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Zepher
New Member

Collect Data From Multiple Users and Visualize in Power Bi

Hello guys!
Sorry for the banal question, but I'm not an expert of all Microsoft technology, I just use Power BI.
I need to configure a process where I collect multiple feedback from multiple users and visualize the result in Power BI (publish in web).
It's like a massive multiple survey.
Could you suggest me some flexible and cheap Microsoft tools to do this? At the moment I'm using a different Excel file for any users, but it isn't a smart solution! 😂

Thank you very much!

 

7 REPLIES 7
edhans
Super User
Super User

Excel is the worst data source for Power BI because users can delete columns, add columns, merge cells, etc. Horrible.

 

Assuming you have Office 365, you can use:

  • Microsoft Forms (it uses an Excel file as the backend but the user never touches it directly, and it is a nice Excel table)
  • SharePoint Lists - very structured and hard for users to mess up, especially if you put a Power Apps front end on it to lock down what they can enter. For example, you can have a column that is a percent, but SharePoint Lists will not easily let you limit it to a certian format. For example, what is 1.25? 1.25% or 125%? Power Apps can help you limit it.

There are other possibilities like Common Data Source, Azure SQL, etc, but now you are getting into "not cheap" data sources.



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Thank you very much for your suggestions!

 

I know Excel is terrible for this task, but i had to start the process. Executive Board decision!

 

Can i ask you if you have more informations about licenses?

For example if I understand well to deploy an app built in Power App each final user needs a specific license, correct?

Do Microsoft Forms need some specific license?

I understand about Excel. It always starts that way, then you find out how bad that decision becomes later down the road. 😁

 

As for Power Apps license, it depends on their Office 365 license, and as is typical of Microsoft, complex. You should be ok though if connecting to Excel or SharePoint Lists. It gets more expensive if SQL Server is your backend though.

 

Microsoft Forms comes with Office 365, but Forms Pro requires a site license ($100/mo for 2,000 responses) but it has more capabilities. You could probably get by with just Forms, but check out features of both.



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Thank you very much 😀

 

At the moment we just have Power BI Pro license for 100 users.

In the next moment my purpose will be try to convince my senior that with PowerApp e Power Automate we really can improve our business.

 

 

Yeah, without an Office 365 license (E3 or higher, or possibly Business Premium), you'd need separate Power Apps licenses, and if you don't have an Office 365 tenant, then there is no SharePoint lists to use, with or without Power Apps, and no Forms either.



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Today i've discovered that i have a Office 365 license E3 so i can use both PowerApp and Form 🤣

 

Regarding your first message:

 

1)Microsoft Forms (it uses an Excel file as the backend but the user never touches it directly, and it is a nice Excel table)

 

I created a Form, but i don't understand how to connect that in real time with Power BI.
Is there a direct connector or i have to use Power Automate?

 

2) SharePoint Lists - very structured and hard for users to mess up, especially if you put a Power Apps front end on it to lock down what they can enter. For example, you can have a column that is a percent, but SharePoint Lists will not easily let you limit it to a certian format. For example, what is 1.25? 1.25% or 125%? Power Apps can help you limit it.

 

I have some PowerApp skills, do you have any tutorial about this process? I don't know anything about sharing an app in SharePoint!

 

 

Again.. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

For Forms, you just connect to the Excel file. You can find the Excel file by going to your form you designed, select the "Responses" tab, then Open In Excel. It will be in SharePoint whereever you created it. But opening that Excel file on your desktop, then select File, Info, Open File Location will take you there. Standard Excel connection after that. 

 

Regarding PowerApps and SharePoint Lists, Shane Young has the best videos on this. Check them out on YouTube.



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