Overview
What is Microsoft BI (MSBI)?
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.
Multiple tools in single package.
"Microsoft BI is a powerful analytic tool for large data sets."
In the world of data visualization, this is one of the best virtualization tools
"Easy To Use BI Platform With Effective Reporting"
Microsoft BI
Microsoft BI: The only data analysis tool you will ever need
MSBI - Bang for the Buck
A smart tool for data analysts to generate awesome reports
Excellent BI Stack for an all-in-one solution architecture, however may need specialized platforms for non-traditional datasets
Powerful tool for data visualization
Best when used by larger companies in a predominantly Microsoft environment
Microsoft PowerBI unleashes the power of your data
Microsoft BI the killer data analytics and visualization tool
Casual User’s POC
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Report sharing and collaboration (49)8.989%
- Report Formatting Templates (47)8.989%
- Formatting capabilities (49)8.080%
- Customizable dashboards (49)8.080%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Power BI Pro
$9.99
Power BI Premium
4,995
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Features
BI Standard Reporting
Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.
- 9Pixel Perfect reports(42) Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports are highly-formatted reports with graphics and ability to preview the report before printing.
- 8Customizable dashboards(49) Ratings
Customizable dashboards are dashboards providing the builder some degree of control over the look and feel and display options.
- 8.9Report Formatting Templates(47) Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.
- 8.9Drill-down analysis(44) Ratings
Drill down analysis is the ability to get to a further level of detail by going deeper into the hierarchy.
- 8Formatting capabilities(49) Ratings
Ability to format output e.g. conditional formatting, lines, headers, footers.
- 8.9Integration with R or other statistical packages(39) Ratings
Integration with the open-source R predictive modeling environment.
- 8.9Report sharing and collaboration(49) Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration is the ability to easily share reports with others.
Report Output and Scheduling
Ability to schedule and manager report output.
- 9Publish to Web(44) Ratings
- 8.9Publish to PDF(44) Ratings
- 8.9Report Versioning(40) Ratings
Report versioning is the assignment of version numbers to each version of a report to help in tracking.
- 8.9Report Delivery Scheduling(43) Ratings
Report Delivery Schedule is the ability to have reports delivered to a destination at a specific data and time.
- 8.9Delivery to Remote Servers(24) Ratings
Ability to deliver reports to remote servers
Data Discovery and Visualization
Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.
- 8.9Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)(47) Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats are canned visualization types that can be selected to visualize different kinds of data.
- 8.9Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization(44) Ratings
Location analytics is the visualization of geographical or spatial data.
- 8.9Predictive Analytics(42) Ratings
Predictive Analytics is the ability to build forecasting models based on existing data sets.
- 9Pattern Recognition and Data Mining(1) Ratings
Pattern recognition and data mining mean the ability to recognize hidden patterns in large quantities of data.
Access Control and Security
Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.
- 8.9Multi-User Support (named login)(46) Ratings
Named model access means that users have access based on name and password.
- 8.9Role-Based Security Model(43) Ratings
Role-based access means that access to data is determined by job or position in the corporation.
- 8.9Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)(46) Ratings
Multiple access permission levels means that different levels of users have different rights.
- 9Report-Level Access Control(1) Ratings
Report-level access control means that the type of report determines who has access to it.
- 9Single Sign-On (SSO)(28) Ratings
Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications
Mobile Capabilities
Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
- 8Responsive Design for Web Access(36) Ratings
Web design aimed at producing easy-to-read sites across a range of different devices.
- 8Mobile Application(27) Ratings
A dedicated app for iOS and/or Android.
- 9.9Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile(36) Ratings
In-app dashboard reports and data visualization.
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another
- 8.9REST API(19) Ratings
REST is an architecture style for designing networked applications
- 8.9Javascript API(19) Ratings
A Javascript API is a type of API
- 8.9iFrames(18) Ratings
An iFrame is an HTML document embedded inside another HTML document on a website
- 8.9Java API(17) Ratings
A Java application programming interface (API) is a list of all classes that are part of the Java development kit (JDK)
- 8.9Themeable User Interface (UI)(18) Ratings
A themeable user interface means that a specific visual them can be applied to it
- 8Customizable Platform (Open Source)(17) Ratings
A customizable, open source API Gateway is a fast and scalable type of API
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Microsoft BI (MSBI)?
The reporting engine is SQL Server Reporting Services which does not have the visualization capabilities of visualization tools like Tableau or Qlik. Excel has historically been the platform visualization tool. Power BI for Office 365 has done much to improve the discovery and visualization capabilities of Excel.
Microsoft now offers Power BI cloud as the visualization platform with geospatial 3D, natural-language query generation, and self-service ETL along with charting and other data visualizations that can be uploaded and shared through the Power BI service.
The Power BI platform also provides live access to on-premises Microsoft SQL Server instances, and self-service access to third-party cloud sources including Salesforce, Marketo, Zendesk, and GitHub. Mobility is supported through a native iPad app, an iPhone app.
