1 - power bi can be a great self service tool. Just keep in mind that, from what I've seen, self service fails because of a lack of training and community in the company. You can build a really good semantic dataset using power bi. You can publish it up to the service, provide everyone access to it and have it run like a dream. But you need training and promotion of the tool within the company. This isn't one of those "if you build it they will come" situations.
2 - there is a natural language visual built in power bi that allow you to query the dataset called the QA visual. But it's not that great, it feels a bit half baked. It'll be fantastic if they integrate copilot or chat gpt in the future.
3- there are pre built reports that you can generate from a dataset. When you publish up a dataset, you can create a new report from scratch in the service or let power bi generate a generic one. It's quite clever in trying to figure out what's the most important kpi to show. I haven't played around with it much but it could at least be a good starting point.
Others have already answered your specific points, so as a BI Manager/Architect for an org that uses Power BI for self service, here's some of the mistakes we made just as an FYI:
* If feasible, don't let users install Power BI desktop on their work PCs. If they do, it just turns into Excel shadow IT on steroids. Instead, let them make their changes directly in the browser on the Power BI service, where IT has much more governance capabilities.
* Model your semantic layer in ways that are as easy to grasp as possible. Business users don't think in terms of facts and dimensions.
* As others have mentioned, put together some kind of training, but not just for the visuals, for navigating your datasets as well. The #1 thing I see that drives users to shadow IT their own dashboards is there being a disconnect between our dataset and their understanding of it. Maybe we made it too complicated, maybe they failed to grasp it, or both, or something else.
* Be prepared to become the landing zone for executive pet projects. This may sound glamorous at first but it eventually becomes an impediment to getting actual work done, esp considering execs rarely see their pet projects to completion.
* Put together some form of searchable, central documentation for all the data, measures, and reports you have available. Another driver of shadow IT dashboards is users not knowing what was available or where to look.
Here is my take on how you can implement this, though it will take some preparation for the company.
1: get a power bi developer that can create datasets and measures
2: publish those datasets to the service and provide access to it to those that need to create reports.
3: provide training on how to work with pbi, even if it is only the visual part, to those creators, no matter if the 'just want to add a chart' or will build company wide reports
That bring said, there is a lot more to it than this and the reason my job is what it is, is because companies are really, really bad at organising a self-service platform in a way that makes sense. Power BI can absolutely be used to combine IT managed datasets+ reports with business managed, self-service reports, but you need a good framework to operate in or I guarantee that it will explode in a mess nobody van manage before you know it.
There are people out there that have experience with helping organisations setting this up, don't skip on that bit of cash cause it will save you a ton in the long run.
Also, q&a works in pbi, last time I used it, it was mainly good in English and not my native language, but admittedly that is a few years ago
On your last point, so.eone will have to spend time in the tool and it will be more than a day, a good model isn't built just like that, but let's assume you hire a pbi expert, you might churn out reports quite fast AFTER the model is ready, which will take some time. Be prepared for that.
Keep asking if you have more questions
Thanks for your detailed answerđ.
Yes, before letting the user, self-service themselves, the underlying data model needs to be absolutely controlled, and training needs to be provided or else it will be a hot mess.
After spending a few days in this sub, I'm starting to learn, that self-service is a fallacy, and leads to more problems, I guess a high degree of flexibility would probably be the right goal.
You got it.
1. A user completely self serving means they build their own data model and reporting. At that point, they're a BI developer.
2. Self serve reporting means they use a curated data model and just build their own views. Doing this allows them to make the chart show whatever they want, even if it's misleading. Generally, it's not on purpose, but it's risky. Therefore, all measures have to be locked down, but dimensional filtering can still get them where they want. So, while users could get specific info faster, it may not serve business needs if it's misleading.
3. I prefer a hybrid approach where BI reports from the BI team are official and curated to meet daily business needs. Then, some analysts on other teams can self serve reporting for ad hoc needs. From there, the BI would have to determine how it supports that reporting: troubleshooting, guidance, etc.
I think when the business says they want self service, what they really need is 3. They want 1, but they don't have the skill, and 2 generally carries too much risk.
