Why Power BI?
Power BI is a powerful visualisation tool created by Microsoft. It is the preferred tool used by many Business Intelligence teams throughout the world.
Power BI can be hosted on the Power BI Service or hosted on premise and linked to a multitude of data sources and applications. Data can be imported or have a direct connection and can be easily customised using DAX expressions.
This is our experience using the application:
Power BI pros:
- Quick development and deployment
- Interactive visuals that can be customised
- Can be connected to a large variety of data sources
- Data can be refreshed many times each day
- Can be hosted on premise or on the could
- Affordable plans with the free desktop version
- Regular updates
- Large network of developers and online forums
Power BI cons:
- Limited customising of values
- Power BI desktop still seems unstable at times
- Often have to do small workarounds due to limitations
- Row level security can be time consuming to set up and maintain
Summary
In short Power BI is our preferred visualisation tool. It has many customisable features and allows for quick development and deployment which helps keep customer costs down. Our customers have always complimented the look and feel of our Power BI reports which we are continuing to evolve over time.