This new platform is viewed by Microsoft as a visualization layer sitting on top of their earlier generation of installed SQL-based technology.
Microsoft BI (MSBI) Competitors
Microsoft BI (MSBI) Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(937)Attribute Ratings
- 8Likelihood to Renew25 ratings
- 9.5Availability2 ratings
- 7Performance2 ratings
- 8.9Usability14 ratings
- 8.9Support Rating15 ratings
- 8.5Online Training2 ratings
- 6.9In-Person Training3 ratings
- 9.6Implementation Rating7 ratings
- 10Configurability2 ratings
- 6.8Data Visualization10 ratings
- 8.4Data Sources42 ratings
- 8.5Data Sharing and Collaboration43 ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 73)MSBI : a new boom in the digital world!
- It managed our projects and maintained reports and dashboards
- It provided correct real time stream analytics which helped us to make necessary business decisions
- It helped built the most attractive and smooth UI designs for our website
- MSBI designs can work on increasing data processing capabilities enough to handle the huge datasets etc.
- It would be a lot better if it is a little low on cost.
- it needs to create opportunities little more than they do regarding customization of some very unique visualization effects
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.
Multiple tools in single package.
- Create packages to move data and perform different data related tasks using SSIS
- Create reports to summarize the data in an understandable form using SSRS
- Analyze the data provided by teams and create data cubes and reports to understand the data properly using SSAS.
- It should be an open source tool for a vast variety of implementation.
- You need to buy a licensed server to maintain MSBI
- Need a proper course or content to learn concepts, which sometimes creates difficulty.
"Microsoft BI is a powerful analytic tool for large data sets."
- Easy customization of workspaces for different project groups via a dashboard and a drag-and-drop interface.
- Easy report generation and data attribute comparison across applications. Perfect for data-only devices.
- Visual Studio integrates database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development. Large technical user community and rich tool feature set.
- Costs are high compared to the competition, and it could be more user-friendly.
- As a browser-based app, it doesn't have as many eye-catching charts and graphs as some others, and some browsers are better than others at running it.
- Most of the tasks require a pro version, and proper training is necessary to use it, but you can learn how to use it.
- An end-to-end solution that connects multiple data sources and a single vendor is ideal.
- Excellent tools for visualizing data. Using Visual Studio, I could develop database, ETL, reporting, and analytics projects all in one environment.
- Easy to use compared to other data analytics solutions, with powerful analytical and trending tools and easy access to our data and views.
- It has limited visual options, and Microsoft BI (MSBI) isn't the best for advanced modeling and analysis.
- Excel proficiency is required before diving into PowerBI, and reshaping and reorganizing data is possible but not easy.
- Additional training and tutorials for Microsoft BI (MSBI) would be helpful for organizations with a large number of users and better pricing options required.
"Easy To Use BI Platform With Effective Reporting"
- 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.
- Only the pro version allows me to complete most tasks, and there aren't many options for customizing the interface.
- Browser-based, so some browsers won't work, and the price isn't as competitive.
- It doesn't have as many visually appealing graphs and charts, and it's not as intuitive to use as some others, but we can get used to it.
Microsoft BI
- Dashboard capability.
- Comparison between data attributes of various applications.
- Data load through Excel.
- Integration between different data sources and MSBI.
- Dashboard features.
- Performance.
- Easy display of data.
- Compatible with most Microsoft products.
- Cloud connectivity.
- Can be more user friendly.
- Proper training required to use.
MSBI - Bang for the Buck
- Single vendor provides a true end-to-end solution from data storage to end-user consumables.
- Visual Studio provides a single IDE for database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development.
- Rich feature set across the tools with 15-20 years of maturity.
- Reunification of installers to simplify the process for both server installs and developer (SSRS now split out, BI tools not all within one package).
- Ongoing Visual Studio instability.
- Better server to server deployment options for SSRS.
- Powerful analytics tools
- Great visualization features. I really liked visualizations based on map
- Ability to connect with multiple data sources
- Tight integration with Microsoft services
- Awesome user interface
- Steep learning curve depending on your background. For me it was easy but I saw some people struggling with it
- Great traditional ETL data gathering tools.
- Large technical user community.
- Excellent data visualization tools.
- 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.
Powerful tool for data visualization
- Dashbaords
- Data collaberation
- Multiple connectors
- GIS data
- Easy formula writing
- Needs to be easier to share and collaborate
Less appropriate when you have data in various different formats and it not 100% clean. The licensing can be a pain if you are thinking of sharing the dashboards with external members.
- Powerful analytical and trending tools.
- Compatibility with different data sources (including non-Microsoft).
- Attractive dashboard visuals.
- Seamless integration into a Microsoft ecosystem.
- Pricing is not as competitive as alternatives.
- Online / Cloud versions are lacking in features.
- Desktop (free) version has limited features.
