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Microsoft BI (MSBI) Reviews

840 Ratings
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Score 8.2 out of 100

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Reviews (1-10 of 10)

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February 04, 2015

Why is Microsoft BI Right for Me?

Steve Wake | TrustRadius Reviewer
Steve Wake
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Data Visualization

8
There are a very wide variety of options with visualizations in SSRS, but not everything is available yet. SSRS excels in creating fixed formatted reports that can show visualizations and/or detail data on the same reports. The tools allow for amazing levels of customization, which can be frustrating for new developers to get used to, but once you learn how it all works it will allow you to develop anything they give you. You can use SSRS to build dashboards even though most will warn you against it, but since it is a web based tool that is much easier to setup than SharePoint (and it doesn't require SharePoint, but can integrate with it as well) it is ideal for creating some of those quick dashboards and have it in front of the right people quickly. As your reporting needs mature in the organization there is even more that can be done by using SSAS. The best thing is that all of the solutions you build in the SQL Server Microsoft BI stack will be accessible in the newer tools like Power BI as well, so you don't lose that investment as you mature in capabilities.
Read Steve Wake's full review
February 03, 2015

Microsoft BI -- Say GoodBI to the Competition for the Moment.

Lee Cullom | TrustRadius Reviewer
Lee Cullom
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Data Visualization

9
We constantly hear our customers complementing Performance Point visualizations, which are not even as advanced and rich as Power BI Designer, so we can only assume that Microsoft is ahead of the competition here. In fact, even Excel Visualizations are attractive when you move to Excel 2010 & Above... and remove the gridlines. Before any real exposure to Power BI Desginer, Tableau was clearly winning the visualization battle with Geographical Maps/Tree Maps, however Microsoft now has introduced those in Power BI. Still, Tableau has advantages in Gantt charts and a few additional areas. I'd also like to see what's next with Tableau 9 for comparison with Microsoft PowerBI (since it is so new).
Read Lee Cullom's full review
September 25, 2014

Microsoft - Your Old Trusted Friend?

Julia Gusman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Julia Gusman
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Data Visualization

2
Microsoft Reporting Services somehow reminds me of Excel but on a larger scale and automated. You can produce some reasonable visualizations but it takes quite a bit of time to define all elements. There is not much built-in functionality to support data visualization best practices. I would recommend SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) if you have a very clear definition and no flexibility of what your report needs to look like. As a heavy user of Tableau, I am not very impressed by SSRS.
Read Julia Gusman's full review
September 14, 2014

Microsoft BI - A good all around suite of products for the traditional data environment

Mashhood Syed | TrustRadius Reviewer
Mashhood Syed
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Data Visualization

5
This is where MS BI is lacking. You can create all your charts/graphs as well as geospatial reports but building a dashboard is not the same as you would find in Tableau. You have to create a master report and then subreports to kind of mimic what a dashboard would look like. Visually it is attractive but not as much as Tableau.
Read Mashhood Syed's full review
September 19, 2014

Microsoft BI

Michał Becker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Michał Becker
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Data Visualization

3
Since Microsoft BI uses Excel as a visualization tool there is no native visualization tool in it. Of course almost everyone has Excel but still it leads to situation where you have to buy another solution to present data prepared via SQL, SSIS and SSAS. Also after certain point Excel data consistency is hard to maintain.
Read Michał Becker's full review
November 04, 2014

Best TCO but many layers to the overall solution

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Data Visualization

7
The rating on data visualization is lower relative to the competition. Power Maps can not be published, you're stuck just using it on your desktop. The drill through capabilities in some of the other tools is also superior.
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Microsoft BI (MSBI) Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (840)
8.2
Likelihood to Renew (25)
8.0
Usability (8)
9.0
Availability (4)
9.5
Performance (4)
7.0
Support Rating (15)
8.7
In-Person Training (3)
6.9
Online Training (2)
8.5
Implementation Rating (14)
9.6
Data Sharing and Collaboration (48)
8.1
Data Sources (47)
8.3

Feature Scorecard Summary

BI Standard Reporting
8.3
Pixel Perfect reports (41)
7.9
Customizable dashboards (48)
8.8
Report Formatting Templates (46)
8.1
Ad-hoc Reporting
7.7
Drill-down analysis (43)
8.2
Formatting capabilities (48)
7.8
Integration with R or other statistical packages (39)
7.1
Report sharing and collaboration (48)
7.8
Report Output and Scheduling
7.5
Publish to Web (43)
6.9
Publish to PDF (43)
8.1
Report Versioning (39)
7.4
Report Delivery Scheduling (43)
7.5
Delivery to Remote Servers (23)
7.3
Data Discovery and Visualization
7.6
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.) (46)
7.5
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization (43)
7.6
Predictive Analytics (41)
7.7
Access Control and Security
8.4
Multi-User Support (named login) (45)
8.3
Role-Based Security Model (42)
7.9
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete) (46)
8.8
Single Sign-On (SSO) (27)
8.5
Mobile Capabilities
8.0
Responsive Design for Web Access (34)
8.1
Dedicated iOS Application (27)
8.1
Dedicated Android Application (27)
8.2
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile (36)
7.7
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
7.4
REST API (17)
7.3
Javascript API (18)
7.5
iFrames (17)
7.8
Java API (16)
7.6
Themeable User Interface (UI) (16)
7.1
Customizable Platform (Open Source) (12)
7.1

What is Microsoft BI (MSBI)?

Microsoft BI (MSBI) benefits from the ubiquity of SQL server and the set of tools built around the database, including an ETL layer, master data management, data cleansing, report and reporting.

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.
Categories:  Full-Stack Business Intelligence,  Business Intelligence (BI)

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Competitors

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Pricing

  • Does not have featureFree Trial Available?No
  • Has featureFree or Freemium Version Available?Yes
  • Does not have featurePremium Consulting/Integration Services Available?No
  • Entry-level set up fee?No
EditionPricing DetailsTerms
Power BI Pro9.99per user/per month
Power BI Premium4,995per month

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Technical Details

Deployment Types:SaaS
Operating Systems: Unspecified
Mobile Application:No

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

What is Microsoft BI (MSBI)'s best feature?

Reviewers rate Customizable dashboards and Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete) highest, with a score of 8.8.

Who uses Microsoft BI (MSBI)?

The most common users of Microsoft BI (MSBI) are Enterprises from the Information Technology & Services industry.