PowerBI Service registration for individual non Azure AD user

[shaunwilks]

I am not sure this is the correct group but here it goes.  I have a client - lets call him Joe - who is an electrician.

He wants to use PowerBi.  I advise him to go and register for an account.

He comes back saying he is not allowed to.

Joe uses a gmail account for his business. joeselectrical@gmail.com.

When he registers for a PowerBi account he gets

"That looks like a personal email address. Enter your work address so we can connect you with others in your company. And don’t worry. We won’t share your address with anyone."

Now Joe wishes to retain his gmail account for his business. 

What must Joe do - from start to finish to get himself a PowerBI Pro account - so he can use an application in which we have embded PowerBi service content.

I am yet to find a page that steps a non azure non office 365 user through this process.

Or does he have to sign up to and pay for office 365 even though he will not use it ?

[GilbertQ · Accepted solution]

Hi there

I was giving you an overview of what happens behind the scenes.

What happens is as long as you have a business email that you can access, you simply sign up for Power BI.

Once it is ready you will get an email that is ready, you will create a password and log in.

Everything else is done behind the scenes.

[shaunwilks · Accepted solution]

I have come across some great sites for this process now.

This is probably the best https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-self-service-signup-for-power-bi

The troubleshooting at the end of the article lead me towards this..

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-admin-signing-up-for-power-bi-with-a-new-office-36...

This article has a Sign up for Power BI using this link option but the link fails.  Instead I went here

Pretty much had the situation I described for Joe sorted after completing these steps.

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

In order to sign up for Power BI Joe will need to have his own domain. As far as I know this is a requirement for Azure Active Directory.

Joe will not be required to purchase any Office 365 Products, and as long as Joe uses Power BI for his personal use there will be no other costs.

All that Joe will have to pay for is the registration of the domain. And then an email hosting provider to send and receive emails. This could possibly be done for free using Zoho.

[shaunwilks]

Thanks for the response

If you have a paid subscription to Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Enterprise Mobility Suite, or other Microsoft services, you have a free subscription to Microsoft Azure Active Directory. You can use Azure AD to create and manage user and group accounts.

Seems like an incredible amount of work involved for someone just wanting to use a great BI solution. I would have thought there would be a page instructing and directing people in this scenario making it easy to buy a MS product rather than harder.

So they must

1) Create a microsoft account

2) Create a azure account

3) Create an AD account

4) Sign up to PowerBI Pro

5) Manage new mail services

There has to be a simpler way doesnt there ?

I would have thought youy could sign up to MS PowerBI pro with any email address and that generates and creates an Azure Ad for you.

[GilbertQ · Accepted solution]

Hi there

I was giving you an overview of what happens behind the scenes.

What happens is as long as you have a business email that you can access, you simply sign up for Power BI.

Once it is ready you will get an email that is ready, you will create a password and log in.

Everything else is done behind the scenes.

[Leesha_Bell]

Good afternoon, Gilbert.

I, too, wish to be a PowerBI individual user; however, the account is not for a business and therefore no domain.  I do have an Office 365 subscription (again individual).

I created an account on EdX and registered for the course. I've run into the same problem as "Joe".

Ten or more years ago, I registered a business email address -- Leesha.Heard@KLCEnterprises.onmicrosoft.com.  The business is no more.  Is it ethical (I don't get that ethical feeling when I think about it) to use the business email address?

Is there a way around it? Or should I request a refund?

Thank you,

Leesha

[GilbertQ]

Hi there,

As far as I understand that should work fine