Business intelligence has turned a new face in the decision making of enterprises to yield actionable insights. Power BI and SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) are two of Microsoft’s leading business intelligence tools organizations use around the globe. Let’s look at why Power BI is preferred over SSRS and how Power BI gives the competitive advantage in providing business intelligence. The primary advantage of modern data visualization tools like Power BI include:
- Ability to slice and dice data with dynamic analytics and capabilities
- User can build their own reports, view and filter analytics to suit their needs
- Better UX capabilities than traditional reporting services
Creating traditional reports is no longer an effective option given that changes are required too often, and users need immediate results. Also, the time taken for traditional report development is too long. The evolving needs of customers today require a tool that can dynamically adjust to user requirements.
- A Simple Learning Curve
Enterprise clients are inclined toward adaptive and responsive data visualization tools. SSRS is a very static software and the learning curve adds to the burden. On the brighter side, Power BI offers easy drag-and-drop features to create reports in a jiffy. Also, there is no need to use a dedicated tool for mobile reports like in SSRS.
- An End-to-End solution
Power BI is a complete suite for data acquisition and transformation, data modelling and visualization. The platform is built on HTML 5, and it is a semi-open source, app enabled and cloud enabled SaaS.
a. Power BI – The users can work with even unstructured data and create their own reports by using the drag-and-drop features. Also, there is only minimal training required, not to mention the modern rendering feature which give a pleasant look to the data reports.
b. SSRS – A proper scope for requirements is necessary, and the developer should work on those requirements, considering the static reports, data refresh schedule, and deployment schedules. SSRS offers only the standard “canned” reporting feature which requires high time for development provided it cannot be altered quickly.
- An Intuitive User Experience
Power BI is rich in graphics compared to SSRS, it makes the data analytics and visualization more efficient and easier to use, whereas SSRS requires more manual effort for analysis and generating the reports. The interface of SSRS is outdated, and there is only minimal control over how parameters appear in the reports. SSRS cannot be used to generate impressive charts and graphs, while Power BI can produce beautiful charts and graphs on your reports.
- A guide for business analytics and decision making
Power BI is preferred for analytical purposes, while SSRS is preferred for operational purposes.
a. Power BI – Interact with slicers and filtering mechanisms and add meta-descriptions to different report types and data visualization types.
b. SSRS –Iterate through rows of dataset, fetch real time information from complex SQL queries, and print a list of rows.
- Goodbye to printed reports
The decrease in SSRS usage at industry level is attributed to the slow disappearance of printed reports, which are in less demand now. Most of the researchers and data analysts now prefer dynamic charts, mobile BI and other features that are not a part of a “printed” report.