Microsoft BI Review - why 3.7 stars?

Microsoft BI Review
ITQlick Score: 88/100
ITQlick Rating:
Pricing: 5.2/10 - average cost
Category: Business Intelligence -> Microsoft BI review
Ranking:Ranked 23 out of 553 Business Intelligence systems
Company: Microsoft
Pricing: starts at $9.99 per user/month
Typical customers: Start up, Small business, Medium business, Large business
Platforms: Desktop, Cloud
Links: Microsoft BI pricing, Microsoft BI alternatives
Shlomi LaviShlomi Lavi / updated: May 22, 2022

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What is Microsoft BI?

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.

Who is it best for?

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.

Main features and functionalities

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.

What is the actual cost?

Microsoft BI offers three license pricing options; Power BI Pro, Power BI Premium Per user, and Power BI Premium Per capacity.
  • Power BI Pro starts at $13.70 per user per month.
  • Power BI Premium Per user starts at $27.50 per user per month.
  • Power BI Premium Per capacity starts at $6,858.10 per capacity per month.
Power BI Pro comes with features such as Mobile app access, sharing, and collaboration, connecting to more than 100 data sources, etc. Power BI Premium Per user comes with everything in Power BI Pro plus Paginated (RDL) reports, Advanced AI, XMLA endpoint read/write connectivity, etc. Power BI Premium Per capacity comes with everything in Power BI Premium Per User plus, Power BI Report Server, Multi-geo deployment management, Autoscale add-on availability, etc.

ITQlick pricing score is 5.2 out of 10 (10 is most expensive). Access ITQlick pricing guide for Microsoft BI. You can also find here pricing information from Microsoft BI's website.

Pros

  • Microsoft BI offers SSRS and SSAS modules to provide deep insights into analyzed data for users
  • Microsoft Power BI allows users to publish all the results after the data analysis and access them anywhere
  • Users can filter to the specific metric they are interested in
  • Its ability to import data from multiple sources
  • The business intelligence software supports visualizing data in Excel and sharing reports with SharePoint or SharePoint Online

Cons

  • Users complain that the program requires a huge learning curve
  • Microsoft BI’s report builder tool is not highly flexible comparing to other similar tools
  • The SQL Server Reporting Service feature of Microsoft BI can be sluggish sometimes
  • The business intelligence solution doesn’t offer cross-platform support which can be a problem for some users
  • The MDM solution of this business intelligence software needs improvement according to some users

How it stacks up?

Access a head to head analysis of Microsoft BI vs alternative software solutions.
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SuiteAna...
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Sisense
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Infor Bi...
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92/100
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43

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is it the best Business Intelligence system?

Microsoft BI is ranked 23 out of 553 software in their category (Business Intelligence systems).

How they are rated on ITQlick?

The rating of Microsoft BI is 3.7 stars out of 5 and the total score is 88 out of 100. The rating score is based on our unbiased data-based algo. Learn more - rating methodology page.

Is it an easy to use Software?

Yes, Microsoft BI makes it fairly easy to use. This product is user friendly and intuitive.

Is it cloud-based?

Yes, they offer cloud based hosting, which means IT resources are retrieved through web-based tools and applications and you don't need to buy servers and additional hardware equipment.

Can it be used on mobile?

No, currently Microsoft BI can't be accessed on mobile, you would need to access it from your computer.

What should we ask during a demo session?

Differences between Microsoft BI and alternatives?

The most popular alternatives to Microsoft BI in 2023: Qlik Sense, SuiteAnalytics, Sisense, Infor Birst, Balanced Scorecard. Access the complete competitors analysis here - Microsoft BI VS Business Intelligence Software alternatives.

Is Microsoft BI right for you or your business?

Microsoft Power BI is a good choice for business analysts looking for a set of analytics tools for analyzing corporate data and presenting findings through beautiful visuals. Veolia Environment S.A., BP, Vattenfall, University of Waterloo, Rockwell Automation, Grundfos, Cummins, Nestlé, Arla, and The Wonderful Company are among the customers.

List of categories

BI & Analytics
Data Warehousing
Document Management

List of features

Automatic Scheduled Reporting
Customizable Features
Dashboarding
Graphic Benchmark
OLAP
Custom User Interface

Auditor - Shlomi Lavi

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Shlomi Lavi is an entrepreneur and founder of ITQlick.com. He holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Information Systems Engineering from Ben Gurion University in Israel. Shlomi brings 17 years of global IT and IS management experience as a consultant and implementation expert for small, medium and large-sized (global) companies. Shlomi’s goal is to share the best knowledge and news about information systems so you can make smarter buying decisions for your business.