Thoughts and recommendations for Microsoft Power BI usage
Updated March 04, 2025

Thoughts and recommendations for Microsoft Power BI usage

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

Software Version

Power BI Desktop

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Power BI

We have used Microsoft Power BI to create basic custom programs that can pull data from one or more locations, as well as sync updates back. We created a job tracker to log time spent within individual departments on particular jobs. Prior to using Microsoft Power BI, we were not logging this information, and we had no clear estimate of the amount of time spent. Now we have better insight into our overhead labor costs and can create better time schedules.

Pros

  • Integration with other Microsoft products
  • Customization
  • 3rd party support for popular applications

Cons

  • Without a tech background, Microsoft Power BI can be difficult to learn
  • Even with a tech background, Microsoft Power BI can be tricky to implement
  • Microsoft's pricing schedule and licensing is not overtly clear
  • Better insight into collected data
  • Convenient way to collect data
  • Customizable interface and reports
Microsoft Power BI has a significant learning curve. For some people that can leverage 3rd party plugins and prebuilt reports, it is fairly straight forward. For others, however, Microsoft Power BI can require more hands on development to get it to do what you want to do. I would recommend the product anyone if the prebuilt tools and integrations will fit your needs, but I would only recommend Microsoft Power BI to someone who is tech savvy if they plan on heavily customizing or building their own integrations.

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?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft Power BI go as expected?

No

Would you buy Microsoft Power BI again?

Yes

My recommendation would depend on my colleague's proficiency with technology and basic programming skills. Although Microsoft Power BI has low-code, no-code solutions, it can still be tricky and frustrating to understand without a good tech background. It would also depend on their specific goals for Microsoft Power BI since there may be better, more user friendly, and more "out of the box" solutions.

Microsoft Power BI Feature Ratings

BI Platform ()
Not Rated
Supported Data Sources ()
Not Rated
8.7
Pixel Perfect reports
8
Customizable dashboards
10
Report Formatting Templates
8
8.3
Drill-down analysis
8
Formatting capabilities
8
Integration with R or other statistical packages
7
Report sharing and collaboration
10
9.4
Publish to Web
10
Publish to PDF
10
Report Versioning
10
Report Delivery Scheduling
9
Delivery to Remote Servers
8
8.3
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
8
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
8
Predictive Analytics
9
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
8
10.0
Multi-User Support (named login)
10
Role-Based Security Model
10
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
10
Report-Level Access Control
10
Single Sign-On (SSO)
10
10.0
Responsive Design for Web Access
10
Mobile Application
10
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
10
10.0
REST API
10
Javascript API
10
Java API
10
Themeable User Interface (UI)
10

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