What are the most effective ways to share your Power BI reports?

While sharing Power BI reports via the web offers convenience, it's crucial to weigh the trade-offs. The lack of access control and security features can pose risks, especially when dealing with sensitive data. Additionally, the manual refresh requirement and potential violations of data source terms underscore the importance of considering alternative sharing methods for more controlled and secure dissemination of information.

When sharing Power BI reports to the web it is important to consider Power BI embedded and the opportunities it opens with Row Level Security (and access security in general vs public sharing). Exposing internal data models publicly, especially when any business operations information or PII is present it, is a no-go. If you are in a company with a website or knowledge base, Power BI embedded licensing might make more sense then Power BI Pro per user. This is because you can use the Embedded to host the reports on your website, giving team members and clients access to only the data relevant to them using row level security through RLS. It also centralises access to business intelligence with other business tools.

1.Publish to Power BI Service: Use Power BI Service to publish and share your reports online. This cloud-based platform allows seamless sharing with stakeholders, offering interactive dashboards and reports via web links. 2. Embed Reports:Embedding reports in websites or applications enhances accessibility. Power BI provides embedding options, allowing you to integrate reports directly into your web pages, SharePoint, or other applications, providing a more integrated user experience. 3.Export and Distribute: Export reports in various formats (PDF, PowerPoint, Excel) for offline sharing. Distribute these files via email or other collaboration tools to ensure a wider reach among users who may not have direct access to Power BI Service.

Accessibility is another vital aspect. Ensuring that Power BI reports are easily accessible to all stakeholders through mobile access, email subscriptions, or integration into commonly used platforms is essential. This makes the insights readily available and seamlessly integrates them into the daily workflow.

Power BI Service: Host your reports on the Power BI Service, Microsoft's cloud-based platform for sharing, collaborating, and publishing Power BI content. Use the sharing options to give access to specific individuals or groups. You can control whether they can view or edit the reports. Power BI Export Options: Leverage export options such as PDF or PowerPoint to share static versions of your reports. This is useful for situations where recipients may not have direct access to the Power BI platform.

Sharing Power BI reports through dashboards offers a more controlled approach, particularly within organizational boundaries. The ability to manage permissions, apply security measures, and classify data enhances data governance. However, the need to create separate dashboards for each report and the requirement for recipients to have specific licensing or premium access can be limiting. Additionally, the restriction on sharing reports with external users, except through guest accounts or third-party services, highlights the importance of considering the intended audience and licensing implications when opting for this sharing method.

Dashboards can be a very effective way of providing stakeholders with the information they care about. In Power BI, pinning the most important metrics to a dashboard, such as higher-level KPIs allows information consumers to take a pulse check on status or progress. Users can then drill down into more detailed reports to understand or analyse the root causes or influencers. (Assuming narrative is not also pinned) A useful technique can be 15, 5, 15. A dashboard can inform a user on the overall performance of an operation within 15 seconds. Drilling down should enable the user to identify performance influencers within 5 minutes. The user can then analyse the data at a low level if required to get a deeper understanding. (15mins)

Dashboards synthesize critical insights into a cohesive, easily digestible format, facilitating rapid comprehension for stakeholders. This streamlined presentation ensures that key metrics and visualizations are immediately accessible, minimizing the time needed for data interpretation. The interactive nature of dashboards encourages user engagement, allowing stakeholders to explore specific areas of interest dynamically. This approach promotes data-driven decision-making by presenting a comprehensive snapshot, fostering a more informed and efficient analysis of the underlying information within the Power BI reports.

When an organization has an on-premises report server, it eliminates security concerns about data sharing since no one outside the organization can access the data. Additionally, you can implement row-level security based on departments and user emails or usernames. This allows you to share data securely with users without compromising the privacy of other users or departmental data.

Share Power BI reports effectively? This technique is my personal favorite. Imagine you have multiple reports related to different aspects of your business, such as sales, marketing, and finance. You can create a dashboard in the Power BI Service that consolidates key visuals from these reports. This dashboard can be shared with specific teams or decision-makers, providing a holistic view of the business performance.

