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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft BI (MSBI)

    Score7.1 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.

    $14

    per month per user

    MS SharePoint / SQL

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AMS SharePoint / SQL refers to Microsoft Sharepoint, a web-based collaborative platform, being used in tandem with Microsoft SQL Server to provide business intelligence analytics and reporting. They can provide BI content such as data connections, reports, scorecards, dashboards, and more.N/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)MS SharePoint / SQL
    Editions & Modules
    Power BI Pro
    $14
    per month per user
    Power BI Premium
    $24
    per month per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)MS SharePoint / SQL
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)MS SharePoint / SQL
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    11 Answers
    81%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    87%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    11 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    14 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    92%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)MS SharePoint / SQL
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and MS SharePoint / SQL
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.7
    48 Ratings
    6% above category average
    MS SharePoint / SQL
    7.6
    58 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports9.041 Ratings8.639 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.048 Ratings7.055 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates9.046 Ratings7.348 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and MS SharePoint / SQL
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.8
    48 Ratings
    9% above category average
    MS SharePoint / SQL
    8.1
    53 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Drill-down analysis9.043 Ratings7.742 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.048 Ratings8.253 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages9.038 Ratings8.030 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration9.048 Ratings8.550 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and MS SharePoint / SQL
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.0
    47 Ratings
    8% above category average
    MS SharePoint / SQL
    8.9
    58 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Publish to Web9.043 Ratings8.852 Ratings
    Publish to PDF9.043 Ratings9.449 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.039 Ratings8.348 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling9.042 Ratings9.039 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.023 Ratings9.032 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and MS SharePoint / SQL
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.0
    47 Ratings
    12% above category average
    MS SharePoint / SQL
    8.6
    36 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.046 Ratings8.834 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.043 Ratings8.032 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics9.041 Ratings9.330 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining9.01 Ratings8.53 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and MS SharePoint / SQL
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.0
    48 Ratings
    6% above category average
    MS SharePoint / SQL
    8.1
    69 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.045 Ratings7.860 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.042 Ratings8.064 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.045 Ratings8.268 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control9.01 Ratings7.84 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)9.027 Ratings8.854 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and MS SharePoint / SQL
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.5
    38 Ratings
    8% above category average
    MS SharePoint / SQL
    9.4
    59 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access8.035 Ratings9.457 Ratings
    Mobile Application8.026 Ratings9.436 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile10.035 Ratings8.739 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and MS SharePoint / SQL
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.8
    20 Ratings
    12% above category average
    MS SharePoint / SQL
    8.8
    38 Ratings
    12% above category average
    REST API9.018 Ratings9.229 Ratings
    Javascript API9.018 Ratings9.228 Ratings
    iFrames9.017 Ratings9.027 Ratings
    Java API9.016 Ratings9.025 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)9.017 Ratings8.033 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.016 Ratings8.024 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)MS SharePoint / SQL
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score9.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)MS SharePoint / SQL
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (72 ratings)
    8.9
    (77 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (25 ratings)
    8.8
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    8.9
    (14 ratings)
    8.8
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (15 ratings)
    8.8
    (7 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.6
    (7 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.5
    (42 ratings)
    9.4
    (64 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.4
    (41 ratings)
    8.3
    (63 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)MS SharePoint / SQL
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Microsoft BI is well suited for Stream analytics, easy data integration, report creation and UI/UX designs (limited but what all available are great ones) Microsoft BI may be less appropriate for handling huge number of datasets and difficult queries. It may also be difficult for a company with heavy data.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    As I mentioned in my previous answers, MS SharePoint is very useful as a shared drive for the organization and is very easy to manage. It also helps us import data from SharePoint directly into PowerBI for creating reports. According to my understanding, only share link features should be improved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Comparatively easy to use compared to other data analytics solutions, collaborating with other colleagues on data work is simple.
    • Using Visual Studio for database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development save time and money.
    • Transfer of data from one application to another via Excel and comparison of data attributes between applications
    • Dashboard functionality, as well as Python support, are available, allowing you to add additional charts and graphs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Flexible - able to make any changes we would like vs traditional service desk system.
