Print / Export Power BI reports to PDF or PowerPoint from on-premise Report Server

[mjbernier]

The Power BI cloud service has had the ability to export an entire report (all tabs) to either a PDF or PowerPoint file for quite some time. Yet, this capability does not exist on the Power BI Report Server (although it can print paginated reports just fine). Why hasn't anyone considered adding this capability to the report server? Yes, I understand the logic behind visuals being "fluid" and the need to print them *should* be minimal, but the reality here in the business world is executives like to have hard copies of reports, whether they are physically printed on paper or embedded as images in an e-mail or PowerPoint slide.

My organization (a Native American tribe) cannot use the Power BI cloud service for mainstream reporting due to costs of licensing, data security restrictions, and soverignty requirements. Therefore, in-house report servers are a must for distributing our analytics efficiently. We have a heavy investment in SQL Server and SSRS, and want to leverage Power BI in the same way.

Yes, there's at least one idea for this posted on the Ideas forum (which I have voted for), but I can't tell from the statuses or other messages over there whether anyone at Microsoft is even looking at them (i.e. some ideas there listed as "under review" were implemented into production months ago, and other ideas with thousands of votes dating back four years are still waiting), so I decided to ask here instead.

[KBO]

Hi @mjbernier ,

I had the same thoughts it is sometimes really frustrating to see what the cloud version of Power BI can do instead of the on premises version. Sometimes I think that Power BI Report Server is treated like the ugly little stepsister. Gladfully a month ago Microsoft give us a little bit of hope with this blog post: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/licensing-and-roadmap-update-for-power-bi-report-server/

But we will see what se future will bring us or which features the future will bring to the Power BI Report Server :).

Best,

Kathrin

[mjbernier]

True @KBO it does give some hope there will be further substantial development for the Power BI Report Server, but Microsoft seems to be missing one key point: not all of their customers are able to migrate their work to the cloud. As I mentioned, we have security and soverignty restrictions that limit what types of information we may allow outside our premises; for us, in-house reporting on SSRS and PBIRS is a key component of our BI strategy.

Plus, how can they say they're offering a true migration path if the in-house servers don't have the same capabilities as the cloud? The line in that announcement about how development of new data source connectors will be focused on the cloud is a prime example - how can you develop and operate in-house when the data source you want to use is supported only on the cloud service? It seems very short-sighted and out of touch with the real users of this product.

[KBO]

Hi @mjbernier ,

true statement! We can only hope that they will see that not every company has the possibility to go into the cloud.

Best,

Kathrin