Microsoft Power BI Reviews

Pros

I have used Tableau and Google Data Studio - among other alternatives. Nothing has seemed to compare to the functionality that Power BI offers. Everything about the program is made with the full spectrum of analysis in mind - from the designer to the data 'wrangler' to the end consumer (ie. others within the enterprise). In this way, Power BI is extremely powerful because it can be used for so many different types of projects; the data-analysis intensive to the more visual 'data-presentation' dashboards.

Cons

Sharing dashboards and reports in Power BI is easy and it has a lot of options for doing so. However, the requirement that all users must have a Pro Account to view dashboards created in Pro is a bit of a hindrance in a global organization where it does not make economical sense for every employee to have a Pro account. It seems like it would be a great addition to allow limited sharing to everyone - even those without a Pro account, as most of my internal team does not have an account.

Pros

Simple to use solution that can be easily implemented through the utilisation of data models in a faster manner. The ease of learning and mastering the solution compared to competing products has made it easier to get IT professionals in other domains to master the product. The drag and drop interfaces enables easier creation of reports and dashboards by users with limited expertise in the product.

Cons

We are having challenges when importing larger volumes of data into the platform in the free version where subscriptions are required. The export of reports to standard formats a bit challenging in the perspective of designing specially with the addition of visuals, animations and or customisations. Challenges can pop-up in the integrations with SaaS solutions.

Pros

Easy to get started with Power BI if you are on the Microsoft 365 platform. Power Bi provides an easy to connect and interactive method for pulling data in real time from data collection system such as the SharePoint online, MS Excel and others. The ease of connecting with SharePoint is the strong point for my review.
Having the Power Bi connected to the SharePoint system provides the opportunity to have real time dashboards and dynamic reports for any small organization that is wishing to provide real or near to real-time reporting without the heavy upfront implementation cost for software, training and human resource.
Microsoft has indeed liberated the Dynamic Reporting with Power BI, and has also allowed for some very elegant web reporting to be created by non technical users.
My simple work flow , SharePoint for data collection, PowerBi for reporting.

Cons

The main issues are around the changes that are made by Microsoft, this will always be a learning curve for the users.
The lack of consistency on certain actions will be the biggest issue.

Alternatives Considered

Tableau

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

Cost, Familiarity and given that is is a free offer within the MS Offfice 365 or M365 platform, it leads to an easy choice.

Pros

PowerBI enables users to connect to a wide range of data sources and generate visually beautiful visuals that bring data to life and make it easier to comprehend. The programme is also extremely customisable, allowing customers to design dashboards and reports that are tailored to their individual requirements. PowerBI's mobile capability and connection with Microsoft products like as Excel make it an excellent alternative for enterprises that require on-the-go data access and interaction. Furthermore, PowerBI's AI and machine learning features enable users to quickly uncover insights and trends in their data, making it a useful tool for businesses of all sizes.

Cons

PowerBI has a steep learning curve, making it difficult for new users to rapidly become acquainted with the product. For some users, particularly those new to business intelligence and data analysis, this might be a barrier to entrance. Because PowerBI lacks a powerful data preparation tool, users may find it difficult to clean, process, and prepare their data for analysis. This might be a disadvantage for those that require more complex data preparation operations.

Pros

The Power BI is easy to use and to implement, we can connect to almost every data source and it's very easy to deploy a report.

Cons

We can only refresh 8 times a day with Power BI Pro.

Alternatives Considered

Qlik Sense

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

Low price and easy to use.

Pros

The main advantage of the tool is drag and drop functionality. It has a user-friendly interface. Using Power BI, we can easily publish and share the data with our team members. It supports Excel, SQL, and CSV data sources.

Cons

Sometimes Power BI takes more time to load the data. It allows only 2GB of data at a time to upload. Advance level reporting needs some technical knowledge.

Pros

This is a good system to use, as I can use it for keeping on eye on when I can put charges through using the revenue report

Cons

I would have preferred to have had access to this system sooner but I have got the hang of how to use it now

Pros

I have used this tool few times for analyze and visualize data from different sources. This has a good user journey and easy navigations. Our team was able to get insights through various charts and reports and make decisions based on analyzing the data. This supports in web and android and iOs apps.

Cons

There is a learning curve for the new beginners.

