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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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Learn from top reviewers

MSBI : a new boom in the digital world!

Rating: 9 out of 10
January 4, 2024
Vetted ReviewVerified User
I use MSBI specifically for data generation and data analytics. It has helped me to create a data way more simpler and easy to understand. It improved the frequent usage of da...
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Verified user
Administrator
Microsoft BI (MSBI)2 years of experience

Multiple tools in single package.

Rating: 8 out of 10
September 28, 2022
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
In my organization, we are using MSBI to create, maintain and deploy reposts. We use all three component of MSBI like SSIS, SSRS, SSAS. We use ETL packages to maintain Datawar...
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Lakhan Suri
Engineer - Information Technology
SQL AND BI Developer
Carmen Solutions
Microsoft BI (MSBI)4 years of experience

"Microsoft BI is a powerful analytic tool for large data sets."

Rating: 9 out of 10
December 6, 2021
Vetted ReviewVerified User
Microsoft Power BI is a beautiful and powerful data visualization tool that we use. It is a robust business analytics tool with excellent visualizations. Excel files, OneDrive...
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Al Mubassir Muin
Project Manager - Information Technology
Software Engineer
Prime Tech Solutions Ltd.
Microsoft BI (MSBI)2 years of experience

In the world of data visualization, this is one of the best virtualization tools

Rating: 9 out of 10
November 13, 2021
Vetted ReviewVerified User
With Microsoft BI (MSBI), we can create our own data sets, goals, and records with no difficulty. We have a wide range of options and features to choose from when it comes to ...
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Aononna Tazin
Consultant - Information Technology
Customer Relationship Management Specialist
Green Light Ltd
Microsoft BI (MSBI)1 year of experience

"Easy To Use BI Platform With Effective Reporting"

Rating: 9 out of 10
November 1, 2021
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
I can connect to Oracle, Snowflake, SQL Server, Excel, CSV, text files, and create custom visualizations with Microsoft Power BI Desktop. Our team can generate reports and ana...
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Nilufa Hossain
Team Lead - Research & Development
IT Specialist
Lamda I-TECH
Microsoft BI (MSBI)1 year of experience

Microsoft BI

Rating: 9 out of 10
June 3, 2021
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
Microsoft BI being used by Master Data Management team like Vendors data, Customers data, Sites data, Bank, Bank Accounts, Customer Mandates, Employees, and Products data with...
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Shyam Agrawal
Project Manager - Information Technology
Business Systems Analyst
NetApp
Microsoft BI (MSBI)3 years of experience

Microsoft BI: The only data analysis tool you will ever need

Rating: 8 out of 10
May 16, 2021
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We use Microsoft Power BI for the data management of our projects. Some of our projects include collecting data of users who signup for webinars and Power BI is then used to a...
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Verified user
Manager
Microsoft BI (MSBI)2 years of experience

MSBI - Bang for the Buck

Rating: 8 out of 10
April 26, 2021
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
The Microsoft BI stack is being used as the enterprise BI software by our organization. The full stack of BI tools (SSAS, SSRS, and SSIS) are being leveraged to provide report...
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Verified user
Employee
Microsoft BI (MSBI)15 years of experience

A smart tool for data analysts to generate awesome reports

Rating: 10 out of 10
April 24, 2021
Vetted ReviewVerified User
I dont use it right now but , I used it during my research assistantship to generate beautiful visualizations for big data. At the time I was researching about covid has impac...
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Verified user
Engineer
Microsoft BI (MSBI)1 year of experience

Excellent BI Stack for an all-in-one solution architecture, however may need specialized platforms for non-traditional datasets

Rating: 8 out of 10
April 22, 2021
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We implement Microsoft BI solutions to clients across North America. Clients are constantly coming to us having issues gathering their data from disparate sources in order to ...
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Verified user
Contributor
Microsoft BI (MSBI)5 years of experience

Powerful tool for data visualization

Rating: 9 out of 10
March 5, 2021
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
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 a...
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Aniket Sawant
Manager - Product Management
Product Manager
Massey Services Inc
Microsoft BI (MSBI)2 years of experience

Best when used by larger companies in a predominantly Microsoft environment

Rating: 8 out of 10
April 26, 2020
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We currently use Microsoft BI to power the dashboard and analytics behind our performance management platform. Previously, this was done manually by each division in their own...
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Verified user
Manager
Microsoft BI (MSBI)2 years of experience

