Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced availability of its new Power BI Premium tool during the recent Microsoft Data Insights Summit in Seattle. But will small businesses be able to afford this pricey new business intelligence tool now that it’s arrived?
First unveiled on May 3, Microsoft Power BI Premium expands on Microsoft’s Power BI or business intelligence solution with a more flexible and scalable platform.
The new version is primarily designed to address the needs of large organizations, but it can just as easily be applied to the needs of small businesses too. Unfortunately, the cost is a bit steep for small business owners. Embedding with Power BI Premium starts at $625 per month, writes Power BI General Manager Kamal Hathi, and additional rough pricing can be figured out by using the company’s Power BI Premium Calculator. As an alternative still in need of powerful analytics services might consider Microsoft’s Power BI Desktop or Power BI Pro instead.
Power BI Desktop is a free tier, and the Pro version will only run you $10 per month per user to start. By going after the low end of the market first, Microsoft has built a strong user base that has been proving the technology since 2015. Meanwhile the Premium version offers enhanced services to larger enterprise companies — though it might be an option for small to medium sized businesses as they grow.
Here’s an overview of the Power BI tier to get an idea of the tool’s basic functionality:
So What Does Microsoft Power BI Premium Offer?
Just like the other versions, it converts the data of a business into visuals almost anyone can digest for making informed decisions. The difference is, it can do so with larger scale, higher performance, complete governance and control, and deploy reports and dashboard to very large number of employees.
Power BI Even Integrates with Google Analytics
Many small business owners already use another analytics tool, Google Analytics, especially if a substantial amount of their marketing or even selling happens online.
Google Analytics lets digital marketing teams see how their audience is interacting with their digital presence to determine if their marketing objectives are being met. Based on this analysis, they can make changes to improve website performance.
Both Google Analytics and Power BI provide different kinds of information, but Microsoft has integrated Power BI with Google Analytics making both tools potentially more useful. Importing the data from Google Analytics into the Power BI ecosystem now means more context to improve a website’s performance.
Image: Microsoft
This article, “Microsoft Announces Power BI Analytics – at a Premium Price” was first published on Small Business Trends