Microsoft Power BI Reviews

The solution is a dashboard. We have the on-premises data gateway, which allows us from the Azure Cloud to get into Power BI. The dataset content comes from the on-premise data warehouses.

We have produced historical analytics and KPIs from ServiceNow for Incident management, performance, SLA coverage, trends, and identifying anomalies. Anomalies are, for example, if a ticket is reopened, that means it was closed incorrectly or the solution was not correct. If a ticket has been an incident or a request has been routed more than two times, that means somewhere in the processes it was not clear and the ticket is going in circles out to the anomalies data.

A lot of analytics based on ServiceNow and Gyra as ITSMs systems. There is also combined analytics between Salesforce and for example, Web analytics, Google Analytics, and so on. Allowing us to see how visits to the website translate into lead opportunities. This is done by combining the two, extracting them and combining the two sources of data, such as Google Analytics and Salesforce.

Some of the most valuable features of this solution are the ability to take your data and have the possibility to combine them into datasets and have synchronization. 

You are able to synchronize the data without additional cost eight times a day and you can set when you want to synchronize it. For example, during business hours, we synchronize the data once an hour and during the night I do not synchronize it at all. 

The capability to add custom visuals and create Power BI apps. You can package datasets, synchronization details, and dashboards into a single app.

Microsoft is open to suggestions for improvements in future releases. We requested to allow Python Notebooks to be displayed as visuals on top of the datasets, which now available and was not five versions ago.

The possibility to synchronize more often without having to pay more would be great. They asked you to pay if you want to synchronize more than eight times, you would have to go to a Power BI enterprise license, which is much more costly.

I have been using the solution for three years.

I have found the solution to have high performance and to be reliable.

The solution is highly scalable. We have approximately 100 people using the solution in my organization.

The solution is a service, which does not require a traditional installation. However, there is a large configuration portion. It can be very simple to configure minor operations but can become complex if you connect via Power BI, a lot of sources.  For example, from on-premise and from multiple clouds. It allows you to go from very simple, to very complex. It is up to your solution design in the end. 

You can create your first dataset in a matter of hours. This once again is dependent on your configuration.

The solution requires maintenance but not to the Power BI itself. The configuration is deployed on top of Power BI, you can set automatic alerts if, for example, the data is not synchronized or It not available.

The price of the solution can be expensive if you want to synchronize your data more.

I rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

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.

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

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. 

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

It's a stable solution. 

The initial setup is quite straightforward. 

I rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

Daily updated production indicators dashboard: We get production data (Number of pieces, downtime, and downtime reasons) from the shopfloor and input them on an Excel sheet. 

PowerBi is used to import our production data and generate dashboards, then integrates other Excel sheets to provide managers dashboards. This helps them get insights to make better OEE improvement decisions, mainly where to focus resources. We became able to see indicators from any time frame (day, week, month, or year), then could make better decisions.

With this solution, we were able to know which problems were critical and chronic. Once we used Power BI for production management, we realized that we could also use it for quality assurance, finance, and others types of management.

Interactive graphs are its most valuable feature.

Real-time updating needs improvement.

Two years.

• Management BI/dashboard reporting
• Quick sharing of data from source to business users which is very useful.

• Giving visibility to management/business users about the business by mobility.
• Easy to develop and manage.

• Mobility.
• It's easy to use.
• Multiple data sourcing.
• Quick development and deployment.
• Mobility and ease of use.

• Dependency on data warehousing and pricing.
• Clarity on the Power BI (free) compared to Power BI (pro).

We are a consultant company, so we use BI for project follow-up, sales and pipeline. We are partners with Microsoft and I'm the company's client director.

I like that implementation is very quick and that the solution is very user-friendly and easy to work with. The solution has provided us with speedy insight and faster effects on the table. It's a smooth product. 

I think that automation could be improved and performance enhanced. Documentation for developers could also be improved. 

The solution is stable. 

Scalability is very good. It can be pricey to move to the P1 licenses for $5,000 a month for smaller companies, but there are workarounds using A1 to A6 licenses which are cheaper and more flexible in the pricing. We have 50 users in the company. 

When we deployed five years ago, the setup was very complex. Since then, it's become much easier. 

Compared to competitors like Tableau, Microsoft BI is not so expensive.

I recommend this solution. Microsoft BI has matured a lot in the last year.

I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

We primarily use the solution across many company verticals and within every area of the company - including finance, accounting, operations, logistics, HR, et cetera.

In general, it's helping companies be more efficient, more productive.

There's not one specific feature we prefer. I would say it depends on the customer and the processes. What is important to one user may not be as important to another. There's no one feature that excels over another so that we don't see it like second place.