Microsoft PowerBI unleashes the power of your data
- Easy to access the data and views you have created
- Simple filtering of data views
- Ability to view live or near live data
- It runs in a browser and some browsers work better than others
- Sometimes you start getting wacky results and you have to refresh the page to reset the views
- Creating amazing dashboards
- You can create a variety of reports and can be scheduled automatically.
- You can integrate big data in Microsoft BI.
- It gets hanged while developing complex report which hampers productivity
- You require pro version to do most of the task
Casual User’s POC
- Reporting
- Data analysis
- Intuitive use
Microsoft BI is a great product. Highly Recommend.
- Able to connect to multiple data sources.
- Canned reports are great and custom reports are better.
- Can be costly to implement. Not cost effective for SMB. No mid-market tier pricing.
- Knowledge in programming a plus.
Microsoft BI review
- Ability to drill down.
- Automated refresh of data.
- Ability to visualize data on charts and maps.
- Need access to detailed map visuals.
- Use Python or R scripts.
- Need ability to input data.
Good for visualisations and reporting!
- Good range of visualisation features.
- Very easy to setup and get onboard.
- Handles data integration from multiple sources decently well.
- Not advisable to use Microsoft BI as a standalone primary tool for data management.
- The process of moulding or repurposing data is not easy.
- Integrating Microsoft BI with non-Microsoft tools is a huge pain.
Microsoft BI is great if you're looking for a BI product that feels like the other Microsoft products you use
- As with most every other Microsoft product, Microsoft BI makes setting up and analyzing data about as easy as it gets.
- Creating graphics is very easy.
- Connecting to multiple data sources works just fine.
- Simple reporting and integration with other Microsoft products is great.
- Microsoft BI is not top of the for advanced analysis and modeling.
- Reshaping and restructuring data is doable, but not super simple.
- Customizing visualizations is sometimes difficult to impossible.
Great BI tool
- Report generation from our back end data warehouse has become way more streamlined using this tool.
- By using the Power Pivot and Power View it has enabled us to access and mash up data from a variety of sources. Plus it can easily be shared with other users through simple Office applications.
- The implementation time for Microsoft BI can be fairly lengthy. It's definitely longer than some of the other products we evaluated.
- The upfront investment in terms of capital and time is fairly large with this tool. It requires a compliant Microsoft SQL server in the back end to leverage most of its functionality.
For the IT professional on the go
- Microsoft BI allows us to combine data from multiple sources, build data models, create visualizations, and share the results.
- Cloud Interactive charts in a cloud that can be easily shared
- Connectors to popular data sources, allowing us to integrate with almost any system
- More authentication methods to allow power users to connect directly to Web APIs.
- It can be quite difficult to setup without guided assistance from experienced users
- Limits on dataset size.
Microsoft BI - Putting the power into your reporting
- Data display in graphs and tables
- Compatibility with other Microsoft products
- User-friendly and informative reporting
- Data compatibility with non-Microsoft products
- Data sourcing functionality is poor
- Offline server functionality impedes out of country work
Microsoft BI is the program you've been waiting for!
- It is a very user-friendly interface! Doesn't take long to learn and be able to make some great graphs.
- The accessibility and sharing capabilities are beyond wonderful-- it has made it easy to share between employees before sending out final reports and it is easy to share with clients who need something to look at before the full report is finished.
- There are a lot of options for data display and they can be as complex or simple as you want and still look amazing.
- They have a great online resource for help and tutorials. If you don't catch on quickly on your own, it is quite easy to do some reading online and teach yourself.
- The Microsoft BI app can be finicky at times and it would be great for that to be more streamlined. We sometimes require data to be shown during fieldwork, and a functional app makes a big difference.
- The program doesn't always remember my settings. This may just be a glitch with the program on my computer, but it would be a huge timesaver if I didn't have to reset my preferences every week.
Outstanding Report Creator
- Makes reports more visually appealing
- Very good variety of formats for charting information
- Good cloud connectivity (most of the time)
- Need to be proficient with Excel before diving into PowerBI
- Only available with a monthly subscription
- Steep learning curve for many users (including me)
Microsoft BI - A diamond in the rough
Microsoft BI is currently only used for dashboarding (descriptive analytics), where data relationship is simple, while most of the predictive analytics are done in other tools.
- Easy integration with other Microsoft products.
- Great integration with R/Python.
- Map visualization limit on data count
- Inability to model data relationship with multiple non unique keys
In the oil and gas industry, it's common to be analyzing geospatial items along with cross-sectional data, and this can easily go over the row limit that Microsoft BI has for its map visualization; this is a shortfall.
For high-level dashboarding, say, aggregated data for management reporting, Microsoft BI is perfectly suited due to its professional layout and ease of deployment. The data modeling aspect in Microsoft BI leaves much to be desired as it doesn't allow for many relationships which are rather common in the data used in our industry; this forces users to create a unique key by having to concatenate columns of interest, which tend to result in untidy data and make maintenance difficult.