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Microsoft BI (MSBI)

Microsoft BI (MSBI)

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.

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Recent Reviews

Casual User’s POC

8 out of 10
February 08, 2020
Incentivized
Microsoft BI is being used for report generation to monitor ongoing technology projects and business initiatives. We have two users who …
Continue reading
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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

View all 30 features
  • Report sharing and collaboration (49)
    8.9
    89%
  • Report Formatting Templates (47)
    8.9
    89%
  • Formatting capabilities (49)
    8.0
    80%
  • Customizable dashboards (49)
    8.0
    80%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Verified User
Administrator in Sales
Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employees
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Pricing

View all pricing

Power BI Pro

$9.99

Cloud
per user/per month

Power BI Premium

4,995

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://powerbi.microsoft.com/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Features

BI Standard Reporting

Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.

8.6
Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.

8.7
Avg 8.1

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

8.9
Avg 8.4

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.

9
Avg 8.1

Access Control and Security

Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.

9
Avg 8.6

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

8.5
Avg 8.0

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding

APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another

8.8
Avg 7.9
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Product Details

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.

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Competitors

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Oracle Analytics Server and Spoom are common alternatives for Microsoft BI (MSBI).

Reviewers rate Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile highest, with a score of 9.9.

The most common users of Microsoft BI (MSBI) are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(934)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-1 of 1)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
March 05, 2021

Powerful tool for data visualization

AS
Aniket Sawant
Product Manager
Massey Services Inc (Environmental Services, 1001-5000 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We are using Microsoft BI (MSBI) to visualize our data better and provide detailed insights on KPI. It also helps in building dashboards, which help key stakeholders analyze and make decisions on a regular basis. We have been able to use the tool as a starting step for our customers to provide them with useful insights and data. Data is the key thing that everyone wants. Some of our customers are even ready to pay more if we are able to provide them with detailed information.
Pros and Cons
  • Dashbaords
  • Data collaberation
  • Multiple connectors
  • GIS data
  • Easy formula writing
  • Needs to be easier to share and collaborate
Likelihood to Recommend
Most suited when you have multiple data sources that need to be collected to build one single landing dashboard and you want insights with graphs and visual representations. It's easy to manage and learn, and the transition from Excel is not too difficult.

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.
Microsoft BI (MSBI) Feature Ratings
BI Platform
N/A
N/A
Supported Data Sources
N/A
N/A
BI Standard Reporting (3)
86.66666666666666%
8.7
Pixel Perfect reports
90%
9.0
Customizable dashboards
100%
10.0
Report Formatting Templates
70%
7.0
Ad-hoc Reporting (4)
82.5%
8.3
Drill-down analysis
90%
9.0
Formatting capabilities
80%
8.0
Integration with R or other statistical packages
100%
10.0
Report sharing and collaboration
60%
6.0
Report Output and Scheduling (5)
82%
8.2
Publish to Web
80%
8.0
Publish to PDF
100%
10.0
Report Versioning
70%
7.0
Report Delivery Scheduling
70%
7.0
Delivery to Remote Servers
90%
9.0
Data Discovery and Visualization (3)
70%
7.0
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
80%
8.0
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
60%
6.0
Predictive Analytics
70%
7.0
Access Control and Security (4)
87.5%
8.8
Multi-User Support (named login)
70%
7.0
Role-Based Security Model
80%
8.0
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
100%
10.0
Single Sign-On (SSO)
100%
10.0
Mobile Capabilities (3)
93.33333333333334%
9.3
Responsive Design for Web Access
100%
10.0
Mobile Application
100%
10.0
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
80%
8.0
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding (6)
N/A
N/A
REST API
N/A
N/A
Javascript API
N/A
N/A
iFrames
N/A
N/A
Java API
N/A
N/A
Themeable User Interface (UI)
N/A
N/A
Customizable Platform (Open Source)
N/A
N/A
Return on Investment
  • Better presentation of data
  • Cool visualization
  • Easy to present data
Alternatives Considered
The biggest player against Microsoft BI (MSBI) was Tableau, which was acquired by Salesforce. Recently there have been other standalone software/applications that provide similar functionality to Microsoft BI (MSBI). Because my company is a Microsoft shop, we have not explored other options. But I believe you can easily find other solutions. Google also has its own stack of applications that provide similar features to Microsoft BI (MSBI). Although I think Microsoft BI (MSBI) might be more powerful and resourceful than its competitors.
Other Software Used
Usability
9
Love it! Microsoft BI (MSBI) is a great tool and Microsoft is constantly making updates to make it better every day. It's an easy tool to learn and there are tons of resources available on the web to help with any questions you may have. The training is helpful, detailed, and updated on a regular basis. If you think that there are some features or capabilities missing, you can reach out to the Microsoft BI (MSBI) team and they will definitely help you out.
Support Rating
9
They have amazing update information through videos and newsletters. You can find a lot of training on their platform, which is helpful as well. They have monthly updates and the team makes sure they update their documents regularly. It is easy to reach out to the Microsoft BI (MSBI) team for any help or suggestion that you may want through their forum or chat boards.
Users and Roles
20
The majority of people who use this are the in the analytics department or are database managers. The other part of the team members who use it are the stakeholders, who use these charts to analyze the data and make important decisions on a daily basis. This type of information helps drive the business better.
Support Headcount Required
We do not have any people that support Microsoft BI (MSBI). It is mainly done through online resources.
Future Planned Uses
  • Information sharing
  • Data visualization
  • Predictive analytics
Business Processes Supported
  • Data visualization
  • Ease of sharing data
  • Consistent reporting
Innovative Uses
  • Predictive analystics
  • GIS mapping
  • Central hub for reporting
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