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Microsoft BI (MSBI) Reviews

837 Ratings
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Score 8.2 out of 100

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Reviews (1-25 of 25)

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March 21, 2015

Microsoft BI provides the best bang for your buck, now and into the future.

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

Likelihood to Renew

10
The primary reason I give this a 10 is because of my previous experience with Microsoft. While I can be effective with other tools and solutions, my experience is primarily focused on the Microsoft solution stack and surrounding tools. Some people are Java-centric, some are C#-centric; I am Microsoft SQL Server-centric. Even with the explosion of "big data" tools, I always seem to gravitate toward the Microsoft solution because I know and understand it better than any other solutions.
Read Chris Utter's full review
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

Likelihood to Renew

10
Flexibility and ease of use! I have not found something that I can't do with the Microsoft BI tools. Some things may be a struggle, but that comes with any tool. The online community support for developers and users of Microsoft is tops as well. If you have a problem you can post in the forums provided by Microsoft or just post on Twitter and you will get an answer from the experts in the field in no time. There is no better community out there for technology that is very supportive and will not bash you even for asking the most basic question. There are plenty of options for support that don't require you to contact Microsoft and that helps save a lot of dollars and time. The tools are keep up-to-date and are constantly evolving.
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

Likelihood to Renew

10
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.
Read Lee Cullom's full review
November 13, 2014

Thoughts on MS BI

Stephanie Grice | TrustRadius Reviewer
Stephanie Grice
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Likelihood to Renew

10
As Microsoft Gold partners, we had access to the software already and have enjoyed success with a very small implementation. As this grows we may look toward additional delivery options but not the base data warehouse system.
Read Stephanie Grice's full review
November 04, 2014

Microsoft Power BI - Excel Lovers Dream

Sean Warren | TrustRadius Reviewer
Sean Warren
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Likelihood to Renew

8
I will renew because the pain to change, rip out and buy new is simply too much to live through. I am under the assumption that this is still 1.0. Microsoft will better my concerns and I still see them adding features from time to time. They have released new versions of the Power Query, and the Gateway over the past couple of months. They have single evenhandedly turned Excel from the preferred tool of presentation to making Excel Middle ware. Middle Ware? Don't hang up and close the browser yet. Yup, its middle ware. Excel connects to the data, SQL database or the data model, Excel is the tool that passes the information to the real presentation layer. Excel is just a middleware tool that has become more powerful than ever and the platform that Microsoft BI resides upon.

While my review may seem at times critical its the familiarity of the tools (Excel), ease of use, and price that make Microsoft BI the recommended tool for the small to medium size company looking for BI.
Read Sean Warren's full review
November 04, 2014

Best TCO of any comprehensive database and analytics platform

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

Likelihood to Renew

10
I've been implementing Microsoft, and other, BI tools for many years and will continue to drive adoption of this platform in my client base as it matures. My firm also uses the platform internally for all our operational and analytical systems.
Read Jacob Saunders'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

Likelihood to Renew

5
Microsoft is widely adopted and it does get the job done. For legal reasons, support perspective and resourcing it is often the tool of choice and, of course, the technology is there to support the day-to-day business.
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

Likelihood to Renew

8
Assuming that I will continue to have a need to monitor and report on the operational aspects of the organization using transactional data, Microsoft BI is a solid choice. Its kind of like how you still have legacy applications that serve a strong need that is critical to the day to day operations. The fact that the tools are similar to stuff the users have already been using makes the adoption and buy in that much easier.
Read Mashhood Syed's full review
November 04, 2014

Tools and Integration

Shawn Lee | TrustRadius Reviewer
Shawn Lee
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Likelihood to Renew

9
Overall the software meets our needs very well. Because we aren't Sharepoint users, we will be using another product called WebFOCUS to add additional web reporting.
Read Shawn Lee'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

Likelihood to Renew

3
There are many other tools out there which are easier to use and provide better visualization side.
Read Michał Becker's full review
September 12, 2014

Useful but reporting could be more sexy...

Frederic Freyermuth ☁ | TrustRadius Reviewer
Frederic Freyermuth ☁
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Likelihood to Renew

6
Microsoft BI's technical integration is ok and an upcoming evolution could be done on this basis. The reporting tools are too Excel oriented. Doesn't give ability for multi-criteria analysis and dynamic dashboards. Report scheduling also seems difficult to put in action.
Read Frederic Freyermuth ☁'s full review
April 05, 2014

Microsoft BI and Parallel Data Warehouse in Ambulatory Healthcare

Nathan Patrick Taylor | TrustRadius Reviewer
Nathan Patrick Taylor
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Likelihood to Renew

9
The product has functioned as promised and the level of support has been excellent. We get a sense the Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into help us succeed with their products. Even though Power View and Report Builder are lacking in some functionality, I have already seen improvements in the tools and I know enhancements are forthcoming.
Read Nathan Patrick Taylor's full review
October 20, 2013

Microsoft BI

Bryan Simmons | TrustRadius Reviewer
Bryan Simmons
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Likelihood to Renew

7
Microsoft BI is a great tool but may require additional, expensive staff to maintain the software and keep it running on a day to day basis from an operational perspective. Other BI products are making the jump to "Self Service" Business Intelligence, empowering the end user to create and modify their data needs. However, if a company resides on a MS SQL server structure, Microsoft's BI tool is easy to integrate and can deploy an enterprise BI solution in a relative short time. Considering the initial software costs, you get a lot for your money.
Read Bryan Simmons's full review
September 06, 2013

Build a highly automated and flexible BI solution for your organization!

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

Likelihood to Renew

10
It is the best fit BI solution for a Microsoft shop - nobody else is even close on integration capabilities, feature set, and price at this point.
Read Sean Brady'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

Likelihood to Renew

9

These are low risk and very proven traditional BI tools. However, while they are a very good fit for a wide variety of scenarios, other vendors are now offering features and approaches that are worth considering. If an organization does not already use some other Microsoft products like SQL Server, Office, and SharePoint then they might want to consider some of the other competing products. Simply put, if you are already using SQL Server and/or Microsoft Office and/or SharePoint then Microsoft BI makes a lot of sense

.

Read this authenticated review
October 24, 2013

MS BI Suite Review

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

Likelihood to Renew

9
It's very intuitive to use. SQL Server Reporting Services is very easy to learn even If you have never developed reports before. In my opinion it’s much simpler to use than, for example, Business Objects.
Read this authenticated review

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (837)
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)
8.0
Data Sources (47)
8.3

Feature Scorecard Summary

BI Standard Reporting
8.3
Pixel Perfect reports (41)
7.9
Customizable dashboards (48)
8.7
Report Formatting Templates (46)
8.2
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
7.4
Publish to Web (43)
7.0
Publish to PDF (43)
8.1
Report Versioning (39)
7.4
Report Delivery Scheduling (43)
7.5
Delivery to Remote Servers (23)
7.2
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
8.3
Multi-User Support (named login) (45)
8.3
Role-Based Security Model (42)
7.9
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete) (46)
8.7
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