PeerSpot user
Customer Data Analytics Specialist at Allianz Turkey
Vendor
You can work easily to upload and model big data.

What is most valuable?

Power Query and Power Pivot are the most valuable features. You can easily manage your data on Excel. İf you have a professional version, you can do it. However, if you don't use Power Query and Power Pivot, then your raw number is limited. The Unpivot specialty is useful because you can't do it in the front-side of Excel.

How has it helped my organization?

If you don't have any analytical tool and you don't have any budget, then Power BI can be the best product in terms of the price-quality index. This is because you can work easily on big data; you can upload and model it.

What needs improvement?

Performance can be better; of course, it depends on your hardware but it can also be improved.

Once I tried to upload 5 million rows on Power Query from a CSV file but I got an error about my personal computer, i.e., my RAM was not enough for uploading. Also, sometimes this process takes a long time.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for about three years.

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Microsoft Power BI
April 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

Once I asked a question to the technical support team and they answered clearly. I would give them a 9/10 rating.

What other advice do I have?

It is a user-friendly tool, but the data size is important, i.e., you have to check your data size and how you can use it effectively.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Data Scientist at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Real User
Reports creation easy, useful dashboards, and good online community support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the easy creation of reports, dashboards, and the ability to perform analysis. It is important for us to create reports because we have some operations during certain hours and we can use this tool to track the information."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are using this solution to create dashboards and reports for business analytics. We are in the early stages of testing and we have yet to determine if we are going to continue using the solution. We have to fully evaluate the solution first.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The use of the dashboards with analytics has helped our organization.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable features are the easy creation of reports, dashboards, and the ability to perform analysis. It is important for us to create reports because we have some operations during certain hours and we can use this tool to track the information. Additionally, it is a benefit they are adding more features all the time, such as machine learning.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution within the past 12 months.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The solution is stable.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    I never needed to use technical support. However, they have a good online community where I found documentation, a lot of general information, and tutorial videos on YouTube and Google.

    How was the initial setup?

    The installation is simple.

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

    The price for this solution is reasonable. However, there is an additional cost if you want to publish the dashboard privately.

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate Microsoft BI a nine 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
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Power BI
    April 2024
    Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power BI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Managing Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
    Real User
    It reduces the time needed to generate reporting and provides an overview of company performance

    What is most valuable?

    Standardized solution that comes with data warehouse and BI cubes straight out of the box for deployment for both Dynamics NAV and AX products. Enhanced wizard allowing for customization of BI Solution without having to go through SQL scripts to generate additional measures and dimensions.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It reduces the time needed to generate reporting for an organization, allowing management to have an overview of how the company performs. Afterwards, it allows the company to formulate strategies to improve itself.

    What needs improvement?

    To add-in the functionality of AI into the reporting, so this can improve further on the product as it is currently. The BI reporting still relies on historical transactions.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    No. It works on all versions of NAV and AX.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The current deployment of the solution is up to 2TB. Do note that it still is not to the “Big Data” level.

    How is customer service and technical support?

    We have our own technical team who supports the BI solution. We usually solve 95% of the issues encountered. For those that can’t be resolved, it is escalated to our HQ.

    How was the initial setup?

    It is fairly straightforward. As long as there is a connection to the server which houses the NAV/AX database and all the data warehouse, since bi cubes are generated from the BI solution, without any need for user intervention.

    What other advice do I have?

    For the first project, we will advise using consultants to assist on the implementation, so the dos and don’ts of the solution can be known in the first instance without having to trial and error the solution.

    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a direct distributor of the solution in Asia market.
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Consultant MOA BI at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Vendor
    ​MS BI comes with all the tools and it is to the best of my knowledge the most affordable solution​.​
    Pros and Cons
    • "MS SQL & SQL Server Analysis Services."
    • "SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is not user friendly."

    What is most valuable?

    MS SQL & SQL Server Analysis Services.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We provide BI solutions to the users at every level in order to monitor business. We can deploy DWH, cubes and reports from scratch within weeks of implementation.

    What needs improvement?

    SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is not user friendly, requires development. Power BI will surely provide a huge boost to MS BI in terms of self-service BI. Then again, SSRS developers are plenty, thus not so expensive.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Ten-plus years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Stability issues are due to bad hardware sizing, bad forecast of volumes, or bad data modeling.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Only when data models were faulty of when the infrastructure was not compliant to MS recommendations.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Tech support from Microsoft, when needed, is as efficient as can be.

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

    Worked in different technical environments but never saw a switch from MS BI.

    How was the initial setup?

    Developers and architects are easily available for this technology.

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

    MS BI comes with all the tools and it is, to the best of my knowledge, the most affordable solution.

    What other advice do I have?

    Watch your data model, use data marts when possible, set your archiving/purge policy from the beginning, size your hardware well (unless on cloud).

