Power BI vs Tableau - An Overview from EPC Group.pptx

Power BI vs Tableau
Errin O’Connor
Chief Power BI Architect – EPC Group
Microsoft Press Author of Best-Selling Power BI Book
July 7th, 2022 | 1:00pm CST

Webinar Overview
Power BI and Tableau are two dominating business intelligence technologies, and many enterprises use
either of them. Both the tools collect, integrate, analyze, and present business data. They assist you in
performing data analysis, data manipulation, and data visualization to extract sense from raw business data.
Businesses, learners, and practitioners often find it hard to decide which tool is best for them. We organized
this webinar to discuss some significant differences between Power BI and Tableau and help you find the
best BI tool suiting your requirements.
Key Points of Discussion
• History of Power BI and Tableau
• Cost of Power BI and Tableau
• Performance and Functionality of Power BI vs. Tableau
• User Interface of Power BI and Tableau
• Data Sources in Power BI and Tableau
• This webinar will cover core strategies and lessons learned from several hundred of EPC Group’s Power BI
implementations that you can utilize to ensure long-term success with Power BI.

Errin O’Connor
Founder & Chief Power BI Architect
EPC Group.net | www.epcgroup.net
Biography
Errin is the Founder and Chief Architect for EPC Group
and the author of four Microsoft Press books covering
Power BI, SharePoint and Office 365. Errin focuses his
efforts on implementing Microsoft Technologies in
organizations throughout the country and around the
globe.
Errin's latest book "Microsoft Power BI Dashboards
Step by Step" by Microsoft Press guides you through
creating world-class business analysis dashboards
that integrate today’s most widely-used data sources,
using any of Microsoft’s Power BI platforms, including
the new Power BI Premium.
@errinoconnor
errino@epcgroup.net
Author of Microsoft Power BI Dashboards:
Step-by-Step
Errin’s Microsoft Reference Books:
www.epcgroup.net

Brief History of Power BI and Tableau

Brief History of Power BI and Tableau
Power BI
• Power BI was originally developed by Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Services Team in 2010 under
Project Crescent and available for download as a bundled package with SQL Server’s Codename Denali.
• Power BI was released by Microsoft in September 2013 as Power BI for Office 365 and has since evolved
with many other feature sets and related functionality.
Tableau
• Tableau was founded in January 2003 and experienced substantial growth through 2013.
• In May 2013, Tableau took the company public in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange that raised
$250 million dollars.
• In 2015, Tableau, after five consecutive years of profits, their 2015 year-end results showed the company
lost $84 million.
• In June 2018, Tableau acquired Empirical Systems, an artificial intelligence startup, with the goal of
integrating its features into its overall platform. with plans to integrate the company's technology into the
Tableau platform.
• In June 2019, Tableau was acquired by Salesforce in an all-stock deal worth over $15 billion.

Garter Magic Quadrant - Overview

Performance and Functionality of Power BI vs. Tableau

Power BI vs. Tableau Interface
EPC Group is one of North America’s leading Power BI integration and development firms, but the content
and data presented here in this webinar is based off of the hundreds of conversations I have over the course
of months and the past few years with key stakeholders and IT decision makers at organization’s all over the
globe. This includes my personal testing and review of reports from both platforms. A few main points that
come up time and time again are:
• Tableau does not have the type of web support that Power BI provides and especially now that Microsoft
has made their announcement regarding Azure Analysis Services (AAS) being included with Power BI
Premium accounts (which you can get for $20 / month / user) which is a game changer.
• With Azure Analysis Services (AAS), you are able to throttle up the cores in the cloud, which vastly
outpace the performance of any desktop bound CPU, whether you're comparing it to Power BI Desktop or
Tableau desktop to handle the required data your company is handling to meet your reporting needs.
• With Power BI hosted on the Azure platform, it is absolutely far more scalable than Tableau and with
Power BI, you are much more in charge of the environment’s backend.