The product offers very good efficiency.

The solution is very stable.

The solution can scale well.

The documentation on offer is good.

We found the initial setup to be straightforward.

In Power BI, it would be ideal if we had the capability to import data with forms or similar methods.

It would be nice to have the ability to have a service price to offer customers of Power BI, without having the customer be part of Power BI, I would say. Maybe that could help us consult the suppliers.

The solution could use a faster speed on certain interactions and a refresh of the dashboards. It can sometimes get a bit slow.

I've been dealing with the solution for about five years or so. It's been a while.

The solution is extremely stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable in terms of performance, but it is slow sometimes.

The solution is easily scaled.

Most of our clients are quite large companies. The companies we deal with have thousands of users, however, only a few really use Power BI. Typically only the supervisors and managers use it, not everyone.

We've never used customer support. We haven't needed to reach out to them.

The documentation on offer is okay. It can help you troubleshoot or learn about the product.

We also work with Tableau and and QlikView alongside Microsoft. We do use some others, however, to a much lesser extent.

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment takes a good two days to finalize.

In terms of maintenance, we have a support team that covers all of our customers. There isn't really that much that needs to be done. 

There are less expensive options on offer.

Tableau is always one of the solutions we would like to evaluate further, and ClickView is another one.

It is my understanding that ClickView is less expensive, whereas Tableau is more expensive. Really, the reason why most companies go through Microsoft is if they have a Microsoft Business Suite or Office and it's all tied in the same ecosystem. That's perhaps the biggest benefit. It's all within the same ecosystem.

We are consultants and implementers so we usually resell software. We do the end-to-end automation for customers as well. In the case of Microsoft BI, our clients are the ones that buy the license and use it. We don't necessarily use it directly.

We're always working off the latest version, as the solution is constantly updated online. 

I would recommend the solution to other companies and users. 

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

We are using this tool for different departments. Mainly, it's connected with the ERP to show our users information that comes from data in different areas. For example, we are using Power BI in production on quality and logistics. We have created the appropriate package of data that is connected with Power BI to show our end-users the graphics, the figures, the key indicators.

It has helped us to have the information in a visual format, using graphical tools. Until now, we had to view the information on paper or in Excel files. With this tool, we can view the company's and departments' situation graphically.

It also gives us the flexibility to interact with the data. For example, we can see information for one year, or one month, or a given project, or two projects. And it produces the information very quickly.

• Easy to use. 
• End-users can make changes to the graphics.
• The tool runs very fast.

I am a SAP user and I would like this tool to have more connectors - and to more easily connect to - the ERP or SAP environment.

Also, I would prefer that the solution not be shared. I'm concerned that if we make a mistake we could reveal information to people who shouldn't see it. I would like to have my own on-prem server, to buy my own server and have my own infrastructure for Microsoft BI, with only with my data. Power BI, this global solution from Microsoft, is shared with multiple companies. I would like that the content that I create, my data, be available only for me, not shared with other companies.

It's very stable. I'm very satisfied with the tool.

For me, the scalability is sufficient.

I would rate technical support for this solution at nine out of 10.

As the IT manager in my company, I oversaw the resources and the setup of the solution but I was not involved on the technical side. But I think that it was really easy. It was not complex to set up.

My team did have to read a lot of technical documentation. We also contacted a company that knows this solution, one that has implemented it for other companies, consultancy-based.

Still, I have installed more complex tools in my company. This was one of the easier tools to put into production in my company in the last four or five years.

When selecting a vendor or product, the most important criterion for me is the usability - it must be easy to use. It must be one that end-users can learn to use on their own, so that the IT department does not have to make changes or solve problems for the end-users.

It's a good tool, easy to  use, Microsoft is adding more and more functionality.

My advice would be, always compare with other tools. In part this is own our internal rule, we must compare with others, to make sure we have the best tool.

SSIS is the most valuable. Individually I would rate features out of 10 as SSIS: 9, SSAS: 8, and SSRS: 7.

Automation. With MSBI, we realized automation from data loading, transformation and reporting.

The aggregate functions in SSRS.

5 years

Not much with appropriate configuration design.

None encountered.

Data set is not big enough to tell.

Good. Also easy to find solution by Googling.

Haven't been using it due to the ease of getting answers on the internet.

No previous solution used.

I was able to figure out the setup by doing some research and it's not too complex for experienced user.

In-house implementation.

The company spent less than $100k to switch from SSAS to MSBI, which saved the company at least one SAS programmer.

Not sure.

Not sure.

It's a proven stable tool.