There are different ways to publish : In the form of the web if you want to share publicly then you can share . You can assign roles in a workspace for a viewer to and enter the email address with whom you want to share. You can share in the form of apps where they can access

Exporting Power BI reports to PDF or PowerPoint provides a static snapshot for broader accessibility, but it comes with trade-offs. The loss of interactivity limits the user's ability to explore data dynamically, which could impact the depth of analysis. Furthermore, the manual export process for updates may lead to outdated information being shared inadvertently. Additionally, the compromise in visual complexity or data size when converting to these file formats emphasizes the need to assess the nature of the content and its intended audience, as it might affect the overall effectiveness of conveying insights.

PDFs are good for publishing visuals but data is cut off if there are more columns than what can be fitted on to the page. My two cents.

First, ensure data accuracy by verifying the latest refresh of your dataset. Second, optimize visuals for print by adjusting sizes and layouts. Third, check for sensitive information. Remove or mask any confidential data to avoid unintended disclosures. Validate the consistency of formatting, fonts, and colors to maintain a professional appearance. Additionally, assess interactivity in the exported format. Some features may not be retained in static exports. Test hyperlinks, tooltips, and other interactive elements to ensure a seamless viewing experience. Lastly, consider file sizes for PDF and PowerPoint. Optimize images and compress files to maintain a balance between quality and manageability.

When exporting your Power BI report, it's important to know which specific page you want to share. By using the Hide Page option, you can easily control which pages are included in your export, ensuring you only share the pages you need.

Biggest advantage of email over all other methods is that it serves as an automated notification to users when data on report gets refreshed and ready to view, of course with a clickable link which leads them to the report.

Most convenient and secure but yes it is paid so not everyone in org has access to the app. Also may not work across subscriptions on different tenants.

When on the topic of sharing or making reports available in Power BI, we should all explore Power BI Apps. Think of these as the “production” environment for report consumption. Power BI Apps have (as of now) a one to one relationship with workspaces, therefore, you need to have a workspace to have an app. Consider how you will structure workspaces and therefore apps - by report, by department, by analysis type, etc. Apps also are more user-friendly than workspaces, as they remove all the buttons, technical jargon, etc. that an end-user simply won’t care about. In addition, they can be formatted to brand colours which is a nice touch. Apps also have Audiences that offer more granular access control so be sure to check this out.

When we are working in a business environment which demands the security and privacy of data, Power BI Embedded plays a crucial role. In my experience, my organization deals with financial information a lot and sharing reports in a controlled environment with user access control has been always our priority. Having said that, Power BI Embedded incurs cost that is not suitable for all types of organizations.

I added some comments to other sections as part of this question. However, the correct answer on what’s the most effective ways to share Power BI reports is… IT DEPENDS! Who are the end-users of the report, what are they use to, what type of analysis/reporting are they looking for, how sensitive is the data, what licensing do we have and more. With that said, if you are new to all this, please use workspaces and apps for enabling access to reports. As mentioned above, based on requirements and end-user needs you may go into only simply using workspaces (informal/small number of people), shareable links (please don’t), PBI Embedded, Subscriptions, PowerPoint Live, PDF, and so much more.

A forma de compartilhar vai depender da infraestrutura da empresa/cliente, do nível de customização do Report, considero que podem haver momento em que receber um painel executivo em um e-mail poder ser maneira mais eficaz e rápida de se receber um Report, já um painel onde podem ser feitas análises ou filtros, ter esse painel publicado na web ou na própria ferramenta será a melhor maneira.

Every organization is different and even different teams and leaders have different needs. While best practices often entails shared semantic models across multiple reports, dashboards, and apps; not every use case is the same and may require customization accordingly. Ex. For SOX reporting, a certified model with proper deployment pipelines is preferred to ensure proper controls are in place, while an AdHoc discrepancy report for temporary system defects can often be handled effectively with embedded data source in a paginated report. Ex2. An analyst may benefit from interactive reports connected to a composite model of EDW and custom add on data, while an executive leader only needs an app of critical KPIs across the organization.

First, we have to size the company's resources. Since Power BI is free in its desktop version, we can use it to explain the numbers in a more friendly way. In my recent experiences, I have shared the reports through a presentation, and then sent personalized summaries to each member of the meeting. Needless to say, I have used this format because the size of these organizations was not large enough to purchase the full version.

A lot of great options to choose from depending on the use case. I lean toward apps and embedded depending on internal/external users and licensing. They scale and are typically more secure. More importantly is making sure they are being utilized and are serving their purpose and the consumer are engaged. Building a data culture by developing standards, training, building relationships with SME and business units. Marketing the BI products. Making sure you have testing, monitoring, alerting, and reporting built into your systems.