Stack Overflow Questions Tableau vs. Power BI

Stack Overflow Questions – Tableau vs. Power BI

The debate over the ease of use and ability for end-users and/or Power Users to learn Power BI or Tableau
has really ended as 80% of the client feedback I get on calls from CIOs, IT Directors, Directors of Business
Intelligence or even stakeholders responsible for training their organization’s end users all give me the same
story.
• Power BI’s interface is much easier to learn
• It is a part of the overall Microsoft / Office 365 stack and the built-in SSO (Single Sign-on) capabilities
allow for a much more fluid experience
• Tableau resources are much harder to find as well as much more expensive so the training as well as
the “report updating” and new project aspect of growing the existing environment and then the related
knowledge transfer to the client becomes much harder and more labor intensive
• For a pure apples to apples comparison (i.e., compare the computational power of Tableau Desktop vs.
Power BI), the performance is nearly identical and comes down, not to the application in question, but to
your local machine's CPU. That is where moving into the cloud becomes significant, because there is a far
better price to performance ratio in Power BI Premium (i.e., the cloud on the Microsoft Azure platform)
vs. Tableau Creator (the cloud).
• Tableau is used by analysts and experienced- users mostly use for their analytics purposes and Power BI is
used by both naive and experienced users.

Power BI Governance Model vs. a Tableau
Governance Model

Power BI Governance: Easier to Create
• Data Sources
• What are the suggested data sources? | Suggested connection mode? (To your users…)
• Why would certain data sources be restricted?
• Power BI Service | Power BI.com
• What are your licensing policies?
• The use of App Workspaces?
• The use of content packs?
• Power BI Report Creation
• Power BI Desktop client distribution and its ongoing updates
• How are PBIX files handled? Where are they stored? Any naming conventions? Version history?
• Governance around desktop client updates for external users or remote workers?
• What are your policies around using custom visuals?
• Ensuring strict and clearly communicated development practices

Power BI Governance: Easier to Create (Continued)
• Data Model Usage | Reports
• What is your mobile and/or tablet strategy on distribution as well as management and usage?
• What integrations to you allow? | What are your report embedding policies or practices?
• Gateway Management and Ownership
• Do you have repeatable processes for configuration as well as monitoring?
• Scheduled Reviews and Updates to Your Power BI Governance Strategy
• This must be developed and all key Power BI stakeholders must read it and acknowledge it
• A clear escalation path must be established and defined in your organization’s governance strategy
• What data sources are allowed and documented specific to your organization?
• Excel, SQL Server, SharePoint, CSV, Microsoft Azure-based, other databases, SaaS-based, App APIs
• Dynamics 365, SAP, Enterprise Data Warehouse, Oracle, etc.
• What is Your Power BI Power User Strategy?

Power BI Power User Strategy: A Silver Bullet
 A Successful Power User Strategy Can Make Or Break Your Power BI Implementation
You can need to:
 Setup and champion an internal Power BI User group for your organization
 Provide monthly training to your organization’s Power BI users from any and all departments
 This needs to be recorded and uploaded to Microsoft Stream, SharePoint or MS Teams
 Create a training curriculum from these monthly training courses as users will be able to take “refresher courses”
 New employees can start watching these Power BI videos as part of their onboarding to the organization
 Provide users with links and videos to documentation and tutorials
 They should maintain a SharePoint Site or MS Teams channel to store these “best practices” and lessons learned
 Help to identify possible “additional” or “future” Power BI Power User candidates
 As the Power BI implementation grows, additional Power Users will be required
 Be the first line of defense in taking complaints about any performance issues or data quality issues

Power BI Power User Strategy: A Silver Bullet (Continued)
 Power users can help answer everyday questions from a business perspective
 Examples of questions they can assist in answering, without “IT Speak” are:
 How can I get a Power BI Pro licenses and why don’t I have one already?
 They need to be prepared to answer this very loaded question that can cause frustration in many cases.
 They can assist in answering questions such as “What would my current Excel report possibly look like in Power BI?”
(Power Users are great advocates for showing the business what is possible)
 Power users should be invited to assist in requirements gathering sessions when new reports are
requested from the business
 When you have an advocate in the room that gives the appearance of a neutral party, and is
assisting in gathering requirements from a new business unit or stakeholder, this goes a very
long way in achieving buy-in

