Join Gaurav Issar for Part 1 of our 7-Part Power BI Migration Series!
This is the first in a seven-part series on migrating to Microsoft Power BI from other business intelligence tools like Click or Tableau. This initial video focuses on the business drivers that would make migrating to Power BI a beneficial decision for an organization.
It highlights that while many BI tools, including Power BI, Tableau, and Click, offer comparable functionality, especially in visualization, the decision to migrate should be business-driven rather than solely based on technology.
Timestamps:
0:00 Series Introduction
1:50 BI Tool Landscape
2:55 Key Business Drivers
3:13 Cost
4:14 Tighter Integration with Microsoft
5:32 Leverage Investments in Microsoft
6:15 AI Capabilities
7:15 Conclusion
Welcome to our Power BI migration series. If you're looking to migrate from other BI tools such as Qlik or Tableau to Power BI, then this series of six videos will explore how migrating to Power BI might be a game changer for your organization. This first video discusses the business drivers for considering a migration to Power BI.
We will explore the following topics in the subsequent videos:
Before discussing the "Validating Keepers and Strivers," it's important to understand the BI tool landscape. As shown on the screen, many BI tools exist, with Power BI, Tableau, and Qlik being market leaders. Many organizations use these tools, and it's important to note that they are comparable in functionality, especially in visualization. While feature differences may be more relevant to specific organizations, they are overall very similar.
Therefore, you should view this migration as a business-driven decision, not solely a technology decision, as focusing only on the latter increases the chances of failure. Let's walk through the most important business drivers for migration, as identifying one or more of these will help build your business case for Power BI.
The first and most obvious driver, impacting most software projects, is cost. Are you migrating to Power BI because you have multiple BI tools (like Tableau, Qlik, Cognos, MicroStrategy) and want to save on license costs by consolidating vendors? Or, like many organizations recently, are you migrating from Qlik or Tableau to Power BI because you already own Power BI licenses through your Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Fabric licenses? Often, customers are unaware that they possess Power BI Professional licenses as part of these other Microsoft products, which they can leverage internally.
The second driver is whether your users are already using Microsoft Office, as Power BI, being a Microsoft product, has native integrations into these productivity tools and others, leading to an improved user experience. While Excel isn't in the Gartner quadrant, it's widely used for BI. Power BI allows users to easily connect to Excel data and upload Excel datasets to personal workspaces for initial dashboard and report creation before team collaboration. Collaboration is also enhanced through publishing Power BI reports in Teams or embedding them, improving communication within larger teams. Power BI also integrates well with the Microsoft low-code platform (Power Apps and Power Automate), further simplifying the user experience.
Another driver is if you've already invested in the Microsoft Azure platform and utilize its security and authentication features. This makes it easier for users to navigate between platforms, as Power BI uses the same single sign-on mechanism as Microsoft Office tools, resulting in a less disruptive user experience. While tools like Tableau and Qlik offer similar functionality through authentication connectors with Azure, Power BI's integration is more direct.
Last but not least, Microsoft Power BI is being deployed with the same generative AI capabilities (Copilot) as the rest of the Office suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint). If your organization plans to roll out these AI capabilities in the coming year, Power BI would be a good choice to enable this, making it a significant business driver.
If none of these drivers resonate with your reasons for exploring Power BI, you should pause and reconsider the migration journey. These drivers are directly linked to influencing and positively impacting your migration. However, if one or more of these drivers are your motivation, you are on the right path.
The next video will discuss the many challenges of migrating to Power BI and how to proactively manage them.
If you are exploring migrating to Microsoft Power BI from Qlik or Tableau, you may qualify for a free Proof of Concept.
Qualify for a Qlik to Power BI Migration
Qualify for a Tableau to Power BI Migration
