Along with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is it part of the Microsoft suite of business intelligence / data tools. Power BI is part of the Office 365 suite of tools.

PowerBI is targeted toward the same audience that uses the rest of the Microsoft suite of business intelligence / data tools. Primarily, this will be business intelligence developers ... people whose full-time job it is to develop and publish business intelligence dashboards and reports. It should not be considered a "replacement" for Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel.

PowerBI will be a significant technical investment for most people.

• You will need to invest in a PowerBI training course.
• Anything beyond very rudimentary data sets will require knowledge of data modeling, because you will need to define the relationships between tables.
• To make use of many PowerBI features, you'll need to understand how to write at least basic DAX.
• You will need to install ODAC drivers if you plan to connect to the University Data Warehouse (which runs on Oracle).
• You will need to install the correct PowerBI Desktop for the environment to which you want to deploy (there are multiple versions).
• If you are planning to connect to the University Data Warehouse you will need to know how to write SQL queries, as the tables are simply too large to import the entire table.
• The University Data Warehouse requires multi-factor authentication for HawkID authentication.  Because of the way queries run in parallel in PowerBI, connecting with a HawkID can be challenging due to the number of simultaneous DUO prompts. 
• You will likely need to secure a service account to make PowerBI queries work from your desktop, and you will absolutely need them if you want to implement automatic refresh of data.

If you're up for the technical challenge, more information is available about this service on the BISSC Power BI Site.

Support: University of Iowa Health Care: Log into the self service portal at https://service.uiowa.edu/   |   All Other Users: Email PowerBI-Support@uiowa.edu