. If you want to be a Power BI developer, you should also know the other technologies as well.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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November 2024
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Sales Director at Expeditus (Pty) Ltd
Dashboards are helpful, but it needs better metadata management for enterprise clients
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft BI's dashboards are helpful."
- "Power BI could have better metadata management. It's easy to use for a single person. However, it lacks an enterprise-grade metadata management system, which can be a problem if you're doing an enterprise deployment with multiple users."
What is our primary use case?
It depends on what the client needs. I've got multiple use cases for Power BI. There's no single one that stands out. But generally speaking, my clients primarily use Power BI for financial and sales reporting.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft BI's dashboards are helpful.
What needs improvement?
Power BI could have better metadata management. It's easy to use for a single person. However, it lacks an enterprise-grade metadata management system, which can be a problem if you're doing an enterprise deployment with multiple users. Microsoft could add some more features to its normal reporting capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Microsoft BI for about 18 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft BI is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are limitations and license restrictions. So if you're an enterprise that needs to increase the volume of data and users, you normally have to go to higher license models.
How was the initial setup?
Microsoft BI is mostly easy to set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
At the entry level, it's affordable, but as you scale up and have more needs, it becomes expensive because you get tied into the whole Microsoft stack.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I also work with MicroStrategy. Out of the two, I would recommend MicroStrategy. They have what they call the Semantic Graph and Enterprise-Grade Semantic Graph. I think the technology is fantastic. However, doing business with MicroStrategy is fairly difficult and complex because of all processes involved, but the technology is probably the best in the market.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft BI seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Project Consultant at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
A stable solution with a great dashboard
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft BI is very easy to set up and use."
- "Integration with products that are not Microsoft could be more improved."
What is our primary use case?
Around 50% of our customers use this solution. We plan to extend our usage of this solution.
What is most valuable?
Our customers really like the dashboard. They can click on whatever they want for an in-depth view. Microsoft BI is very easy to set up and use.
What needs improvement?
In general, all the Microsoft programs are integrated quite well, but it could be improved. Also, integration with products that are not Microsoft could be more improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft BI on and off for the past two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
If implemented correctly, Microsoft BI is quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's quite scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have never contacted customer support.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't know much about the licensing because our customers pay for it.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give Microsoft BI a rating of nine.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Founder/CEO at Data.tac Nigeria Limited
Allows us to compile and transform data into visual representations
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft BI allows us to connect to any database or any dataset."
- "Compared to other applications, like Tableau, Microsoft BI doesn't have as many functions that allow you to do more in-depth analysis and represent the findings."
What is our primary use case?
We get a lot of chunks of data, especially production data and data based on education — performance-related data. We use BI to analyze the data so we can give feedback to our clients. If they're experiencing problems, we help them find trends, etc.
Within our organization, there are roughly six or seven people using this solution.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft BI allows us to connect to any database or any dataset. It automatically renders some of the information which makes things a lot easier for us.
What needs improvement?
Compared to other applications, like Tableau, Microsoft BI doesn't have as many functions that allow you to do a more in-depth analysis and represent the findings. I think they have a standard that they keep to.
As the UI experience is always changing, the interface and security can always be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for roughly four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is quite good. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We haven't had to expand because usually we just wait for the data. However, we do have plans to expand.
How are customer service and technical support?
On a scale from one to five, I would give their technical support a rating of four.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I believe we pay on a monthly basis. Compared to what's available on the market, I think we pay a fair price.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Microsoft BI to others. On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Director at IDMdev Tech Solutions®
It is stable and provides a quick view of the most important indicators, but its setup and support should be better
Pros and Cons
- "The use of graphics to show and view the data indicators is the most valuable feature. It is also very stable."
- "Its setup and support should be improved. We would like to see more material for developers that provides clear explanations about how we can do data mining by using Microsoft BI. It would also be good if we can connect a feature to other customized machine learning solutions."
What is our primary use case?
We have integrated this solution into the software that we created for a client specifically for reports and data consumption. It is a hybrid infrastructure project with hybrid integration. It has a lot of reports executed or created from the cloud.
How has it helped my organization?
It has helped us to have a really quick view of the most important indicators of the operational issues of our platform. It has enabled collaboration between different operational levels in the company.
What is most valuable?
The use of graphics to show and view the data indicators is the most valuable feature. It is also very stable.
What needs improvement?
Its setup and support should be improved. We would like to see more material for developers that provides clear explanations about how we can do data mining by using Microsoft BI. It would also be good if we can connect a feature to other customized machine learning solutions.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has good stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We haven't used it a lot, but it seems good so far. We have only three users. We may include two or three more users to the platform.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support is bad. I didn't like the technical support of Microsoft.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use Oracle and Tableau.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not complex, but we would like a more agile process. The initial deployment took about two months. The platform that we created was very robust.
What about the implementation team?
We are a reseller of the solution. We did the deployment.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We were thinking of integrating Tableau instead of Microsoft BI, but the client chose Microsoft BI.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
ERP Consultant MS Dynamics Nav at Witteveen Logistics & IT
Better insights, flexibility, and performance
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case is for the performance, compared to MS Dynamics NAV, and flexibility in data and dashboard building.
How has it helped my organization?
Better insights, flexibility, and performance.
What is most valuable?
Great performance.
What needs improvement?
- Sharing reports with non-Power BI users
- Use of ISO weeks (European) in relative date options.
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
It allows individuals to do the analysis themselves
Pros and Cons
- "It allows individuals to do the analysis themselves."
- "Drill-down in dashboards needs to improved. The capability only works in Power BI Desktop today. We need to have an alternative approach today."
What is our primary use case?
Consolidating data from multiple sources and providing dashboards to a broad set of users: Finance, Human Resources, Operations, and Leadership.
How has it helped my organization?
It allows individuals to do the analysis themselves. We are getting adoption beyond original expectations.
What is most valuable?
Most importantly, the dashboards. Recently, we are exploring vendor provided analysis/visuals and the use of R.
What needs improvement?
Drill-down in dashboards needs to improved. The capability only works in Power BI Desktop today. We need to have an alternative approach today.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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