Pros

Love that with PowerBI you can easily manipulate data sets and be able to download data locally if the need arises.

Cons

Hard time using the embedded features with PowerPoint

Pros

The diversity of data manipulation and creation of graphs, dashboards and presentation. Complete tool with great features

Cons

Need for training to use the software, which is complex for assembling the panels

Pros

1. Improves with new releases every two weeks
2. Powerful insight management
3. Integration with MS products
4. Online forums and learning zones

Cons

1. Not as intuitive as packaged applications, but getting there
2. Not a good IDE for Python / R
3. Connectors to social media need to be improved

Alternatives Considered

Domo and Tableau

Reasons for Choosing Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is evolving faster and with better options and integration

Switched From

TIBCO Spotfire

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

Deeper integration with Microsoft tools online and offline.

Pros

Power BI is a valuable tool for data modeling in addition to being a visualization tool. Here, two or more tables must be joined while taking into account their cardinality. Power Bi gives us the ability to link a variety of sources, including live data warehouses and massive data lakes, to import our data. It also provides us with the option to export the dashboards through PowerPoint. Ad hoc reporting within the user hierarchy is essential to a business analyst's role in order to deliver findings to C-suite executives and decision-makers. The platform speeds up execution compared to other visualization tools because of how simple it is to use. The way everything is set out in Power BI makes it easy for the users to understand which data type fits which visualization and how it will affect the way it is perceived. The formatting available is also simple to understand and locate. KPI monitoring is extremely important and directly proportional to the setup in Power BI. Compared to Tableau I feel Power BI has a big edge.

Cons

I have switched to this product from another one and prefer this. I believe this is the best visualization tool in the market right now.

Pros

The ease of use and wide range of data sources is fantastic, and allows for complete customisation.

Cons

Unless you're willing to pay the premium license, unfortunately you are restricted to a maximum of data refreshing every hour.

Alternatives Considered

BrightGauge

Reasons for Choosing Microsoft Power BI

We found PowerBI to offer more attractive features.

Switched From

BrightGauge

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

The fact that PowerBI licensing was included with our Office 365 package was the main reason.

Pros

1. The wide and deep design and full support for upstream and downstream systems;

2. Excellent query engine with well design data modelling principals (which is better than Tableau);

3. Seamless integration with other Microsoft data integration products such as SSIS, SSRS, SSAS;

4. Excellent knowledgebase community and support;

5. Quick update to the Azure cloud support

Cons

1. UI design is a little bit inconvenient comparing to Tableau.
2. DAX is a bit complicated for power users.

Alternatives Considered

Qlik Sense, Tableau and IBM Cognos Analytics

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

Overall strength on UI, Modelling, integration, etl support and good price. Integration with SQL Server, SSIS/SSRS, Azure and office.

Pros

I love the way Power BI is able to show the data in a very eye friendly way. If you have a business that has markets, districts, and locations that need to show data then Power Bi allows you to break this down to any analytics you need to see with graph representation. Its great!

Cons

It does take some knowledge around formulas and excel. If you don't have an analytic data team that can make these repots for you on Power BI then it will take you a longer time to see the analytics from it.

Pros

One of the best features of Microsoft Power BI is its ability to quickly and easily connect to a wide variety of data sources, including Excel spreadsheets, databases, cloud services, and online services. Power BI can pull data from these sources, process it, and visualize it in a variety of ways, including interactive charts, graphs, and dashboards.

Cons

Power BI can be complex and overwhelming to learn, especially for those who are new to data visualization and analysis. Power BI includes a wide range of features and tools, and it can take some time and effort to become proficient in using them all.

Alternatives Considered

Tableau

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is generally considered to be more affordable than Tableau, especially for smaller organizations or individuals. Power BI is available in several pricing tiers, including a free version that includes many of the basic features, while Tableau typically requires a more expensive subscription.

Pros

If you have worked with Office tools, you would grasp the basic functionality very quickly. It's very user-friendly. The power comes from a plethora of data source connectors that it provides out of the box. I am also impressed by its data visualization capabilities. It also integrates well with other Microsoft products.

Best of all - it's free for most use cases. The cloud version offers a lot more options for storage and collaboration at a modest price. It's also easy to switch between the desktop and cloud versions.

