Revision History

Version No.	Description
1.0	This document helps to understand the limitations and solutions of using Power BI. This is the first Beta release of Power BI Accessibility Limitations based on our initial learnings.

Overview

Microsoft Power BI is an interactive data visualization tool. Reports provided by Summit can be better visualized and analyzed granularly using Power BI. To integrate with Power BI there are multiple options as listed below. Based on the selected integration option there are a few limitations that are described in the following sections that will help you to understand your requirement and accordingly select the right option.

Power BI using a Custom Connector
Power BI Report Builder
Power BI Desktop

Target Audience

The Power BI Accessibility and Solutions document is helpful for Customers, Business Executives, and Partners.

Power BI Report Uses

Business Intelligence tools ingest data and convert it into visuals, reports, and dashboards to identify trends, patterns, and points of interest. BI tools also help customers, and business executives to analyze the data faster, and develop a strategy to improve the efficiency of an organization. BI tool also helps in timely decision-making through in-depth data analysis.

Figure: Power BI Report Uses

Power BI Plans

Below are the supported features for Power BI Pro / PPU / Premium Capacity License Plans.

Feature	Power BI Pro	Power BI Premium Per user (PPU)	Power BI Premium Per capacity
Mobile App access
Publish reports to share
Paginated reports
Consume content without PPU license
On-premises reporting with Power BI Report Server

For more information on subscription and license capacity, refer to below links.
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-in/pricing/ (for INDIA)
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/ (for North America)

Power BI using a Custom Connector

A custom connector is a .MEZ file that helps connects the client database through an API gateway to retrieve the data from Summit DB and display it on the client's console. Connectors could be used in cases where ODBC connectivity is not feasible due to security or other reasons.

However, this comes with a certain capacity and support limitations. In case when the number of records exceeds a certain limit, and when the custom gateway connector isn't Microsoft-certified, the records couldn't be shown or there was a connection error. A Microsoft-certified custom gateway connector helps alleviate connectivity problems and record latency issues, but gateway connectors still possess risk in terms of the volume of data.

Power BI Report Builder

Power BI Report Builder is a cloud application which is mostly used to build paginated reports on the cloud. Using Power BI Report Builder paginated reports can be generated. This can be achieved by connecting with the data source and retrieving the data. Data on the DN tables are periodically refreshed using a custom gateway connector.

However, this comes with certain time-bound and performance limitations. As the data in the report grows, the time required to retrieve the report also increases, and as a result, performance issues are experienced. Performance issues can be addressed by modifying the query which is used for retrieving the specific dataset in the report builder.

Power BI Desktop

Power BI Desktop application is used to create and share reports with the customers. The reports can consist of dashboards, paginated BI reports or custom reports which can give the client an insight into the specific metric they're looking for. The customer can always access the data on the cloud, or on-premise using the Power BI desktop app if they wish to download and process the data. The customer can be on any plan (including free users) to view the data, but to download the data the customer should be on a PPU /Pro Plan which is the same as Summit at the time of the transaction.

Example:

Summit is on the PPU plan. The customer should be on the same plan to download the data. If the customer’s requirement is to view the report, it can be achieved using a Power BI Free subscription.

Options for Report Generation

Procedure

Limitations

Feasible Options

Power BI using a Custom Connector

Generate a Report using a Custom Connector by connecting client's database through an API gateway.

The maximum number of records that can be fetched is limited to 50k for every pull request for the current version.

Summit is working with Microsoft to get the Custom Connector certified to overcome the limitation.

For more information, refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/powerbi/

Power BI Report Builder

Generate Paginated Reports using Power BI Report Builder. Once the paginated report is called, it will connect to the data source and connect to the data. To optimize the performance level, modify the query in the report builder such as filtration or dividing the report based on YTD (Year to Date) data and republish it.

The time required to retrieve the report increases as the data in the report grows.

Power BI Report Builder is a cloud application, no license is required. Connect to data source to retrieve the data. Data is loaded in a paginated manner which requires more time. Through a Microsoft-certified customer connector time consumption can be reduced.

For more information, refer to
Tutorial: Connect to on-premises data in SQL Server - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Manage your data source - SQL - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Power BI Desktop

The reports generated using Power BI Desktop are of dashboard representation which requires PPU / Pro License. Share the published data with customers outside the organization on Power BI Desktop App.

Note:

To download the data customer should be on a Pro or PPU Plan same as Summit at the time of transaction.

The data load is better, but the export option comes with certain limitations depending upon the user plan, cloud storage, capacity etc.

If you are publishing the data to premium capacity and have a PPU license, create an app and share the data with customers outside the organization.

For more information, refer to
Publish an app in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Distribute content to external guest users with Azure AD B2B - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Figure: Power BI Workflow using Custom Connector

Note:

On-premises reporting with Power BI Report Server source should go through a gateway to get refreshed data.
For more information, refer to Manage your data source - SQL - Power BI | Microsoft Learn.
Once the data is loaded, we can also set up incremental refresh on the report, set the policy on the report, and schedule refresh in the in the Power BI service after publishing.
For more information, refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/incremental-refresh-overview#supported-data-sources.

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