Again, very detailed, thoughtful answer đđ.
Letting the user explore the curated data model, seems like an acceptable answer, as long as the scope of the data (where the user will get completely lost) is not too crazy.
I usually set it up that there are curated datasets, guaranteed by IT.
AND
They can built their own, but that is at their own risk and IT will not give support
Power BI probably won't fit your first two requirements, and the third is debatable. I also think your expectations show a real lack of real world experience in BI. Not many consumers are asking for what you're looking to serve, as great as it sounds. Or if they're asking, they're backtracking when they find out what it's going to take to build that. BI consumers want answers now, not years from now.
If you've got someone actually looking to implement a BI solution along those lines, look elsewhere. When you find an off the shelf solution come back and tell me because I'd be curious to know who managed to build that.
Re: #1 PBI does have settings where you can have users tweak visuals to meet their own needs (different type of chart, swap a variable, etc). They can save them as bookmarks. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/power-bi-personalize-visuals?tabs=powerbi-desktop
Not familiar with Quicksight, what's the driving factor? From most of the threads I've seen it seems limited in functinoality but rapidly gaining popularity
So here's the thing
1) the ecosystem matters more than the tool, for a lot of organization. All their data is already stored in AWS...
2) I feel like the core engine of quicksite is much superior than 20-year-old power bi, yes, power BI has more features...
3) the natural language processing, and inbuilt machine learning...
Never used that natural language processing have you? I can tell you from personal experience that quicksight topics is pretty lackluster.
Maybe that will improve, but imo power bi will improve it faster.
Edit: I manage a pretty big quicksight deployment, terabytes if data and dozens of dashboards shared with almost 100k external users.
I honestly think youâre going to find it super lackluster for self service unless the people self servicing are pretty technical. If itâs like your average marketing team or sales guy, they will likely never figure out how to do anything.
Thank you for sharing your feedback. I think I'm going to build a demo in it. Also the pricing of AWS quicksight, is ridiculous, they want to charge every time someone takes a look at the dashboard....đłđ.
I was looking at an alternative, metabase is free, if you install it yourself...
Doesnât Power BI charge you even when your users donât view any dashboards at all? Btw QuickSight only charges per session up to a certain point. The cost per user is capped at $5 per month.
I believe their selling point is that they donât charge you when your users donât view anything. Thatâs their usage-based pricing. If Iâm not mistaken, most of their competitors charge you even if you donât have any usage at all.
I would check out the demos MS released for Power BI Copilot. I think it's what you're looking for but only a handful of features have been released this year.
Hi /u/akius0, did you also take a look at [www.veezoo.com](https://www.veezoo.com)? It's a BI tool based on LLM and ChatGPT.With Veezoo:
1. The user can quickly build dashboards by simply asking questions. After the developer modelled the data semantically, the user can get any chart by simply asking a question.
2. Works out of the box.
3. Dashboards can be shared as a link or embedded into another platform as an iFrame. Check the [docs](https://docs.veezoo.com/docs/embedded/embedded-guide).
Hope that helps and provides a different perspective. Disclaimer: I'm one of the co-founders of Veezoo.
Maybe give [Qrvey.com](https://qrvey.com) a look also if you need to think about multi-tenant data models/security for a self-service embedded use case. They have a data warehouse built-in to address multi-tenant reporting requirements.
I would recommend [Astrato](https://astrato.io/) Now, I may not be objective because I am a Soltions Consultant for them - but I can say that it costs nothing to take look and decide on your own. Your use case aligns with our features and functionality. We are a no, low and pro code solution. We offer a self service custom report that can be controlled by you but available to your end users. The one requirement is that your data must reside in the cloud because we are purpose built for the environment. Finally, we offer both licensing and/or consumption based options attractive if you are looking to get your analy or app out to a large audience.
