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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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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

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Pricing

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Power BI Pro

$14

Cloud
per month per user

Power BI Premium

$24

Cloud
per month per user

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power…

Offerings

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

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $14 per month per user
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Features

BI Standard Reporting

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

9.5
Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

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

9.6
Avg 8.0

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

9.6
Avg 8.3

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.

9.6
Avg 7.9

Access Control and Security

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

9.6
Avg 8.6

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

8.7
Avg 7.8

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding

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

9.6
Avg 7.7
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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.

Microsoft BI (MSBI) starts at $14.

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 10.

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

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Reviews From Top Reviewers

(1-5 of 25)

Great value for money with Microsoft's BI

Rating: 9 out of 10
January 15, 2016
RG
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
11 years of experience
We are pleased with the Microsoft BI solution, its cost, benefit, and our ability to easily find resources to support this technology stack.

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

Rating: 10 out of 10
March 21, 2015
CU
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
10 years of experience
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.

Why is Microsoft BI Right for Me?

Rating: 10 out of 10
February 04, 2015
SW
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
12 years of experience
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.

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

Rating: 9 out of 10
February 03, 2015
LC
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
6 years of experience
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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