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PeerSpot user
Manager, BI & Analytics at Perceptive Analytics
Real User
Simple to use but interface could be more intuitive

What is our primary use case?

The primary use cases for Microsoft BI are typical for business intelligence, including operational monitoring and KPI tracking.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft BI is easy to use and simple.

What needs improvement?

The user interface could be a bit more intuitive. Some parts of the user interface could be a bit more intuitive so that it's a bit easier to use.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft BI for the past four years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft BI is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft BI is fairly scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I have not really had to contact Microsoft BI. I think my use cases so far have been pretty simple so I did not feel the need to interact with them.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup takes only a few minutes. It's just a matter of downloading the file and installing it.

Once it is installed, it takes minimal involvement from a maintenance perspective. It runs on its own.

What about the implementation team?

We deployed Microsoft BI in-house. We did not need a vendor team to come in. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are not paying any licensing fees for our current Microsoft BI setup. The version that we are using is free of cost unless you wish to deploy it on a server; that is where the cost component comes in.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend Microsoft BI. 

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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1623579 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engagement Professional at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Real User
An intuitive business analytics service with tons of connections
Pros and Cons
  • "The best feature for me is Power Query. I know that probably sounds strange, but you can't do too much with visuals and reports if the backend stuff is horribly dirty and just bad. But for me, that is absolutely fantastic. I can load the data and do the transformation and be able to load it in a useful way. There are tons of connections, which is absolutely fantastic as well. It's been fairly easy, and it's intuitive."
  • "It would be better if they had some video tutorials. Most people from an Excel background may struggle with measures in Microsoft BI."

What is our primary use case?

I have used Microsoft BI for sales analysis. I've also used it to analyze people. Pretty much across the board, whether it's the number of people, number of dresses, number of hamburgers, number of widgets and then creating the dashboards and the metrics and so forth.

What is most valuable?

The best feature for me is Power Query. I know that probably sounds strange, but you can't do too much with visuals and reports if the backend stuff is horribly dirty and just bad. But for me, that is absolutely fantastic. I can load the data and do the transformation and be able to load it in a useful way. There are tons of connections, which is absolutely fantastic as well. It's been fairly easy, and it's intuitive.

What needs improvement?

It would be better if they had some video tutorials. Most people from an Excel background may struggle with measures in Microsoft BI.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Microsoft BI over the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't really had any issues, but I haven't given it the full whammy or the full monty. It's been stable for my use.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy for me.

What other advice do I have?

I would tell potential users that there are many other tools out there, but I think it's a steep learning curve. For example, Alteryx and Domo, and Trifacta can be difficult to learn unless you have a SQL background. But if you're a Microsoft person, the transition is fairly easy for Microsoft BI. It's intuitive, and I would recommend it from that perspective. 

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Microsoft BI an eight.

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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power BI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
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reviewer1569021 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President & Head at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Good support, seamless integration with Microsoft solutions, and perfect for Microsoft infrastructure
Pros and Cons
  • "It gives you an edge if you are on the Microsoft platform. If you have been using Microsoft products for a long time or if you have the Microsoft infrastructure, this is the right tool for you. It has seamless integration with Microsoft SQL Server and other sources, and you get the best of the three things (SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS) in one suite."
  • "It should be more user-friendly and simple."

What is our primary use case?

My team uses it. They majorly used to work on SSRS and SSIS.

What is most valuable?

It gives you an edge if you are on the Microsoft platform. If you have been using Microsoft products for a long time or if you have the Microsoft infrastructure, this is the right tool for you. It has seamless integration with Microsoft SQL Server and other sources, and you get the best of the three things (SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS) in one suite.

What needs improvement?

It should be more user-friendly and simple.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for almost five years.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support is good.

What other advice do I have?

Companies that are Microsoft shop do prefer using this solution, but non-Microsoft companies or customers generally go for solutions such as Tableau and Domo. Companies that want to go really cheap without any tool costs generally go for an open-source solution. In terms of reporting, data visualization tools such as Tableau and Domo are its competitors. 

The pricing of all these tools will vary depending upon the licenses that you are using and the contract that you have, but from the ease-of-use perspective, Tableau is very easy to work with. A lot of work is being done on Tableau.

I would rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Consultant en Business Intelligence
Consultant
Free software which is very intuitive and easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "Very intuitive and easy to use."
  • "Capacity could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case of this solution is as a reporting tool. We implement it for our clients. I'm a consultant in business intelligence and we are customers of Microsoft BI.

What is most valuable?

I like this product because it's a free software, very intuitive and very easy to use.

What needs improvement?

The capacity of the solution could be improved. If you don't need all the data it offers then don't download it because the software slows down. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this product for the last year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is quite straightforward. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1537680 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Analytics Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Low-cost, feature-rich, and easy to deploy, but would be nice to get faster support for new features
Pros and Cons
  • "It is low-cost and easy to deploy. It is fully-featured."
  • "They are improving it all the time. What would be nice is if they could respond to feature requests more quickly. They can provide faster support for new features."

What is our primary use case?

It is for dashboards and reports. 

