BUSINESSOBJECTS & POWERBI

Ad-hoc Query & Self-Service BI

AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Criteria:
Usability / Interaction
Deployment Options
Modeling Capabilities
Distribution, Scheduling & Publication Capabilities
Security & User Access Management
Data Access / Storage
Visualization Options

Indicators:

Function/Feature is inherent with the Tool

and is readily available to use

Function/Feature is inherent with the Tool

but would require minor configuration to use

Function/Feature is not available OR

Would require a separate tool or license to use OR
Would require major configuration to use

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Usability / Interaction
Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
WEBI - user needs to select columns to display before
Drag and drop
seeing/selecting view
authoring of content
Power BI - user can see views as columns are selected
WEBI - can connect to databases and files (excel, XML, etc.)
Multiple data sources
Power BI - can connect to databases, files (excel, XML, etc.) and
(CSV, Excel, Salesforce,
online services
Google Analytics)
SSRS - can connect to databases
WEBI - need to configure reports to specify report interaction
Configure visualization
(Master-Detail views)
elements for interactive
Power BI - specify report interaction with a button, allows for
access of
Filter and Highlight of views
reports/dashboards

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Deployment Options
Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
WEBI - need separate development for mobile compatible
Publish to mobile reports
devices Power BI - automatically resizes reports to fit mobile screens

WEBI - need to configure server to publish to web

Publish to web Power BI - cloud-based publication

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Distribution, Scheduling & Publication Capabilities

Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
WEBI offers a number of options with report refresh - refresh
upon access, through refresh button or through scheduled
Availability of options for refresh
scheduling of reports Power BI Free can be scheduled on demand or through daily
and dashboard refresh refresh
Power BI Pro can be scheduled on demand or through hourly
refresh
WEBI - access through Subject Areas
Share data sets within
Power BI Free Cannot share data sets
organization
Power BI Pro - access through content packs
Distribute reports via WEBI - available through Agents
scheduled email Power BI - ongoing development, ETA is 3rd quarter of 2016

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Security and User Access Management
Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
Use Active Directory WEBI needs configuration
groups for granting PowerBI supports Azure Active Directory need to configure
permissions association between the on-premise AD and AAD
WEBI - available by definition in the Universe
Role specific reports and
Power BI - available thru filters (in Manage Roles) and Analysis
dashboard views
Services
Usage Tracking WEBI - can track sessions in the BI Platform
Capabilities Power BI - administration is through O365 admin page

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Data Access / Storage
Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
WEBI Maintains a ROLAP architecture as data is fetched directly
from the database but has caching capability within the reports
Power BI Free Local PowerBI size depends on the capacity of
the client machine but when loaded into the PowerBI Service user
is limited to 1GB storage
Data storage
Power BI Pro Local PowerBI size depends on the capacity of the
client machine but when loaded into the PowerBI Service user is
limited to 10GB storage. Although available is the Live Query
option which allows the dashboards not to store data but to get
data directly from Analysis Services through a Gateway
WEBI Reports are cached, no live access to data
Access to data stores
Power BI Free Live Query can only be performed on desktop
through Live Query
tool and cannot be shared
access and Cached
Power BI Pro Live Query access can be performed within the
approach
desktop tool and through the portal

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Modeling Capabilities
Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
WEBI - can handle star and snowflake schemas
Support different data
Power BI - can handle star and snowflake schemas
structures
WEBI - can handle complex joins or joins with composite keys
Definition of complex Power BI complex scenarios can be handled by Analysis
joins in the models Services; Need to implement workaround to handle composite
keys (ex. By concatenating columns to produce unique values)
Capable of defining
WEBI - handled through the Universe
formulas and additional
Power BI Can be handled in Power BI Desktop or through the
business rules (Logical
model definition in Analysis Services (AS)
mapping)

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Visualization Options
Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
Bar and Column Charts

Basic (Layered) and

Stacked Area Charts

Bubble Charts

Line-bar Combo Charts

Doughnut Charts

WEBI no out-of-box maps

Filled Maps PowerBI - uses Bing Maps for plotting, need to adjust map for
the Philippines

Funnel Charts

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Visualization Options
Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
Gauge

Line Charts

WEBI no out-of-the-box maps

Maps (Basic) PowerBI - uses Bing Maps for plotting, need to adjust map for
the Philippines

Multi row Cards

Pie Charts

Tables

Pivot Tables

Performance Tiles

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AD-HOC QUERY & SELF-SERVICE BI

COMPARISON OF BUSINESSOBJECTS (WEBI) & POWERBI

Visualization Options
Functions WEBI Microsoft BI Tools Comments

Power BI
Free Pro
Tree Maps

Waterfall Charts

A number of custom visuals are being developed by the

Custom Visuals PowerBI community and are made available for download
and use by the public.

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