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    MSBI Technical Lead at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
    Vendor
    It's been stable for over eight years, but is lacking a data warehouse manager.

    Valuable Features

    • It's a user-friendly tool
    • Very stable
    • It always helps us to achieve organizational goals

    Improvements to My Organization

    It's been stable for over eight years, and all the latest products/versions have backwards compatibility, or an upgrade facility. It has helped to fetch many projects, and to deliver them on time, as well as helping to resolve complex business challenges. The product has continual updates so we can stay on top of the market.

    Room for Improvement

    • Data warehousing manager is not available, which can be introduced
    • Reporting or SharePoint needs a lot of learning so you can build reports

    Use of Solution

    I've used it for 10 years.

    Deployment Issues

    No issues encountered.

    Stability Issues

    No issues encountered.

    Scalability Issues

    No issues encountered.

    Customer Service and Technical Support

    Customer Service:

    Microsoft has a great level of customer service.

    Technical Support:

    There are great public forums available for tech support.

    Initial Setup

    • Straightforward - installation, development, deployment, and maintenance
    • Little complex - Learning the tool

    Implementation Team

    We did it in-house.

    ROI

    I am not sure how to calculate this. The solution significantly improved BI and reporting capabilities. Without this solution, the business can’t think of successful operations.

    Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

    It is not costly when compared with other competitor products. This is a rock solid solution for any BI organization.

    Other Solutions Considered

    We didn't do much evaluation as our dev teams experience is with Microsoft BI.

    Other Advice

    This product is hassle free to utilize for your BI environment.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user580566 - PeerSpot reviewer
    it_user580566VP, Business Intelligence at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Vendor

    2016 is significantly improved as does Power BI with monthly releases. TCO is very inexpensive (Pro is 9.95 per month per user) with many data connectors, constant updates, well-integrated with Azure, powerful data blending tool and Power BI portal. Seems like comments here are not recently and this suite of tools is WELL worth the time to evaluate.

    See all 6 comments
    it_user171969 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Microsoft BI Consultant with 51-200 employees
    Vendor
    Good product for End Users but there are some problems with huge chunks of data.

    What is most valuable?

    Data Integration and Cleansing & Warehousing are the most valuable

    What needs improvement?

    End-user tools such as Excel is not good enough for all business scenarios.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    8 years

    What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

    There are some issues with 2005/2008 releases, but most of them were fixed starting with 2012 release

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Sometimes in the starting few months of every new release.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    There are some problems with huge chunks of data. Some of these can be addressed with appropriate hardware appliances and a lot of tweaking.

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

    I do work on projects to switch clients to MS BI usually due to its attractive pricing and tight integration with MS Office suite. Also the learning curve for users is flattened due to their fluency with Excel.

    How was the initial setup?

    MS products are great but security is always a concern to make the whole ecosystem work smoothly. The latest BI suite is tightly integrated with SharePoint which is great; but the set-up process and deployment is still painful.

    What other advice do I have?

    Have knowledgeable people to make the right choices for you.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Part Owner at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
    Real User
    Great technology and some very good features
    Pros and Cons
    • "Good CS and administration."
    • "Creating dashboards could be easier."

    What is our primary use case?

    I am a consultant for a big company. We deal with energy companies, petroleum, sales companies and we deal with everything from financials to operations. We deal with market strategy and we provide consultancy services - I'm a part owner of the company. 

    What is most valuable?

    I like the CS, administration, most of the features are good as well as the technology.

    What needs improvement?

    I think creating dashboards could be easier. Compared to other solutions, the cost of the license is expensive and that could be improved. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using this solution for over 20 years. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is excellent. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability is excellent, all our professional consultants use it. Where we deploy in the banking sector, they can have 1,000 licensed users; in smaller companies there can be 50 users. 

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is quite good, but I'd like to see a quicker response time. 

    How was the initial setup?

    Deployment time depends on the company, it can take up to two months. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

    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
    Research & Development Expert at a energy/utilities company with 11-50 employees
    Real User
    Good visualization and graphing functions, integrates with Python
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable feature is integration with Python."
    • "The integration with third-party products could be more stable."

    What is our primary use case?

    I use Microsoft BI for my own projects that are related to integrating with Excel datasets. I use the visualization and graphing functions, and I have tried using the Python integration.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable feature is integration with Python.

    What needs improvement?

    The integration with third-party products could be more stable.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately one month.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Microsoft BI could be a little more stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have approximately 10 users. I don't expect that we will expand our usage or continue using this product.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    I have not been in contact with technical support.

    How was the initial setup?

    There is no complexity in the initial setup. It takes approximately 15 minutes to deploy.

    What about the implementation team?

    There are twenty people in the team that handles the deployment and maintenance of our solutions.

    What other advice do I have?

    In summary, this is a good product and I recommend it.

    I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

    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
    Download our free Microsoft Power BI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: April 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Power BI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.