Consultants - Sharing Reports and Dashboards with Multiple External Clients

[Anonymous]

This blog posts speaks directly to my business:

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/how-consultants-can-work-smarter-with-shared-dashboards/

So, thanks, @Jessica, for sharing that!

I'm looking for some more details about how this would work. Exactly what kind of account would the external users need to access content I share with them? Do my external users need Power BI Pro licenses if I'm using pro features, like 1-hour refreshing, on my end? Do they need to be O365 users?

I want the process of sharing and accessing reports and dashboards to be as low-friciton for clients as possible, that's the motivation behind all of these questions. I'd like to be able to create and manage accounts for them as much as I can.

We're using a less-than-ideal way to share reports with varied external clients right now. The potential demostrated in this blog post could be huge for us. I really look forward to learning more.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help pin down these details!

Cheers,

Casey

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous Others can chime in here, as I'm fairly certain of the following, but may be off in some parts.

From my understanding the "Pro" licensing features/use as you describe is required for the end user. You use Pro, the end user needs Pro.

There are several different ways end users can create Power BI accounts. But for implementing in a business it is likely that you would want to familiarize yourself with setting up a tenant for them to manage users/licenses. This can be a challenge depending on their requirements for syncing an existing on-premises AD. (I have a team that does this for me 🙂

Either way these two videos by Adam Saxton will most likely help you understand some of how things can be set up to determine the approach you want to take.

https://guyinacube.com/2016/07/power-bi-cost/

https://guyinacube.com/2016/06/power-bi-license-assignment/

I would say that it depends on how far the client wants to extend usage of Power BI. Is it only "Free" reports, do they need Pro, will they use it more outside just the dashboards you create? etc.

Hope some of that helps.

[v-qiuyu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

When we share the dashboard with users whether they are external users or not, if we create the dashboard with only free Power BI features, recipients just need a free Power BI license to view the content. If we use Power BI Pro features like groups or on-premises connectivity, recipients need a Power BI Pro license to view the content. So you need to know which content and feature external users want, whether the content is Pro user content. You can take a look at this article: Power BI Pro content - what is it?.

Also to share the dashboard with external users, there are some limitations for recipients. See: When you share with people outside your organization.

If you have any question, please feel free to ask.

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous Others can chime in here, as I'm fairly certain of the following, but may be off in some parts.

From my understanding the "Pro" licensing features/use as you describe is required for the end user. You use Pro, the end user needs Pro.

There are several different ways end users can create Power BI accounts. But for implementing in a business it is likely that you would want to familiarize yourself with setting up a tenant for them to manage users/licenses. This can be a challenge depending on their requirements for syncing an existing on-premises AD. (I have a team that does this for me 🙂

Either way these two videos by Adam Saxton will most likely help you understand some of how things can be set up to determine the approach you want to take.

https://guyinacube.com/2016/07/power-bi-cost/

https://guyinacube.com/2016/06/power-bi-license-assignment/

I would say that it depends on how far the client wants to extend usage of Power BI. Is it only "Free" reports, do they need Pro, will they use it more outside just the dashboards you create? etc.

Hope some of that helps.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your response and information, @Seth_C_Bauer.

Setting up an O365 tenant for a client is exactly what we are trying to avoid, though. That's such overkill on the hastle, cost, and every other front. Here's to hoping there are or will be some other ways to give secure access to third parties.