Case study
A governed Power BI and Fabric data environment
From my work leading IT at a mid-sized manufacturer. Names are left out on purpose.
Context
Reporting ran on Tableau, which capped the number of users, and the company already ran on Microsoft tools.
My role
I led the migration and designed the shared semantic models myself, with a focus on integrating them with the existing ERP.
Approach
In March 2024 we moved from Tableau to Power BI. The Microsoft environment allowed deeper integration and simpler ETL workflows for live dashboards. Instead of unrestricted self-service, I set up shared semantic models so everyone reports from the same definitions. Department leaders and their teams review the reports, and after initial training they request customizations or make their own.
Tools
Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, SQL.
Result
More than 50 reports moved across four departments.
Tableau cost about $10K a year and capped the number of users. Moving to Power BI roughly halved that licence cost (approximate figures) while allowing more users. Departments now build dashboards that all their members can rely on.
Lessons
- A strong business intelligence platform gives you data-backed decisions and a clear view of the state of a department or the business.
- It also makes it much easier to drill into the details behind a number.