Power BI is a business intelligence solution developed by Microsoft. It includes a suite of tools that enable businesses to store data and transform it into actionable insights. The tool aims to be a real help for strategic decision-making thanks to its multi-source data analysis system. A real opportunity arises from this powerful software.

Open and simplified data integration

Microsoft's solution is first and foremost easy to deploy and integrate into teams. This rapid integration helps to limit costs and facilitate implementation. The Power BI Desktop tool allows analysts to combine data from many sources. For this, Power BI gives analysts the best ways to collect data from databases, files, web services, and other services such as Dynamics 365, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, salesforce.com, Excel, and Sharepoint. It is also possible to connect to SQL databases using the Gateways tool.

Customizable and dynamic visualizations

Once this data is collected, Power BI offers businesses the means to study it in depth. Features such as quick measures, grouping, forecasting, and clustering allow users to have complete and easy-to-use control over data exploitation. In addition, the solution creates visual representations such as interactive reports. Access to hundreds of data visuals is available. All of this allows for the design of open source Power BI custom reports that can be optimized for any type of display, such as mobile. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to use. Custom dashboards update in real-time and allow all users, even those without technical skills, to understand and exploit business data.

Microsoft guaranteed security

Power BI fully secures its solution and user access, which can be controlled from a central location. The user logs in smoothly with single sign-on (SSO) authentication, supporting data sources with Kerberos and SAML. Microsoft ensures full compliance with regulations such as data residency and access and control. The data is also protected in compliance with strict industry standards and certifications. In addition, Microsoft implements LDAP directory services for Windows operating systems via its Active Directory, providing centralized identification services to a network of computers using Windows.

In terms of pricing, the Power BI solution is offered for free for all SMEs and the tariff for large businesses is $10 (8.5 euros) per license/user. It exists in the form of an application to download on Windows 10 but is also available as a SaaS offering: Power BI Service. It is an offer that provides 99.9% uptime with rapid deployment in cloud or hybrid scenarios (cloud and on-premises environments). The entire solution is hosted by the provider Microsoft and made available directly on the internet.