Microsoft PowerBI unleashes the power of your data

Rating: 9 out of 10
April 22, 2020
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We use Microsoft PowerBI to analyze data from our CRM and invoicing system (Connectwise with a SQL backend). Connectwise has a large number of built-in reports and a custom re...
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Bradley Geppert
Director - Information Technology
Director of IT Services
CompuType IT Solutions
Microsoft BI (MSBI)1 year of experience

Microsoft BI the killer data analytics and visualization tool

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 14, 2020
Vetted ReviewVerified User
We have deployed the Microsoft BI tool company-wide now. It is very simple to use and better than other tools available. You can easily create and share dashboards. It helps a...
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Ashutosh Gaikwad
Manager - Information Technology
Revenue Assurance and Fraud Managment
Reliance INFOCOMM Limited
Microsoft BI (MSBI)3 years of experience

Casual User’s POC

Rating: 8 out of 10
February 8, 2020
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
Microsoft BI is being used for report generation to monitor ongoing technology projects and business initiatives. We have two users who generate reports but many consumers.
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Verified user
Project Manager
Microsoft BI (MSBI)1 year of experience
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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

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
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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.

8.7
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.

9
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
Avg 8.0

Access Control and Security

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

9
Avg 8.5

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 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 and Ratings

(932)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Real-time Analytics: Users have appreciated the real-time stream analytics feature for making prompt business decisions. This functionality has been instrumental in enhancing their decision-making processes and improving overall efficiency.

Customizable Workspaces: Customers have highlighted the ease of customization for different project groups through a dashboard and drag-and-drop interface. This flexibility allows teams to tailor their work environments to specific project requirements, promoting collaboration and productivity.

Comprehensive Environment: Reviewers liked that Visual Studio integrated various development aspects, providing a comprehensive environment for different tasks. By combining database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development within one platform, users can streamline their workflows and accomplish diverse tasks efficiently.

High Cost and Pricing: Some users have found the cost of MSBI to be high compared to competitors, wishing for better pricing options that would make it more cost-effective and user-friendly. They emphasize the need for mid-market tier pricing to improve affordability for SMBs.

Limited Customization Options: Users have expressed a desire for more opportunities to customize visualization effects in MSBI, highlighting the current limitations in customization features available. They specifically seek detailed map visuals, the ability to use Python or R scripts, and input data within the platform.

Steep Learning Curve: Reviewers have mentioned experiencing difficulties with the steep learning curve of MSBI, especially for individuals with varying backgrounds. They stress that proper training is essential and call for simplifying installation processes to aid users during implementation.

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)
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Best TCO of any comprehensive database and analytics platform

Rating: 10 out of 10
November 04, 2014
JS
Jacob Saunders
National Practice Director - Business Intelligence
Neudesic
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
14 years of experience
Pros and Cons
  • The Microsoft Business Intelligence stack has come a very long way since its inception. For value and TCO there's really no comparison. Where other vendors charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for database systems, ETL tools, MDM solutions, reporting portals, etc. Microsoft ties all this functionality and more together for the price of just one of those components. Developers that know the toolset well are readily available worldwide and at a lower cost than those with expertise in competing platforms. In partnership with both Dell and HP, Microsoft has recommended reference architectures running on commodity hardware to create highly performant, highly available warehousing and OLTP systems. The SharePoint layer adds a rich user interface and collaboration platform for analytics, data discovery, reporting (both ad-hoc and scheduled) and data driven subscriptions.
Likelihood to Recommend
Alternatives Considered
n.a.
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.
Business Processes Supported
  • Traditional "canned" reporting.
  • Online transaction processing systems.
  • Data warehousing.
  • High availability.
  • Self-service analytics.
  • Collaborative decision making.
Products Replaced
n.a.
Implementation Details / Implementation Partner
  • Implemented in-house
Implementation Rating
9
We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
Training Types Used
  • Online training
  • In-person training
  • Self-taught
In-Person Training
8
Online Training
8
Ease of Microsoft BI (MSBI) Training
I'm always an advocate of self-learning. Training is an opportunity to catch things you missed and get answers to questions that have arisen through your use, not a primary vehicle for mastering a tool.
Premium Support
No
Premium support is available to us at no cost.
Support Rating
7
While support from Microsoft isn't necessarily always best of breed, you're also not paying the price for premium support that you would on other platforms. The strength of the stack is in the ecosystem that surrounds it. In contrast to other products, there are hundreds, even thousands of bloggers that post daily as well as vibrant user communities that surround the tool. I've had much better luck finding help with SQL Server related issues than I have with any other product, but that help doesn't always come directly from Microsoft.

