Item: Microsoft Power BI
Rating: 9
Author: Colin Sebastian

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Microsoft Power BI for any number of tasks, mainly synthesizing data down and making easily to read and use charts. It's also used to view lots of data in a reasonable manner and view changes quickly. Additionally, we use it for management presentations to executives for business status updates.

Pros and Cons

Manage data
Import data
Publish to Teams
Aggregate information from many sources

The load time could be shorter
Better connections to non Microsoft sources of data
Easier to use and manipulate data already in BI

Return on Investment

Drastic reduction in time for updating manage reports
Reduction in time spent inputting data
Increased ease of sharing reports to multiple users

Alternatives Considered

Tableau Desktop

Tableau's end product was visually more pleasing, but the ease of inputting data and manipulating it with Power BI makes Power BI the choice for our group. Tableau's input function was often clunky and more time consuming than the import feature in Power BI. Also Power BI interface with other Microsoft tools was a big plus.

Key Insights

Do you think Microsoft Power BI delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Power BI's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Power BI live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Power BI go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Microsoft Power BI again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Tableau Desktop, HighBond by Galvanize, Oracle Analytics Cloud

Usability

Microsoft Power BI is very easy to use start to finish in the lifecycle of data management is very straight forward. The main benefit is that during the input the data can be manipulated to then input into Power BI. Once this connection is set up it is very easy to continually update and produce data is a very simple easily way.

Support Rating

We have had no issues with the support from Microsoft.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is best suited for taking lots of data (spreadsheets or other) and producing visually appealing content. It is also helpful for coming up with visualizations that can be regularly updated and used for executive status presentations and other management reports. Finally, it is good for functions where excel can not keep up such as intricate drop down, selections menus, sliders, etc.

Power BI: A great tool for beginner to mid-level data manipulation.

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Power BI