Self-Query Tool

[robarivas]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this so forgive me if its not. I'm looking to find a tool that is easy for business analysts to use for self-querying and extracting/exporting data from Power BI datasets. DAX Studio is great and, for the most part, very easy to use. However, when it comes to logical OR conditions and nested filtering (nested ORs, ANDs) there doesn't seem to be any easy way to do this. Instead it requires manual manipulation of the DAX code. Analyze in Excel is also great but it too (and Pivot Tables in general) doesn't seem to have a way to do complex filtering nor long list filtering. It would be great if the business analysts would just learn DAX but, in my organization at least, there is not a willingness to expect that from the analysts nor the will/resources to train them. Same goes for SQL. Plus, mastery of DAX can be a very long, difficult road. Looking for a drag and drop type experience. Thanks in advance for any suggestions as to tools I can take a look at.

[lbendlin]

There is something very simple you can do.  Enable the option to allow users to personalize visuals, and then teach your users how to use that feature  (plus some bookmarkery).  We found that feature to be one of the most impactful recent features of Power BI. Simply fantastic for the scenario you describe.

We often include a report page with just a number - a blank canvas if you want.  Users can modify the visual type and the fields on the visual. They love it. No need for DAX at all.

[robarivas]

Thanks @lbendlin for the suggestion. I agree that is a great feature. Unfortunately it does not pertain to what is being sought. The organization is, for analysts, specifically interested in a data extract tool very much like DAX Studio. For visualizations, insights, and standard dashboards the analysts and operational end users would use Power BI. But for a query and extract task (usually for highly detailed data auditing type work) Power BI is not considered appropriate or desireable.

[lbendlin]

Sorry to hear that they have that misconception. 

The next thing you can propose to them is "Analyze in Excel"  - that (in my opinion) is superior to this weird urge to always need to export everything.