Power BI Governance:
A Roles and Responsibilities Matrix

Power BI Governance: Roles and Responsibilities Matrix
Power BI Role Role Description Title Example
Power BI Executive Sponsor Executive sponsor of the Business Intelligence solution CIO CFO IT Director
Power BI Application Owner Owner of the Power BI solution and key decision maker Sr. IT Manager | BI Director
Office 365 Application Owner
(Power BI Architect Admin)
Owner of the Office 365 Suite of Applications (SharePoint, MS Teams, OneDrive
for Business, Flow, PowerApps, etc.) Sr. IT Manager
Power BI Business Analyst
Technical business analyst who understands both the business side as well as
the technical capabilities of Power BI IT Technical Team Member
Power BI Power Users
A team member from the business or IT who is technically savvy and is
passionate about business intelligence. Tech Savvy Team Member
Infrastructure Owner (SQL DBAs,
etc.) Data Steward
The owner of any existing on-premise systems or cloud-based platforms such as
Azure. Also typically the owner of the farm that supports Active Directory as
well as SQL Server and VMs.
IT Infra. Director, Mgr. Data
Warehouse SQL DBA
IT Security Owner / Manager
IT security owner / manager is responsible for protecting the organization
Power BI implementation as well as the systems and platforms that support it. IT Manager, IT Security Member
End Users A user of Power BI within the organization. Team Member
Mobile Experience Owner
A team member who is responsible for ensuring Power BI’s capabilities or the
lack of capabilities, on the organization’s mobile devices and tablets.
IT Team Member, Developer,
Compliance Team Member
BI Developer
A team member responsible for customization and/or custom developed
capabilities requested by Power BI’s stakeholders. IT Developer

Power BI’s Delivery Approaches

Establishing Power BI’s System Governance Model

Establishing Power BI’s System Governance: Examples
• Security and Sharing
• How are reports secured and shared? AD Groups and DLs | What about Office 365 groups?
• What are your AD Group policies?
• A clear guide to sharing dashboards in your organization must be established
• System Usage, Monitoring and Auditing
• Utilizing the Power BI Admin Portal
• Accessing the unified audit log
• Create alerts to ensure dataset owners can quickly resolve any issue that arises
• Scheduled specific times to audit actions performed by users in Power BI
• Monitor your gateways and review any errors or excessive memory utilization
Data Freshness
• What are your requirements around data freshness? Does this vary by data source?
• There must be data source owners clearly defined who are responsible for data freshness

Developing a Power BI 36 Month Roadmap

Power BI 36 Month Roadmap
 Development of a detailed 36-month plan for the organization’s power BI implementation and the
related business intelligence capabilities, on average, amounts to a 20% cost savings on your Power
BI effort
 This includes a governance strategy and planning services spanning all components of the Power BI
service (people, process, and technology) to manage the deployment and continued use of Power BI.
 This roadmap must provide a clear definition of requirements from a business and technical angle
 This must be a clear and detailed strategy to implement the solutions needed to meet the
organization’s business intelligence requirements
 Change Management Strategy and related plan for both internal as well as any externally required
consulting services that includes a fully functional change management strategy to user acceptance
as well as overall use of the Power BI solution and related toolsets
 Definition of clear roles and responsibilities to ensure long-term successful adoption
 Steps for infrastructure planning prior to Power BI’s actual components being deployment
 Implementation roadmap outlining specific steps in 6 month increments

Developing a Power BI Center of Excellence (CoE)

Power BI Center of Excellence (Power BI CoE)
 Establishing a Power BI Center of Excellence (CoE) is a cutting edge approach to
achieving a cohesive, strategic, and scalable enterprise-wide Power BI environment.
 A Power BI Governance Team will be established that will provide core answers and
related services as well as oversight on Power BI for your organization.
 A Power BI Center of Excellence Consists of 5 Core Elements:
1. Defined Power BI development model
2. Defined Power BI governance model
3. A strategy for Power BI training and end-user adoption
4. Clear development and configuration standards for Power BI
5. Power BI Solution architecture framework
 .

EPC Group
Email: contact@epcgroup.net
Web: www.epcgroup.net
Phone: (888) 381-9725

Power BI vs Tableau - An Overview from EPC Group.pptx

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