Tableau Report to Power BI Migration

[Divyang45]

Hello Community,

I am struggling with scenario where leadership wants to take old BI tools and migrate to Power BI instead of just focusing on new use cases and logically winding down old reports over time. That seems more logical given the success and momentum so far with Power BI. That is the best practices recommended by Microsoft. I think my leadership is under-estimating the total workload and cost.

We have hundreds of tableau reports, some BusinessObjects remaining and recently new Power BI reports for new business requirements.  Each tool has its own experts and teams. There is overlap, but generally the data comes from the same place. It seems the total cost would be higher than the savings to try and migrate.

There is lots of articles and blogs and best practices for migration but I wonder if I am alone that migration makes no sense? What are other environments and experience where migration worked where it didn’t disrupt delivery of new requirements and value? Is there any projects or learnings where my instinct is right?

[Ritaf1983 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Divyang45 

You're right that this isn’t really a migration — Tableau and Power BI aren’t identical tools, even if their functionality looks similar on the surface. Reports will need to be rebuilt, not just moved.

If the main motivation behind the change is cost savings, it’s true that the ROI might take a long time to achieve. Rebuilding reports, validating results, and training users require significant effort, and even with the lowest-cost Power BI Pro licenses, the initial investment can outweigh the short-term savings.

However, if there are other strategic or technical reasons — for example, leveraging Microsoft Fabric, integrating better with the Microsoft ecosystem, or enabling easier development for users who already work with Microsoft tools — that’s a different discussion.

I’ve worked with clients who moved from Tableau to Power BI and were very satisfied in the end, but each case is unique. I’d recommend contacting Microsoft partners in your region who can help evaluate costs, workload, and potential benefits before deciding on a full rebuild.

Attaching some links to similar discussions that might help:

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Migrating-Tableau-Report-to-Power-BI-report/m-p/48...

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Tableau-to-Power-BI-Migration/m-p/4664049#M1394538

If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[datatoolspro]

This is really really good advice from @Ritaf1983 . I couldn't have said it better myself regarding strategic and technical reasons to move to Microsoft. I was part of the big shift from first gen BI (BusienssObjects / Cognos). Rather than thosunads of reports, now large enterprises have thosands of "dashboards / reports." The mairrage of self service has created serious deluge problems. I speak to enterprise leaders weekly and also work on these projects I see 50-80% of what's sitting in Tableau has been abandoned.

If you are in that camp, these moves happen by divisions, geographies, pillars, etc and you may have multiple BI platform invesetments and competencies.

The reason enterprsies are consolidating to Microsoft is it's a safe landing space for BI over the next few years while the verdict is out on AI/ BI. Big enterprises make moves different than small enterprises. The scale, risk, and speed is simply different. Without knowing the dynamics of your business (size of team and footprint, existing investments, specific challenges with tableau, governance structure, maturaty, etc, etc), its impossible to pinpoint and give you amunition.

The only constant is don't get caught in the "tools" trap iternally. I have sat in painful meetings and debates where passionate teams go into the Tableau vs Power BI battle dome. The objective function of Tableau and Power BI is the exact same... Create visibility, understanding, and line of sight / descriptive analytics. Power BI and Fabric howerver are platforms to do so much more! Sounds generic and obvious but start with the objective and work backwards to logical conerns you have. 

The two areas where the differences will bite you making the move:
Your data model and semantic model construct and how you managed or mismanaged them in Tableau. 
Small nuances in user experience can cause extreme frustration without planning UAT and continuity.

@Ritaf1983 is right that unless you have a strong internal competency and experience leading and running a migration I second having a partner.  

[v-dineshya]

Hi @Divyang45 ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.

Hi @Ritaf1983 , Thank you for your prompt response.

Hi @Divyang45 ,

Could you please try the proposed solution shared by  @Ritaf1983 ? Let us know if you’re still facing the same issue we’ll be happy to assist you further.

Regards,

Dinesh

[v-dineshya]

Hi @Divyang45 ,

We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if you have a resolution yet. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Regards,

Dinesh