Dimensional Insight vs. Microsoft BI (MSBI)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Dimensional Insight
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Dimensional Insight provides integrated business intelligence and performance management solutions globally.N/A
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.
$9.99
per user/per month
Pricing
Dimensional InsightMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Power BI Pro
$9.99
per user/per month
Power BI Premium
4,995
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Dimensional InsightMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Features
Dimensional InsightMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Dimensional Insight
8.3
2 Ratings
1% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.6
49 Ratings
5% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.01 Ratings9.042 Ratings
Customizable dashboards10.02 Ratings8.049 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.02 Ratings8.947 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Dimensional Insight
8.0
2 Ratings
1% below category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.7
49 Ratings
7% above category average
Drill-down analysis10.02 Ratings8.944 Ratings
Formatting capabilities5.02 Ratings8.049 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.01 Ratings8.939 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.01 Ratings8.949 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Dimensional Insight
10.0
2 Ratings
18% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.9
48 Ratings
6% above category average
Publish to Web10.02 Ratings8.944 Ratings
Publish to PDF10.02 Ratings8.944 Ratings
Report Versioning10.01 Ratings8.940 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling10.02 Ratings8.943 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers10.01 Ratings8.924 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Dimensional Insight
9.0
1 Ratings
11% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.9
48 Ratings
10% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.01 Ratings8.947 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.01 Ratings8.944 Ratings
Predictive Analytics9.01 Ratings8.942 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Dimensional Insight
10.0
2 Ratings
15% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.9
49 Ratings
3% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)10.02 Ratings8.946 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model10.02 Ratings8.943 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)10.02 Ratings8.946 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)10.01 Ratings8.928 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Dimensional Insight
9.0
2 Ratings
12% above category average
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.5
39 Ratings
7% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.01 Ratings8.036 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile10.01 Ratings9.936 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings8.027 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Dimensional Insight
-
Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.8
21 Ratings
10% above category average
REST API00 Ratings8.919 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings8.919 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.918 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings8.917 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings8.918 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.017 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Dimensional InsightMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Small Businesses
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Score 8.9 out of 10
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
Dimensional InsightMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(2 ratings)
8.7
(73 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(25 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
8.9
(14 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
8.9
(15 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.9
(3 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.6
(7 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Dimensional InsightMicrosoft BI (MSBI)
Likelihood to Recommend
Dimensional Insight
Well suited - as stated before - allows user to answer their own questions.
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft BI is well suited for Stream analytics, easy data integration, report creation and UI/UX designs (limited but what all available are great ones) Microsoft BI may be less appropriate for handling huge number of datasets and difficult queries. It may also be difficult for a company with heavy data.
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Pros
Dimensional Insight
  • The product is excellent!
  • Experienced DI Consultants with a broad knowledge in both, product and client data.
  • Customer service and technical support is always available; very professional and investigate reported issues until resolved.
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Microsoft
  • Comparatively easy to use compared to other data analytics solutions, collaborating with other colleagues on data work is simple.
  • Using Visual Studio for database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development save time and money.
  • Transfer of data from one application to another via Excel and comparison of data attributes between applications
  • Dashboard functionality, as well as Python support, are available, allowing you to add additional charts and graphs.
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Cons
Dimensional Insight
  • Some screens are not adjustable for sizing.
  • Better capability to import from a spreadsheet.
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Microsoft
  • The race to perfect gathering of Non-Traditional datasets is on-going; with Microsoft arguably not the leader of the pack in this category.
  • Licensing options for PowerBI visualizations may be a factor. I.e. if you need to implement B2C PowerBI visualizations, the cost is considerably high especially for startups.
  • Some clients are still resistant putting their data on the cloud, which restricts lots of functionality to Power BI.
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Likelihood to Renew
Dimensional Insight
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.
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Usability
Dimensional Insight
Navigation thru the Diver portal is simple; some users have trouble but it also depends on how the analysts build models and present the reports with quickviews selections and report layouts. I am aware of DI capability to access reports thru mobile devices but I have not experience it first hand.
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Microsoft
The Microsoft BI tools have great usability for both developers and end users alike. For developers familiar with Visual Studio, there is little learning curve. For those not, the single Visual Studio IDE means not having to learn separate tools for each component. For end-users, the web interface for SSRS is simple to navigate with intuitive controls. For ad-hoc analysis, Excel can connect directly to SSAS and provide a pivot table like experience which is familiar to many users. For database development, there is beginning to be some confusion, as there are now three tool choices (VS, SSMS, Azure Data Studio) for developers. I would like to see Azure Data Studio become the superset of SSMS and eventually supplant it.
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Reliability and Availability
Dimensional Insight
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
The product has been reliable.
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Performance
Dimensional Insight
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) can drag at times. We created two report servers and placed them under an F5 load balancer. This configuration has worked well. We have seen sluggish performance at times due to the Windows Firewall.
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Support Rating
Dimensional Insight
Support is always quick to answer and good to deal with.
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Microsoft
While support from Microsoft isn't necessarily always best of breed, you're also not paying the price for premium support that you would on other platforms. The strength of the stack is in the ecosystem that surrounds it. In contrast to other products, there are hundreds, even thousands of bloggers that post daily as well as vibrant user communities that surround the tool. I've had much better luck finding help with SQL Server related issues than I have with any other product, but that help doesn't always come directly from Microsoft.
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In-Person Training
Dimensional Insight
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
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Online Training
Dimensional Insight
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
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Implementation Rating
Dimensional Insight
I don't have direct experience with the first time DI was implemented but on subsequent upgrades there have been positive experiences with support and seamless transitions to avoid users discomfort.
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Microsoft
We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
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Alternatives Considered
Dimensional Insight
Dimensional Insight is a lot easier to design and use. User interface is much more intuitive.
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Microsoft
We have used the built in ConnectWise Manager reports and custom reports. The reports provide static data. PowerBI shows us live data we can drill down into and easily adjust parameters. It's much more useful than a static PDF report.
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Return on Investment
Dimensional Insight
  • Increased efficiency - very positive.
  • Sales Reporting is Interactive and Light Years ahead of previous solution.
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Microsoft
  • As a SaaS provider we see being able to provide self-service BI to our client users as a competitive advantage. In fact the MSSQL enabled BI is a contributing factor to many winning RFPs we have done for prospective client organisations.
  • However MSSQL BI requires extensive knowledge and skills to design and develop data warehouses & data models as a foundation to support business analysts and users to interrogate data effectively and efficiently. Often times we find having strong in-house MSSQL expertise is a bless.
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ScreenShots—