Cons

The desktop app can be sluggish at times, especially if you are dealing with large and varied data sets. Also, to utilize its more powerful features, you need to have a greater learning curve than competing products. Cloud integrations are also not very easy to configure and connections to on-prem and SaaS data sources can be challenging.

Alternatives Considered

Domo and Tableau

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

It's free and came bundled with our enterprise Office license.

Pros

below are a few pros
• Sharing dashboard in a group
a. Sharing can be done once you have the Pro version of Power BI. Dashboard can be shared with the respective department members or your own team members.
b. Since you have prepared the dashboard you will be the owner and you can decide whether you want to give the other members only viewing rights or editing rights as well.
c. With this feature reports will always be on the cloud server and can be viewed as and when required
d. Reports can be downloaded as and when required.
• Viewing dashboard in Mobile/ tab and preparing phone layout
a. Once a dashboard has been prepared and saved, the same can be accessed on Power BI App with the same login.
b. Since the screen is small compared to laptop, all the dashboard elements can be redesigned to suit the phone screen.
c. The other features remain the same and the dashboard is interactive on the phone as well however it cannot be edited on phone.
• Export dashboard to PowerPoint, PDF
a. This is one of the most important features of Power BI. Reports or dashboards prepared can be exported on PowerPoint or PDF with a click of a button.
b. Hence Management reports and department reports can be automated on Power BI and once you refresh the data, the report will be ready to share.
c. One problem is that few images which are not compatible with PowerPoint don’t show post downloading.
• Narratives for dashboard
a. This is one of the recent features offered by Power BI. With the help of narratives you can get the insight of the dashboard in a story form.
b. Narrative uses its intelligence to study the data and give output in pointers, paragraphs etc which can be customised.
• Importing visuals to suit your need
a. Apart from the general visualizations available in Power BI, there are additional visualizations released by Power BI from time to time. These visualizations enhance the visual appearance as well as the adds to further analytics in different ways.
b. Visualizations which have downloaded and used in the dashboard are Infographic designer, Narratives for Business Intelligence, KPI Column chart, and Timeline.
• Edit interactions in dashboard
a. It is important to understand the interactions and groupings in power BI since with the help of these you can control which graphs you want to automatically change by clicking on the other.
b. With the help of grouping you can define groups and sub group which can be viewed together as a group if required.
• KPI Column Chart
a. This is a recent custom visual developed by Power BI. With the help of this visual you can put the KPI target against the actual on a monthly basis.
b. Forecasted revenue/ cost can also be put in this visual which will be shown in different colour.
c. Individual monthly targets can also be put which can be interchanged by putting variance.
d. Data can also been viewed in a table form along with graphical.

Cons

• One of the important features of exporting report in PowerPoint does not allow custom visual to be exported. Hence if there are custom visuals in your report then the same will show error once exported.
• Arranging dashboard is a bit tedious and takes a lot of time
• To share reports, we need to publish to MS Cloud. We cannot share report from Power BI Desktop
• For sharing a report even members to who report needs to be shared have to get Power BI Pro. Since the department to whom report is shared is just to view giving them a Pro license might not be useful.

Pros

It is a good data analytics and visualization software and its ability to import data from multiples sources is a great feature.

What I like about Power BI is that from the dashboard, we are able to get a great overview of the organization including the market analysis, the status of our current deals, track the performance of each team member, view the gross income and company financials.

The ability to filter to the specific metric we are interested in is an amazing feature. It enables us to review our marketing expenses and also see how each team member's activities contribute to the bottom line. It is also easy to forecast cash inflows and outflows.
Power BI makes it possible to customize the visualizations and it also has the option to upload and view data from Excel.

Frequent upgrades from Microsoft keep Power BI functioning well.

It has both freemium and premium versions. You can try it out and have a feel of the software before you choose to purchase it.

Cons

It can be a bit complex due to the fact that it is a collection of various tools and you have to learn what each component does and how it relates to the rest of the structure.

Working with large data sets causes lags especially when on the free version. The free version has very limited features and doesn't give you the true performance capability of the software. This can however be solved by upgrading to Pro or Premium.

The user interface is a bit crowded with too many icons which hinders a clear view of the dashboard.

