Unique about Power BI

[chandramouli]

Hi All,

What is unique about Power BI when compared to the other visualization platforms?...

Thanks,

Arun

[Greg_Deckler]

First, I would say its level of integration with the Microsoft Data Platform. As a key piece of the Data Platform, Power BI is integrated into such things as the Azure Data Catalog, Azure Streaming Analytics, SQL Server Reporting Services 2016, etc. No other visualization platform that I know of has anywhere close to the level of integration with these products as Power BI. Power BI is part of a platform, everything else is pretty much just a stand-alone tool.

Second, I would say that the Power BI Service and its level of integration with Office 365 is unique as well within the broader spectrum of visualization tools. Yes, some other visualization tools have an online service to which you can publish, but it is isolated and silo'd from anything other than their own tool. Power BI Service is part of the broader spectrum of Office 365 as evidenced with its integration with Azure AD and Office 365 groups and also its integration with PowerShell and the Power BI API.

Within the Service, Q&A is a unique feature of Power BI, I am not aware of anything else that has that capability.

I believe that Power BI's licensing is a unique aspect as well. There is so much that you can do for free and the licensing is extremely low cost, price per user per month SaaS. No separate licensing for "developers" versus "users", etc.

I would also point to Power BI Embedded as something that is unique or fairly uncommon out there. 

I think that the Power BI Community is also relatively unique. No other BI tool/platform that I know of creates its development backlog from direct user feedback and community voting.

I am of the opinion that Power BI's Power Query ingest engine and UI really redefined ease of use and capabilities when it came to data ingest and mashup.

Power BI's custom visuals capabilities are pretty different and unique.

Power BI's R integration, if not unique, is the most comprehensive implementation out there.

I am sure that I am missing a ton of other things as well, but that's a decent enough start to get a conversation going.

[ashishrj · Accepted solution]

@chandramouli From my point of view it would be for the following reasons:

1. Self - Service BI tool meaning easy to start with for any novice user be it BA, PM or any Data Analyst

2. Support to wide range of connectors (50+) and visualisation (custom as well in build)

3. Power BI Q&A feature which is a uniuqe functionality

4. Groups & collaboration with O365, Content Packs, Gateways, RLS using Tabular/ MD models, etc.

Apart, its cheaper and development tool is free available for download as compared to few other tools in market.

Many of the points I must have missed, but these are few which I think makes Power BI really unique ! Hope this helps !

[chandramouli]

Hi Ashishrj,

Appreciate your detailed response!...I have a question for you ....

Suppose I use a power BI free version and create a report/dashboard ....I cannot share it with the executives as the file will have the visualization filters and fields along with it in the file.....(meaning it would be a develo[er version)

Unlike a Tableau where I can share the dashboard to executives using Tableau reader... Does power BI pro have any features that helps achieve the same...   Asish i would love to hear your thoughts on this....

[Greg_Deckler]

You can publish it to Power BI Service and use Publish to Web.

[chandramouli]

Hello Smoupre,

Appreciate your response!...Can you please expand on your statement ..like how its done --"You can publish it to Power BI Service and use Publish to Web" 

Thanks,

Arun

[ashishrj]

@chandramouli You can read more about our blog publish to web with demo here ! Hoe this will help

[Greg_Deckler]

In Desktop, choose File | Publish. This will publish your report to the Service. Go into the Service and open the report in the Reports section. Choose File | Publish to Web. Send your exec's the link to the report.