Best when used by larger companies in a predominantly Microsoft environment
April 26, 2020

Best when used by larger companies in a predominantly Microsoft environment

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft BI

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 silo, making it difficult for upper management to translate disparate information from different sources into useful business decisions. With the help of Microsoft BI, we were able to warehouse data from a variety of sources across different business units into a centralized location and extract powerful reports and dashboards to assist with strategic decision making.

Pros

  • Powerful analytical and trending tools.
  • Compatibility with different data sources (including non-Microsoft).
  • Attractive dashboard visuals.
  • Seamless integration into a Microsoft ecosystem.

Cons

  • Pricing is not as competitive as alternatives.
  • Online / Cloud versions are lacking in features.
  • Desktop (free) version has limited features.
Tableau's feature set is comparable to Microsoft BI at a potentially lower cost, however, Microsoft provides better integration into a Microsoft Environment and more flexible deployment options. Microsoft also provides better enterprise support than Tableau (although this may be subjective). In the end, Microsoft BI was chosen to power our performance management platform thanks to its seamless integration into the backend (SharePoint).
Microsoft BI will fit seamlessly into Microsoft ecosystems, especially when used with SharePoint and SQL Server. Larger companies with big data sets will be able to justify the high cost of ownership. The platform works well when used to drive strategic decision making and can compensate for gaps in relevant data when used with the lists feature in SharePoint.

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Feature Ratings

BI Platform ()
Not Rated
Supported Data Sources ()
Not Rated
8.7
Pixel Perfect reports
8
Customizable dashboards
9
Report Formatting Templates
9
7.3
Drill-down analysis
8
Formatting capabilities
8
Integration with R or other statistical packages
6
Report sharing and collaboration
7
7.0
Publish to Web
7
Publish to PDF
7
Report Versioning
7
Report Delivery Scheduling
7
Delivery to Remote Servers
7
8.0
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
8
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
8
Predictive Analytics
8
9.0
Multi-User Support (named login)
9
Role-Based Security Model
9
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
9
Single Sign-On (SSO)
9
6.5
Responsive Design for Web Access
7
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
6
7.0
REST API
7
Javascript API
7
iFrames
7
Java API
7
Themeable User Interface (UI)
7

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