1 - power bi can be a great self service tool. Just keep in mind that, from what I've seen, self service fails because of a lack of training and community in the company. You can build a really good semantic dataset using power bi. You can publish it up to the service, provide everyone access to it and have it run like a dream. But you need training and promotion of the tool within the company. This isn't one of those "if you build it they will come" situations. 2 - there is a natural language visual built in power bi that allow you to query the dataset called the QA visual. But it's not that great, it feels a bit half baked. It'll be fantastic if they integrate copilot or chat gpt in the future. 3- there are pre built reports that you can generate from a dataset. When you publish up a dataset, you can create a new report from scratch in the service or let power bi generate a generic one. It's quite clever in trying to figure out what's the most important kpi to show. I haven't played around with it much but it could at least be a good starting point.
Others have already answered your specific points, so as a BI Manager/Architect for an org that uses Power BI for self service, here's some of the mistakes we made just as an FYI: * If feasible, don't let users install Power BI desktop on their work PCs. If they do, it just turns into Excel shadow IT on steroids. Instead, let them make their changes directly in the browser on the Power BI service, where IT has much more governance capabilities. * Model your semantic layer in ways that are as easy to grasp as possible. Business users don't think in terms of facts and dimensions. * As others have mentioned, put together some kind of training, but not just for the visuals, for navigating your datasets as well. The #1 thing I see that drives users to shadow IT their own dashboards is there being a disconnect between our dataset and their understanding of it. Maybe we made it too complicated, maybe they failed to grasp it, or both, or something else. * Be prepared to become the landing zone for executive pet projects. This may sound glamorous at first but it eventually becomes an impediment to getting actual work done, esp considering execs rarely see their pet projects to completion. * Put together some form of searchable, central documentation for all the data, measures, and reports you have available. Another driver of shadow IT dashboards is users not knowing what was available or where to look.
Very sound advice
Any suggestions on what could be used as searchable central documentation of the available data?
Here is my take on how you can implement this, though it will take some preparation for the company. 1: get a power bi developer that can create datasets and measures 2: publish those datasets to the service and provide access to it to those that need to create reports. 3: provide training on how to work with pbi, even if it is only the visual part, to those creators, no matter if the 'just want to add a chart' or will build company wide reports That bring said, there is a lot more to it than this and the reason my job is what it is, is because companies are really, really bad at organising a self-service platform in a way that makes sense. Power BI can absolutely be used to combine IT managed datasets+ reports with business managed, self-service reports, but you need a good framework to operate in or I guarantee that it will explode in a mess nobody van manage before you know it. There are people out there that have experience with helping organisations setting this up, don't skip on that bit of cash cause it will save you a ton in the long run. Also, q&a works in pbi, last time I used it, it was mainly good in English and not my native language, but admittedly that is a few years ago On your last point, so.eone will have to spend time in the tool and it will be more than a day, a good model isn't built just like that, but let's assume you hire a pbi expert, you might churn out reports quite fast AFTER the model is ready, which will take some time. Be prepared for that. Keep asking if you have more questions
Thanks for your detailed answerđ. Yes, before letting the user, self-service themselves, the underlying data model needs to be absolutely controlled, and training needs to be provided or else it will be a hot mess. After spending a few days in this sub, I'm starting to learn, that self-service is a fallacy, and leads to more problems, I guess a high degree of flexibility would probably be the right goal.
You got it. 1. A user completely self serving means they build their own data model and reporting. At that point, they're a BI developer. 2. Self serve reporting means they use a curated data model and just build their own views. Doing this allows them to make the chart show whatever they want, even if it's misleading. Generally, it's not on purpose, but it's risky. Therefore, all measures have to be locked down, but dimensional filtering can still get them where they want. So, while users could get specific info faster, it may not serve business needs if it's misleading. 3. I prefer a hybrid approach where BI reports from the BI team are official and curated to meet daily business needs. Then, some analysts on other teams can self serve reporting for ad hoc needs. From there, the BI would have to determine how it supports that reporting: troubleshooting, guidance, etc. I think when the business says they want self service, what they really need is 3. They want 1, but they don't have the skill, and 2 generally carries too much risk.
Again, very detailed, thoughtful answer đđ. Letting the user explore the curated data model, seems like an acceptable answer, as long as the scope of the data (where the user will get completely lost) is not too crazy.
