The Perils of Building a Reporting Solution on Power BI

Microsoft’s focus on the Power BI platform will undoubtedly be a hot topic over the next few years for partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. Launched in 2013, the product has matured considerably. With the launch of the company’s Power Platform in 2019, Power BI has received even more attention as the reporting platform of choice for Microsoft’s business applications.

Partners considering a strategic commitment to Power BI as their default reporting platform for business applications should carefully consider the long-term ramifications of that approach. The product’s complex architecture, its requirement for specialized programming skills, the need to maintain the IP whenever Microsoft makes a change and the potential challenges of delivering satisfactory results to your customers over the long term should factor into any decision about whether or not to make a major commitment to developing custom IP in Power BI.

In this white paper, we will address some of the potential challenges associated with Power BI, especially in the context of ERP, CRM, financial reporting, and analysis.