    • ROI - We were already using SharePoint for internal intranet, so we are simply getting more use out of licensing we had already committed to.
    • Easy to use for end users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • The race to perfect gathering of Non-Traditional datasets is on-going; with Microsoft arguably not the leader of the pack in this category.
    • Licensing options for PowerBI visualizations may be a factor. I.e. if you need to implement B2C PowerBI visualizations, the cost is considerably high especially for startups.
    • Some clients are still resistant putting their data on the cloud, which restricts lots of functionality to Power BI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • It is hard to setup and nightmare
    • It requires a of infrastructure, thus it could be costly because of requirement and licensing required for everything to run smoothly
    • If it is not setup and organized properly from the beginning it could be maintenance nightmare
    • It is hard to have "test" environment to do patches or similar
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    This was a long-term buy-in from a corporate perspective, to remain in the SharePoint space. Migration is certainly possible, which is good for planning and having options further out. At this point, the only planned migration is to eventually move the architecture up to SharePoint/SQL 2013. At that point, we will be able to leverage some greater efficiencies, some enhanced content design and management features, and some more current social features. It is well worth a full consideration in any shop looking at a new implementation of or migration to SharePoint (although you will probably be considering 2013 versions or beyond in those discussions), but the platform should be a strong competitor to any alternatives. Realizing the capability of a fully-branded and customized website was not part of the original choice for the architecture at Lincoln, but seeing it implemented and functioning now with this capacity far beyond original expectations has certainly cemented plans to continue using it.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    The Microsoft BI tools have great usability for both developers and end users alike. For developers familiar with Visual Studio, there is little learning curve. For those not, the single Visual Studio IDE means not having to learn separate tools for each component. For end-users, the web interface for SSRS is simple to navigate with intuitive controls. For ad-hoc analysis, Excel can connect directly to SSAS and provide a pivot table like experience which is familiar to many users. For database development, there is beginning to be some confusion, as there are now three tool choices (VS, SSMS, Azure Data Studio) for developers. I would like to see Azure Data Studio become the superset of SSMS and eventually supplant it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I gave this rating due to MS SharePoint being a big help with our userbase. We have a lot of users that are just old enough to not have much technical skills or they have been in this industry long enough to where they haven't really needed to utilize much technology. MS SharePoint helped us move beyond that barrier without too many bumps and bruises.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    The product has been reliable.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Microsoft
    SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) can drag at times. We created two report servers and placed them under an F5 load balancer. This configuration has worked well. We have seen sluggish performance at times due to the Windows Firewall.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    While support from Microsoft isn't necessarily always best of breed, you're also not paying the price for premium support that you would on other platforms. The strength of the stack is in the ecosystem that surrounds it. In contrast to other products, there are hundreds, even thousands of bloggers that post daily as well as vibrant user communities that surround the tool. I've had much better luck finding help with SQL Server related issues than I have with any other product, but that help doesn't always come directly from Microsoft.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I've only had to call in to support on one occasion but they were able to work though our issue and find a solution that did fully resolve the issue in a timely manner. I can't always say the same about support from other companies so it was a refreshing change to have support that did help.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Microsoft
    This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Microsoft
    I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Not implemented in best practice way, there are many customizations
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    We have used the built in ConnectWise Manager reports and custom reports. The reports provide static data. PowerBI shows us live data we can drill down into and easily adjust parameters. It's much more useful than a static PDF report.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    At the time of the two large projects, SharePoint was the enterprise solution so we were required to use that. We have since lobbied the enterprise teams to review and consider Atlassian Confluence and were successful. Confluence is cheaper than Sharepoint which is why we wanted to bring that in. The enterprise has now made Confluence an enterprise solution as an alternative to SharePoint. After using both I think SharePoint has many more add-ins than Confluence. It has much more customization ability than Confluence. SharePoint is not good for mobile readiness. Confluence is so there is a difference that might lead you to Confluence over SharePoint. I would also say that SharePoint is very document-centric and that Confluence has better KM than SharePoint does. even with the use of SQL Server. We were told that we could not use Google Drive even though it had features we liked.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • As a SaaS provider we see being able to provide self-service BI to our client users as a competitive advantage. In fact the MSSQL enabled BI is a contributing factor to many winning RFPs we have done for prospective client organisations.
    • However MSSQL BI requires extensive knowledge and skills to design and develop data warehouses & data models as a foundation to support business analysts and users to interrogate data effectively and efficiently. Often times we find having strong in-house MSSQL expertise is a bless.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • ROI for ms SharePoint/SQL considering that is the best database engine with excellent features that help you to have all information in your hand.
    • Something negative could be license format.
    • These are the best relational databases in the market with powerful features that complement your system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots