Microsoft Power BI Reviews

This solution can be used for enterprise reporting, ad hoc visualization, and statistical analysis.

In an upcoming release, the solution could be simplified and have a more complete product package rather than a suite of products that we have to put together.

I have been using this solution for approximately one year.

In my experience, I have found this solution scalable.

The scalability is good. We have 20 people in my organization using this solution and plan to increase usage.

The technical support has been good and the responses have been fast.

I have used other business intelligence solutions previously and I switched because this solution was cheaper and is on a Microsft platform.

The initial setup is more complicated than other solutions. Microsoft typically has more involved installations. 

I did the implementation myself. We have three administrators doing the deployment and maintains of the solution.

Power BI is cheaper for smaller groups when comparing to competitors. It requires a monthly per-user subscription.

I have evaluated Tableau.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.

Public Cloud

We use Microsoft BI for analytics.

I like the flexibility it offers.

The graphic interface could be better.

I would also like to see it mobile-friendly.

I have been using Microsoft BI for one year.

We are using the latest version.

In some ways, it is stable.

It's a scalable solution. We have 10 or 15 users in our organization.

Technical support is good, and we are satisfied with it.

Before Microsoft BI, we used Tableau.

I was not involved with the installation but my understanding is that it was easy to install.

We have a team of two people to maintain this solution.

There are licensing fees.

It's an expensive solution.

I am not sure if we will continue to use this solution, it depends on the business requirements.

Depending on their business size and setup, I may recommend this solution.

I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.

Public Cloud

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.

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.

I use it for budget analysis. I am in charge of budget analysis for the organization. I get figures from other units, and then I do a budget comparison with forecasting.

The performance is very good.

For a long time I had to do everything manually, and it took a long time. At the moment, I just have to refresh and I get my report. A few clicks are needed. Once I get the data in the right format, then I have the report as quickly as it is required.

It used to be stressful towards the month's end, to meet the deadline for reporting, especially when these reports are required by the board of the company. But now, as long as the other units give me my numbers on time, I don't waste a lot of time in preparing the numbers. I can now use my time in analyzing the outcome, rather than preparing the figures and cleaning up the data. It provides efficiency and saves time.

The most valuable features are the flexibility, how many ways you can interrogate the data, and the the graphical visualization.

They need to make it as user-friendly as possible. Make it as non-technical as possible. At the moment, if you are not a person who is familiar with modeling analysis, it might be a bit scary. So I think it should be a very simple user interface. It should be very easy to learn. 

It can be annoyingly slow at times, but I think it's because of the bandwidth, the connectivity we have. I've always believed if we had better connectivity, it would be perfect. Sometimes it's slow. But I really don't blame it on the solution. I blame it, but on my connectivity.

I always just try to Google if I have issues, and a lot of time that is perfectly good. I just need to know the basics.

I knew there must be a better way of doing what I was performing, so I searched. I did not have a previous solution, I just did things manually.

It was easy. The only thing I noticed was that it was so slow. It took a long time to download, but again, I think that was my connectivity.

At the moment I'm using a free version.

When selecting a vendor, the most important criterion for me is, it should be something that is really user-friendly. By that I mean, I don't need to go through specialized training to learn how to use it; not in this day and age, when the solution should be really a solution. I don't need to be an expert to know how to use it. Just user friendly, click and go. Also, I think it should be something that assures me of its stability.

For me, at the moment, it is the best thing that I've used. But I can't compare it to the other ones. It is the only one I know, apart from just normal financial modeling which I've used before. To me it is the best, but I can't really compared to any others because I don't know how the others work.

Do your research. For me, this is the only one I know. But I know there are others which are better.

Microsoft SSRS is a fantastic means for end users to access, run, and schedule delivery of reports. - Core functionality is simple to use for business users of all skill levels - Report models even allow end users to adjust their own reports using a model of your data - Report builder provides an even easier method for users to build their own reports - Report data can even be scheduled for periodic delivery with the report data as an attachmentMicrosoft SSAS is one of the best BI suites on the market. It is also one of the least expensive, and the features bundled rival competitors with prices many more times as expensive. - This feature is one of the most exciting areas of database technologies today - Very powerful and relatively easy to use when compared to other Bi suites

- Active Directory authentication requires an additional login for users without Internet Explorer - Learning curve behind any business intelligence package is quite steep - Price of the SQL Server bundle is potentially cost prohibitive for smaller businesses

I am quite passionate about the SQL Server suite of tools, and am a fervent user of SSRS. I use SSAS less, only because I am focused more on administration and have not moved into the SSAS space - yet. I am looking to head into the BI arena later on this year, and SSAS is my BI suite of choice!

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. 

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. 

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.

I've been working with BI solutions for 20 years. I've been using Power BI for two years so far.

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. 

The scalability of the product is great. It's on the cloud, which makes it easy to scale. 

There are good communities and groups that can help you troubleshoot if necessary.

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.

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. 

In some cases, Power BI can be expensive.

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.