What is most valuable?

It is low-cost and easy to deploy. It is fully-featured.

What needs improvement?

They are improving it all the time. What would be nice is if they could respond to feature requests more quickly. They can provide faster support for new features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is reasonably stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In my organization, we have around ten users. In our client's organization, we have about 100 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

I normally find whatever I need in Microsoft documentation or through Google. There is a lot of activity in the market. A lot of other people typically would have already asked the same question that I have, so it is fairly easy to find information.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I didn't really use any other product. I used to be a Qlik partner, and I became a Microsoft partner two years ago.

How was the initial setup?

Its installation is straightforward. The developer suite has one-click installation. The end-users just get a web URL. There is no installation for end-users. They just access it.

There is a Microsoft certification that you need to complete, but it is all deployed on the Microsoft Azure cloud. So, there are no infrastructure requirements.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It depends upon the tier of your Office 365 subscription. On E5, which is a Microsoft Azure subscription, you get it for free. If you are on a lower tier, you can subscribe for $10 a month per user, which is really cheap.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution. It is pretty good. Technically, it is at the same level as the other products that I've used so far. It has all the features, and it is easy to deploy. Its costs are really palatable. They are improving it all the time. I am fairly satisfied with this product.

I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten. There are always areas for improvement, but I am fairly happy with it. I would not rate anything else also higher than seven.

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?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
reviewer1040850 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Sales and Marketing at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Integrates well with Microsoft tools and has a good familiarity but lacks technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "It integrates with all of the Microsoft tools."
  • "The initial setup is a little bit technical."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for integrating into our ERP so people can have a dashboard analysis of whatever is important to analyze or compare, whether it be top-selling products or sales performance, or quota analysis.

What is most valuable?

Just as a BI tool, there's not much difference between solutions. It works well with our product and it's something that customers are familiar with and they often already have a lot of licensing with Microsoft. It's an easy add-on to their users.

There's generally a sense of familiarity with the product.

It integrates with all of the Microsoft tools.

What needs improvement?

It's not even fair for me to respond on that as that's not my wheelhouse. I don't know how easy it is as I'm not doing any of the designs. Therefore, I have not had any real training on it. I don't think that's fair for me to criticize anything that they're doing.

The initial setup is a little bit technical and what an end user wants to see is always a moving target.

The solution needs better technical support.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about three years at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, we haven't had any challenges with it at this point. As with multiple integrations across several companies we tend to make whatever change is best for the biggest base of clients. We haven't had any issues thus far.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical and end user support is something that might be lacking from Microsoft. As a user when I want to find an answer to, "Hey, how do I do this?" I often get better answers by going to a  website of a company that represents them than I do going directly to their site.  Maybe they do that on purpose to help drive business to those people, however, it would be helpful if it was more centralized and the quick and simple steps answers that I get elsewhere.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have some past experience with solutions such as Tableau and Cognose but not integrated into this ERP product.  We chose one that we would feel would be on a common platform of our customers.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is fairly straightforward but implementation is a little bit complex mostly due to how the customer driven scope changes often as they realize the power of a BI tool and want to be able to expand it's use.

We're on a Progress platform, so that's a little more technical on our side at the beginning of the original project.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing costs vary. It all depends on the individual customer due to the fact that Microsoft's options are modular. For example, they have Microsoft Office suite, then they add CRM and then you might add BI.  It's not expensive per user, however, as you increase the functionality or add different tools, it becomes more expensive.

What other advice do I have?

We qualify as a partner as we're a software distributor. We're using the most current version of the solution.

Here is the biggest thing: when you look at any BI tool or if it's the first time you're implementing one, you can easily get over enticed by the flashy display or the common things. However, it's the ability to drill down to your true business processes that are going to make it or break it as being the right tool or accesses the right information. Somebody that gets a BI tool for the first time will open a dashboard and say, "Oh, that's important for me to see every day." However, the reality is, when using a dashboard view you're looking for a red flag or highlights. The power of the BI tool is allowing you to drill down to the data behind the dashboard, that's where the real testing comes in.  Figuring out where to get the information from and how best to analyze it.  That's my best BI tool advice. Anybody can make a dashboard look pretty. It has to be useful too.

In general, I would rate the solution seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1472169 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Full featured dashboard, easy to use, but expensive and needs more customization
Pros and Cons
  • "The dashboard features are really valuable, you can connect to multiple data points."
  • "The solution could be more customizable and you do not have too much freedom on the code."

What is most valuable?

The dashboard features are really valuable, you can connect to multiple data points. Overall, the solution is easy to use.

What needs improvement?

The solution could be more customizable and you do not have enough freedom on the code.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used the solution for one year.

How was the initial setup?

The install was straightforward and the advanced dashboards operate on well-branded tablets.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The premium licensing is approximately $5,000 per month which is pretty expensive.

What other advice do I have?

If you are planning on implementing Microsoft BI, having experience with other Microsoft products will make using this solution easy and straightforward. 

I rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
ERP Consultant MS Dynamics Nav at Witteveen Logistics & IT
Consultant
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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power BI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power BI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.