Microsoft BI Review

Shlomi Lavi / updated: Aug 11, 2020

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What is Microsoft BI Used For?

Microsoft BI is a business intelligence solution that can help users to analyze data in an efficient way. The software is based on SQL server platform and can provide relevant reports without requiring any expensive IT support. Users can get access to the necessary data at the right time and make informed decisions using this software.

Microsoft, the company behind this business intelligence solution, has been making difference in billions of lives by providing such products since 1975. They are headquartered in Redmond, Washington and most of their products integrate nicely with one another. Excel, SharePoint Server, Power BI for Office 365 are some related products from Microsoft.

Average Rating -

The rating of Microsoft BI is 3.7 stars out of 5. The rating is based on ITQlick expert review.

Typical Customers

Microsoft BI is perfect for midsize and large enterprises but can be used by small companies too. Data service firms, media agencies, trading companies, engineering firms and other similar industries can use this software. MediaCom and Edgenet are some of the clients of Microsoft BI.

Features

Microsoft BI comes with analysis, predictive analysis, self-service, reporting and dashboard features. Users can get new self-service capabilities using Excel and uncover hidden insights using visual exploration and data discovery features. The software supports access from almost any internet enabled device using mobile apps and HTML5. The reporting tool offers scalable operational reports with browser-based viewing and printing support, ad-hoc visualization and exploration features.

The analysis services can help users to build enterprise-scale, comprehensive analytic solutions. The self-service part offers modeling and analysis, data transformation and discovery, visualization, BI sites, share queries, natural language question and data catalog features. The analytics part offers real-time updates, in-memory analytics technology, multi-dimensional performance optimization and BI semantic model for users.

Microsoft BI 5 Pros

• Microsoft BI offers SSRS and SSAS modules to provide deep insights into analyzed data for users
• Microsoft BI is SQL Server database based and offers flexible environment for users
• The interactive scorecards and dashboards of Microsoft BI supports collecting data from multiple locations
• The business intelligence software is available in both cloud-based and on-premise deployment options
• The business intelligence software supports visualizing data in Excel and sharing reports with SharePoint or SharePoint Online

Microsoft BI 2 Cons

• Microsoft BI can be difficult to integrate for users as a single signon software
• Microsoft BI’s report builder tool is not highly flexible comparing to other similar tools

Competitors & Alternatives

BIME and Zoho Reports are the competitors of Microsoft BI. BIME comes with interactive data visualization, BIME calculation engine, Deep Dive, easy cloud caching and element comparing features. However, its mobile dedicated app is buggy according to some users

Zoho Reports is another popular BI solution with visual analysis, wide range of reporting, spreadsheet, built-in connectors and business dashboards features. However, the software doesn’t offer any mobile BI platform for users.

Microsoft BI Pricing Information

The cost of license starting from $20 per user/month. The experts at ITQlick has reviewed Microsoft BI pricing and gave the software a total cost of ownership (TCO) rating of 5.2 out of 10. Custom price cost for your business is available upon request.

Questions to ask the vendor during a demo

Schedule a demo and access 25 must ask questions for the vendor while watching Microsoft BI in action

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Microsoft BI Categories

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Specifications

Company:	Microsoft
Address:	Microsoft Corporation, 157th Avenue Northeast, Redmond, WA
Website:	https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/
Customers:	Start up, Small business, Medium business, Large business
Business Area:	Cross Business Areas
Platforms:	Desktop, Cloud
Operating Systems:	Mac OS, Windows, Linux

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Microsoft BI Features