Microsoft Power BI Reviews

The primary use case for Microsoft BI is reporting. It comes with the Microsoft 365 E5 license. Then you just need to secure and harden it. That took a bit of time, but you can open it up and let people use it after that. There is a desktop component that they can work on that's independent of the Microsoft license. In that case, they can create files that are like dashboards.

I like Microsoft BI's drill-down feature and its overall ease of use.

I've been using Microsoft BI for about eight months.

Microsoft BI has been stable so far.

Microsoft's support is pretty good. 

Installing Microsoft BI was relatively straightforward. It just took a lot of tinkering with InfoSec to allow us to do stuff.

I rate Microsoft Power BI nine out of 10. If you plan to implement it, ensure that you harden it, so you do not leave it wide open. Otherwise, you're vulnerable to data leakage.

The most valuable feature would be the abundance of connectors. It is also easy to use.

It is a very powerful platform for BI. It has everything that you want from BI. 

It is easy enough. I don't see any real substantial improvements that are needed. It is great as it is, but its interface could be a bit modern.

I have been using this solution for six years. I am using the online version. So, it is the latest one.

It has improved over the years. There were problems a few years ago, but now, it is way better.

Their support is fine. I had to reach technical support a few times, and they have been very good in the last two years.

Compared to others, I think it is reasonable.

I tested a few other similar products before deciding on Power BI.

I would advise others to just try it. I would rate it a 10 out of 10.

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.

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. Microsoft could add some more features to its normal reporting capabilities.

I've been using Microsoft BI for about 18 months.

Microsoft BI is stable. 

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.

Microsoft BI is mostly easy to set up. 

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.

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.

I rate Microsoft BI seven out of 10. 

In our sector, we're dealing with lots of FinDocs and routine FinDoc activities. So all these things are managed locally, with data coming from some secondary source. By that, I mean our in-house technicians provide a data service that is locally developed on our end, and we analyze data in Microsoft Power BI. We have about 10 to 12 users working with it.

Microsoft BI is better than most solutions we have. It's pretty easy to conduct analysis with it.

Microsoft needs to do some more research and development to make it more stable.

We've been using Microsoft BI for about six months.

I think Microsoft BI is scalable.

We have some technical partners from Microsoft, so we contact them for any issues.

Installing Microsoft BI is fast and easy. We just downloaded it from Microsoft. That's it. It only takes about half an hour. It takes a little longer for the overall deployment, depending on the data volume. If we're getting the data from a secondary source, it depends upon both the source and volume. The greater the volume, the greater the time. Usually, we can manage to get it done in one or two hours plus the testing. It takes around four people to deploy and manage the solution.

We haven't thought much about licensing because we're still dealing with some administrative hang-ups. Once all these things are resolved, then we go for the license. It is in process.

I rate Microsoft BI six out of 10. I would recommend it.

Defining the most valuable features would take a long time. While I cannot point to a specific feature, I feel the solution provides a full range of implementation capabilities. This allows for integration and modeling, for carrying out good transformations within the same platform, as well as visualization. There are not many products included inside and one can start from scratch. 

In respect of the customer, one can quickly implement phases. A person can start out with creating his data set on a miniscule amount of the client's work and, working solely with a sales team, make it agile, only involving three or four dashboards. At this point, completion is possible and progress may be made to the next one very quickly. We like the solution's ease of use, functionality range and ability to be quickly implemented. 

I would like to see a change in the premium capacity. It is very costly, particularly for the Egyptian market, amounting to $5,000 per month. Perhaps in the Gulf this would work well. The data flow should be enhanced from OnPrem-Gateways, which we find to be somewhat complicated and which does not always work. Regional pricing is the main issue. 

The stability is okay, although there can sometimes be an issue with the connection when it comes to data OnPrem and the need to manage gateway communication and do troubleshooting. In brief, there are certain issues with OnPrem stability. 

'Although we feel the solution to be a dream, it would be great to see everything on Power BI services, obviating the need for Power BI desktop. I hope to see such Power BI implementation. 

I feel like we don't have a very powerful ELT or ETL tool when it comes to power and data cleansing. The solution compares unfavorably with such products as Informatica in this regard.

I have been using Microsoft BI for two years.

The stability is okay, although there are occasional connectivity problems when it comes to managed gateway communication of data OnPrem and troubleshooting. The OnPrem stability should be addressed. 

While the stability is okay, there is an occasional need to add extra products, such as those involving Azure data analysis and Azure Analytics Services. 

Big data would require the involvement of different products, Microsoft sign ups, for example. While we did not go for this, our technical teams are trying to get up to speed to have big data rediness. 

I feel like the solution has a comparatively inferior ELT or ETL tool when it comes to power and data cleansing and compares unfavorably with Informatica. There is occasionally a need to involve other solutions, such as Informatica and Alteryx. 

While we have not made much use of Microsoft support, I did previously work with Microsoft's premier support and found it to be very good, overall. 

The solution is easy to set up and implement. 

The premium capacity is very costly in respect of the market in Egypt, amounting to $5,000 monthly. The regional pricing should be addressed. 

The solution has an edge over others in its quick implementation. It is also very helpful to consider Microsoft data platform on Azure. Doing a combination with Microsoft data plaform will give one a great edge over, say, Tableau. 

The combining of Power BI with Microsoft data platform on Azure provides one increased familiarity. We are talking about a great ecosystem. 

