PowerBI basic limitations? Really?

[JohnP]

We're in the process of evaluating/choosing a BI platform. We talked to another customer who almost laughed when we told them that we were considering PowerBI. I was surprised so I asked him to write down his most critical comments (see below). Can you gurus here validate or oppose his comments/opinions?

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Simple tests and see if it does what you want with user friendliness :

1. Can you have filters on the top of the report kept consistently?
   There are options to add this in the reports/dashboards, but it doesn't actually bring any benefit because the filters do not stay after refresh, So user doesn't know what data is filtered on screen. Or if there is a pre-filter or you drill from another report... these drop-downs/filters do not show data indicating what you are looking at... pointless and misleading option.
2. Try to use the filters on the side of the screen, the "actual" filters... they are extremely not user friendly for any layperson... IT techs maybe/sometimes... but for the layperson, impossible...
1. These filters are not able to be heiracically filtered : 
   Example : Sales report -
1. Select Year : 2017
2. Select Customer : (it can not be filtered to only show customers that actually have sales in 2017)
   So you'll end up with a bunch of customers that you haven't done business with for 5 years... remaining in the list... which is confusing and useless...
3. Try to do any kind of drill through or link to another report with 2 parameters...
1. Example : Main Screen - All sales by customer for the past 3 years
2. Apply a filter of only 3 months
3. Now try to drill through to another report (sales invoice details) to see all invoices to that customer for the past 3 months.
   Impossible to do...
4. Filters can not be done for L2L (Like 2 Like) comparison by time period for seasonal analysis.
1. Example, you have a peak season of sales in Oct-Nov-Dec... you want to compare the last 3 years of this period... (2017-Oct-Nov_Dec) vs (2016-Oct-Nov-Dec) vs (2015-Oct-Nov-Dec)... impossible.
2. Also if you have different months in your peak seasons... Jan-Jul-Oct-Nov-Dec... totally impossible...

[v-yulgu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @JohnP,

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1. Can you have filters on the top of the report kept consistently?
   There are options to add this in the reports/dashboards, but it doesn't actually bring any benefit because the filters do not stay after refresh, So user doesn't know what data is filtered on screen. Or if there is a pre-filter or you drill from another report... these drop-downs/filters do not show data indicating what you are looking at... pointless and misleading option.

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Based on my test, click the refresh buton manually or close and re-open .pbix file, the slicer will keep the selected items.

1. Try to use the filters on the side of the screen, the "actual" filters... they are extremely not user friendly for any layperson... IT techs maybe/sometimes... but for the layperson, impossible...
1. These filters are not able to be heiracically filtered : 
   Example : Sales report -
2. Select Year : 2017
3. Select Customer : (it can not be filtered to only show customers that actually have sales in 2017)

Please try this custom visual: HierarchySlicer

1. Try to do any kind of drill through or link to another report with 2 parameters...
1. Example : Main Screen - All sales by customer for the past 3 years
2. Apply a filter of only 3 months
3. Now try to drill through to another report (sales invoice details) to see all invoices to that customer for the past 3 months.

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Maybe you can add the corresponding fields into "Report Level filters" so that the applied filters can affect all pages.

1. Filters can not be done for L2L (Like 2 Like) comparison by time period for seasonal analysis.
1. Example, you have a peak season of sales in Oct-Nov-Dec... you want to compare the last 3 years of this period... (2017-Oct-Nov_Dec) vs (2016-Oct-Nov-Dec) vs (2015-Oct-Nov-Dec)... impossible.
2. Also if you have different months in your peak seasons... Jan-Jul-Oct-Nov-Dec... totally impossible...

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That case, you may need to create measures for each year based on actual scenario.

Regards,

Yuliana Gu

[JohnP]

Why no replies to this??? Is Power BI really limited in regards to basic reporting functionality?