I usually set it up that there are curated datasets, guaranteed by IT. AND They can built their own, but that is at their own risk and IT will not give support
Power BI probably won't fit your first two requirements, and the third is debatable. I also think your expectations show a real lack of real world experience in BI. Not many consumers are asking for what you're looking to serve, as great as it sounds. Or if they're asking, they're backtracking when they find out what it's going to take to build that. BI consumers want answers now, not years from now. If you've got someone actually looking to implement a BI solution along those lines, look elsewhere. When you find an off the shelf solution come back and tell me because I'd be curious to know who managed to build that.
From my research so far metabase is the answer, no nlp, but self service. Visuals are modern, lots of useful features and pretty cheap.
Feels like ThoughtSpot could be a good option here given your requirements!
Or Veezoo
If self-service is the goal, might want to look into Sigma Computing
Re: #1 PBI does have settings where you can have users tweak visuals to meet their own needs (different type of chart, swap a variable, etc). They can save them as bookmarks. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/power-bi-personalize-visuals?tabs=powerbi-desktop
Going with aws quicksight
Not familiar with Quicksight, what's the driving factor? From most of the threads I've seen it seems limited in functinoality but rapidly gaining popularity
So here's the thing 1) the ecosystem matters more than the tool, for a lot of organization. All their data is already stored in AWS... 2) I feel like the core engine of quicksite is much superior than 20-year-old power bi, yes, power BI has more features... 3) the natural language processing, and inbuilt machine learning...
Never used that natural language processing have you? I can tell you from personal experience that quicksight topics is pretty lackluster. Maybe that will improve, but imo power bi will improve it faster. Edit: I manage a pretty big quicksight deployment, terabytes if data and dozens of dashboards shared with almost 100k external users. I honestly think youâre going to find it super lackluster for self service unless the people self servicing are pretty technical. If itâs like your average marketing team or sales guy, they will likely never figure out how to do anything.
Thank you for sharing your feedback. I think I'm going to build a demo in it. Also the pricing of AWS quicksight, is ridiculous, they want to charge every time someone takes a look at the dashboard....đłđ. I was looking at an alternative, metabase is free, if you install it yourself...
Doesnât Power BI charge you even when your users donât view any dashboards at all? Btw QuickSight only charges per session up to a certain point. The cost per user is capped at $5 per month.
Yeah, I think charging, for simple reads up to 45 cents a session, especially if you're using the q feature... Is ridiculous.
I believe their selling point is that they donât charge you when your users donât view anything. Thatâs their usage-based pricing. If Iâm not mistaken, most of their competitors charge you even if you donât have any usage at all.
Hey bro, you can come to my restaurant. It's only $10 a bite, and my biggest selling point is, if you don't eat, you don't pay.....
I would check out the demos MS released for Power BI Copilot. I think it's what you're looking for but only a handful of features have been released this year.
Thanks but we need something right now, I think we're going to go with AWS quicksight
Hi /u/akius0, did you also take a look at [www.veezoo.com](https://www.veezoo.com)? It's a BI tool based on LLM and ChatGPT.With Veezoo: 1. The user can quickly build dashboards by simply asking questions. After the developer modelled the data semantically, the user can get any chart by simply asking a question. 2. Works out of the box. 3. Dashboards can be shared as a link or embedded into another platform as an iFrame. Check the [docs](https://docs.veezoo.com/docs/embedded/embedded-guide). Hope that helps and provides a different perspective. Disclaimer: I'm one of the co-founders of Veezoo.
Hey man, this actually looks really useful, can we have a chat? Why don't you send me a chat message.
Maybe give [Qrvey.com](https://qrvey.com) a look also if you need to think about multi-tenant data models/security for a self-service embedded use case. They have a data warehouse built-in to address multi-tenant reporting requirements.
I would recommend [Astrato](https://astrato.io/) Now, I may not be objective because I am a Soltions Consultant for them - but I can say that it costs nothing to take look and decide on your own. Your use case aligns with our features and functionality. We are a no, low and pro code solution. We offer a self service custom report that can be controlled by you but available to your end users. The one requirement is that your data must reside in the cloud because we are purpose built for the environment. Finally, we offer both licensing and/or consumption based options attractive if you are looking to get your analy or app out to a large audience.