The solution is comparatively inferior to those offered by other companies in respect of the ETL and ELT as these relate to power and data cleansing. It is not the best. 

My advice to someone looking to implement Power BI for his own organization would be to take things step by step. He should initially refrain from taking on big projects, instead focusing on agility, starting with the most requisite dashboards, working on them and garnering experience. The person will improve from one time to the next. One should familiarize himself with the details and how to move data and big data. He should not remain stuck waiting for the implementation of a big project. 

I rate Microsoft BI as an eight out of ten. 

As a consultant, I propose something appropriate for my client companies. Mostly, it's some type of ERP, warehouse management, or BI software. It depends on the size of the companies and their requirements.

Small and medium-sized businesses usually need some operations software to cover all the daily necessities. In most cases, I propose some local or regional software for ERP and warehouse management solutions. But for business intelligence and reporting, I typically go with a Microsoft solution.

Microsoft BI's visualization could be better. Though Power BI's visualization has steadily improved over the years, it's not on the level tools like Tableau and SAS or some of the more expensive products on the market.

Power BI is as stable as every other Microsoft product. It depends on the environment and other factors — it's not just Power BI. But it's quite stable, I think. And it's also on a very high level.

Microsoft has a lot of partners that offer support and help you with implementation. So if you have some issues that can't be resolved by one level of support, you can find someone else in the same environment. I would say that from the partner level, Microsoft support is excellent. But, of course, it depends on how much you want to pay for it.

The complexity of the Power BI setup depends on how much integration you need, the number of different databases you have to connect, and whether you're automating the system. However, setup is relatively easy for a standard environment. For reporting alone, it was easy to set up. So it really depends on the complexity of the environment, not on the tool.

Power BI's price is reasonable, especially if you can put it in some bigger package and use it with other products. The value of a solution doesn't just come from its features as a standalone product. The price should also reflect how easy it's to set up, clean data, and integrate with other solutions. So in that regard, I would say Microsoft Power BI's price is appropriate.

I recommend Tableau to customers for some things and Power BI for others. But, overall, you can use Power BI in more ways, it's cheaper, and it has a better pricing model.

I rate Microsoft Power BI nine out of 10. It's widely used and incredibly practical. And it's a little easier to prepare, distribute, and automate reports or connect to databases. Power BI is also useful for warehouse management and data systems in data lakes. It's like a Swiss knife for reporting. So I generally recommend Microsoft Power BI for clients who don't have specific requirements for visualization. Tableau is better in that area. But at the same time, Power BI is also upgrading those features. 

Many of my customers already use Microsoft products like Office 365, so I often propose Microsoft Power BI because it integrates well with all the standard Microsoft business tools. And it's the quickest tool to implement and start using daily. You don't need much training. People can pick up this tool quickly and start using it right away. So I think that's the biggest advantage of Power BI. 

We were using Microsoft BI but it could not do what we wanted it to do. Then we moved to an open-source platform, which was Apache Tika, Kafka, and third solution. We ended up moving back to Power BI only to display the information because displaying information with Power BI is better than open-source software. We are not using all aspects of the solution at the moment.

In the process of using data there is the Extract, Transform and Load (ETL). For extracting we are using another software, for transforming we are using our own coding in C#, and then we use Microsoft BI for loading the information. Microsoft BI displays information very well.

The solution could improve the extraction and transformation of data. For example, you transform the data and then send it to Microsoft BI without having to use your own API. We are only providing the API to Power BI, and then Power BI is doing the job.

In an upcoming release, Microsoft BI should increase the functionality of the solution.

I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately six years.

We were satisfied with the stability of Microsoft BI.

We have 30 users using the solution in my organization.

We are in contact with the support of Microsoft but I have not been in contact directly.

I have used other solutions, such as Apache Tika and Kafka.

The initial setup was straightforward.

The solution only needs one person to do the maintenance.

There are a few options available for purchasing a license. Typically the number of users you have will determine the price of the license. The more users you have the more you will pay.

The solution has had a lot of changes over the years and it is very good. However, there is more work to be done on extract and transform functions for it to be done properly.

I rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

I use Microsoft BI for the reports and our displaying the data in different ways. As a project manager, I need to follow the budget and receive confirmation about our projects. We have an SAP database and we follow and check all the budget data of the project including data usage.

What I have found valuable about Microsoft BI is its performance and ease of use. The interface is very simple and it is accessible to everyone. If someone is new to this type of solution it is straightforward to understand.

The solution could improve by having more options to manipulate the views of the data on the dashboards. I sometimes need to make them myself but there should be more customizable with drag-and-drop elements and filters on that data differently than it was designed. There are filters in the design stage but there are times you need something else other than how it was designed. For example, if you did not have some of the information at the time of the design. Having the ability to design, or request the data from the database as an end-user is very important. It would be beneficial to have more autonomy on the design of the requested data. You are not able to change the fields or the request data because it was done in the backend and you are not able to see how that request happened. Sometimes you need to make your own requests or have different requests regarding the data. We do not have access because we are not administrators.

In the future, Microsoft BI can be better by increasing user-friendliness.

I have been using this solution for approximately three years.

The solution is stable.

I have found it to be scalable.

We have approximately 1,000 people using the solution in my organization.

I have previously used QlikView and Qlik Sense.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.