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

Rating: 10 out of 10
September 06, 2013
SB
Sean Brady
Business Intelligence Architect
BAASS Business Solutions (Transportation/Trucking/Railroad, 5001-10,000 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
12 years of experience
View profile
Pros and Cons
  • Analysis Services by far outperforms in-memory ROLAP type systems - this allows for very fast ad-hoc drill-down and discovery of huge data sets. Don't believe otherwise - I can assure you it is true. Of course, you have to know what you are doing on the data modeling side in order to get there.
  • Analysis Services's ability to integrate with Reporting Services and Microsoft Excel is extremely attractive to business users, especially analysts who are very familiar with the powerful analysis tools already in Excel. The performance of reports built on Analysis Services is really a stand-out feature as well.
  • Integration Services is hands-down the most flexible and powerful ETL tool you have ever used. Just try it - there is no one else even close. You will be able to pull data from anywhere, push data to anywhere, and build just about any workflow you can think of around those processes. It is also an all-around great automation tool for your BI environment.
  • Reporting Services has both a feature-rich developer-oriented authoring environment (Visual Studio / BI Development Studio) as well as a simplified end-user authoring tool (Report Builder). It has an enormous collection of visualization components built in, as well as an even bigger set of 3rd party controls to allow you to create just about any report you can imagine. The ability to extend Reporting Services with .Net code (if you have the developers) expands your options even further.
Return on Investment
  • Greatly reduced reporting project development time (and associated costs).
  • Significantly larger pool of experts to assist on large / ad-hoc projects.
  • Faster availability of critical business data to our users (due to decreased development time as well as performance of overall system - we are able to keep the data very fresh).
  • Significantly increased ETL / data integration capabilities means that more legacy and external system data is making it into the data warehouse.
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
Although it is technically a different product, you can build a really nice self-service intranet reporting solution by integrating Reporting Services into Microsoft SharePoint (Enterprise). I would highly recommend going in that direction if you are looking to deploy this stack.
Also, remember that Excel is your friend! No, it should never be used to store data, but it is an amazingly flexible and powerful analysis and reporting tool - especially when combined with Power Pivot and SharePoint.
Business Processes Supported
  • Forcasting
  • Asset Management
  • Pricing
  • Sales Reporting
  • Customer Satisfaction Reporting
  • Detailed Account-level Cost and Revenue Reporting
Products Replaced
We were using a custom, in-house developed (ASP.Net) portal and reporting system, with a little bit of Crystal Reports and Microstrategy in there.
Alternatives Considered
Microstrategy - I went with Microsoft BI because of features, usability, integration capabilities, performance, availability of talent, cost, and end-user (self-service) capabilities.
Implementation Details / Implementation Partner
  • Implemented in-house
N/A
Implementation Rating
10
You need to have (1) a very solid SQL Server DBA and (2) a Windows Server administrator with domain administrator rights to get the BI stack set up correctly. As most Windows systems people will tell you, a lot of good comes out of doing some security planning on the domain side (users, groups, roles, etc.) before you start the implementation. This is a big integrated system, and getting it set up right is half the battle.
On the development side, you will want to have a full time data architect making sure that the model you are developing holds together and supports the reporting requirements of the business. You will also want a technical lead who has rich experience with the stack - that person will be able to shepherd the rest of the development team and help them come up to speed with the tools.
Training Types Used
  • Online training
  • Self-taught
Online Training
9
I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
Ease of Microsoft BI (MSBI) Training
I have been working with this BI stack since before the 2000 version (even though it didn't really get pulled together until the 2000 version). Because of this, I have been steadily picking up more exposure to and experience with the parts of the stack as they were introduced and evolved; and, I was in a position to be able to build solutions with the stack all along the way. Since that may not be your background with this tool, I would highly recommend getting some training before diving into a big project built with Microsoft BI. You will want training in: (1) a data modeling methodology for multi-dimensional data (i.e. Kimball method) so you can use Analysis Services, (2) Analysis Services itself, and (3) Integration Services. SQL Server and Reporting Services are a little easier for the average developer to pick up (in my experience). But if you can, get the whole end-to-end integrated training from Pragmatic Works and you'll be building complete solutions much more quickly than you expected.
Premium Support
No
I have not needed to reach out to Microsoft for support on the BI stack; the community expertise is very deep and readily available.
Support Rating
10
I am basing this rating not on Microsoft's paid premium support, but rather on the resources available (both from Microsoft and 3rd parties) to BI consumers. There is such a huge community working with and building solutions with the Microsoft BI stack (SQL Server) that I have always been able to find a solution (or at least a workaround) to any problems that have come up.
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