Power BI dashboard for ERP client

[DeepikaSaxena]

My client has an on premise ERP (Real estate domain) and data scattered in many xls files. We are proposing to build dashboards using Power BI. I have gone through Power BI samples and a series of articles. There is a lot to read which I am still continuing but thought it may be faster to get answers to my questions with this forum from the experts using Power BI for a while.

- How to go about advising what extra infrastructure/ product licenses are needed

     - do we need Azure ? There are so many plans - not sure what we need and how to do cost estimation.

     - do we need Office 365 ?

     - do we need Power BI /  pro / premium ? Desktop ?

     - what else do we need so that we have no suprises in costs later

- Can we just buy and download all software we need and do everything on local server ? Is there still some recurring cost ?

I will really appreciate answers and also  if I can be guided to some helpful links as I am lost not sure where to start,. I do realise my question may not be too relevant for this forum.

Thanks in anticipation.

[Greg_Deckler]

This is really going to depend upon your requirements and how you want to share out information. See this article:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-bi-licensing-pictures-greg-deckler-microsoft-mvp-

You could potentially use SQL Server Enterprise with SA which which would give you the ability to keep everything on premises with only SA as your reoccurring cost. This gives you rights to Power BI Report Server, which the August release includes support for import mode for publishing reports. You could also use Power BI Premium to give you Power BI Report Server.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-report-server-august-2017-preview-now-available/

You should not need Azure in any scenario unless you want to store your data in something like Azure SQL Server. 

You *should* not need to use Office 365 for things like Exchange, SharePoint, etc. but I would recommend that you sync your users up to Azure AD and license them that way for Power BI.

How many users? How many report authors? How many report readers? What is the ERP system? What are your plans for all of the Excel files?

[DeepikaSaxena]

Thank you for your prompt response and the links that give useful information.

What is the recurring cost for Sql server enterprise with SA (SA means software assurance ?)

For syncing users with Azure AD, does each client user need to hava an account on Azure - and pay for some annual fees ?

To start with around 50 users - that may grow depending on success of our solution. It is an inventory, sales and accounting system in Real estate domain where client has accumulated a lot of data in Excel files as well that need to be linked in reports. Report authors will not be many.

If client wanted data to be hosted, can we host just the dashboards on Azure that pull the data from the on premise sql server or do we need to import all data on Azure as well ?

Thanks once again.