Pros

Having been a user of the full range of Microsoft Office, it was only natural that PowerBI comes to mind when trying to create a live update dashboard. It is extremely easy to use - a plug and play approach comes to mind - and if you had worked with Microsoft Office before, some of the features are very intuitive to use. If the organisation that you are working with uses Microsoft Office, access issues are sorted and it becomes incredibly easy to drive adoption of this dashboard on a day to day basis

Cons

The design of the dashboard created with PowerBI can be found to be lacking at points, compared to some of the other BI softwares. The templates available seem great, but there aren't as many options as I would like when I am creating a specific type of dashboard.

Alternatives Considered

Tableau

Pros

Power BI simplifies the process of combining different types of data sources to create a single data model. There are also many built-in Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) functions that help reduce the time required to prepare data. Creating reports and dashboards is as easy as drag and drop. The Power BI User Groups are strong and plentiful, so you can always read through blogs to get answers to questions that you may have. The Power BI Desktop application is used to perform ETL, create reports and is free. The reports are published to the Power BI cloud service for sharing, which is also free with limited capabilities. For more capabilities, such as security groups and scheduled data refreshing, there is a subscription fee. Microsoft will be releasing an on-premise solution for sharing Power BI content via an update to SQL Server 2016 hopefully within the next few months.

Cons

It's not always easy to speak directly with a MS Power BI expert, so that is a bummer. Also, you have to sign up to the Power BI service using an email address in order to share and view Power BI reports and dashboards, but Microsoft doesn't yet support personal (.cox, .gmail, et.) or government (.gov, .mil, etc.) email addresses which is a real bummer.

Pros

Free desktop tool for modeling is great to try out for anyone. Excellent customer support. Using the power bi web dashboard is a great way to gain the visibility that you need to make this Business intelligence valuable. Being able to send reports on a schedule makes it a great tool for displaying and sharing data. The level of features and third party visualization also makes this a versatility tool that any data driven groups could benefit from. Publishing from the desktop to the web version is extremely simple.

Cons

When creating measures and columns there can be some slowness or odd reactions while using the measures/columns as filters. Not able to choose a theme for the background colors.

Alternatives Considered

Tableau

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

Price Point and ease of access.

Pros

I love everything about PowerBI! I like to think of it as a revamped version of MS Excel but with features that exceed all expectations. PowerBI lets you create data models, use DAX to manipulate and summarise and finally display these summaries in fancy (yet easy to understand) visualisations. The best feature might however be the ability to share and collaborate on dashboards. PowerBI can take data from almost all possible sources - text, excel, SQL databases etc etc and integrate it all together to form dashboards that can be shared online in the form of webpages as well as workspaces.

Cons

There is absolutely nothing to dislike about PowerBI. The free version of PowerBI is a great learning tool and lets you accomplish almost all your reporting tasks while the paid version lets you automate all your reporting.

Pros

The greatest business intelligence and data analytics software is Microsoft Power Bi Desktop, which guarantees that accurate data-driven insights are retrieved for corporate decision-making and smooth implementation. We can analyze, analyze, and even build dashboards using data in a variety of formats that have greater processing capability for rows and columns than Excel. Additionally, the visuals are considerably more exquisite and diversified. When I get stuck with DAX code, Power BI community articles and the DAX language's simplicity come in handy. Power BI is far more user-friendly and intuitive, in my opinion. I would strongly advise any organization seeking a BI solution to use this.

Cons

Power BI's inability to produce bespoke infographics as quickly as Tableau is its main drawback. Direct connections may be made between Power BI Desktop and PostgreSQL DB. However, we are unable to directly link PostgreSQL DB with the Power BI service. Additionally, the cost of the program has to be drastically reduced so that more small and underutilized enterprises may benefit from it and use its features to their best potential.

Pros

The software let you build professional dashboards which are often well received during senior management meetings where it´s better to have the most relevant figures at hand instead of a detailed but confusing presentation, employees from higher positions are interested in executive summaries than can help make informed decisions faster.

Cons

Although it supposedly helps teams automate manual processes, the software does require the user to spend large amounts of time learning how to use it, processing data, building visuals, maintaining the dashboards and every data source connected. Currently, visuals are not as flexible as other Microsoft products as Excel so it has limited customization capabilities.