Phocas vs Power BI

Power BI is not designed to handle heavy-duty data processing, multi-entity business requirements, large datasets or complex queries.

If you want to go beyond operational data analysis, consolidating data from financial reporting and budgeting and forecasting can be extremely difficult. This results in a continued reliance on manual data consolidation which is time-consuming, error-prone and can lead to subsequent security risks. Whether you’re allocating this additional manual processing to a dedicated in-house resource or outsourcing to a consultant, it will once again continue to increase the TCO. 

Phocas software is designed to ingest business complexity effectively and efficiently. It can handle large, diverse data sets or even create multiple iterations of auditable financial statements to match multi-entity requirements.

Phocas connects operational and financial data enabling cross-functional analysis. This results in technical and non-technical users developing a comprehensive understanding of whole-business performance. Essentially, Phocas' robust BI platform takes care of the complexity, while the intuitive interface makes it easy to access and analyze one trusted source of data truth. So, as your business grows and the complexity increases, Phocas will continue to ingest and comprehend this information to provide you with a 360-degree view of business performance.

Power BI is highly technical to use.

If your aim is to keep analytics under the control of the IT function, this might work well. If you want to empower users across your business to become self-sufficient in data analytics, the technical skills required to effectively use Power BI will hinder this significantly.

Dashboards and reports are complex and time-consuming to build, which creates a bottle neck when relying on in-house experts or external consultants. Once a report or dashboard is built, they are essentially a read-only tool; data interrogation is not possible without a data analyst and even then, this requires hard coding. Reviewing real-time data on-the-fly prior to a sales call or to extract critical data during boardroom meetings is not possible. This would require preparation by data analysts well in advance, limiting your ability to quickly address issues before they escalate or to take advantage of opportunities.

Phocas empowers everyone to perform advanced data analytics within just a few clicks.

You can build data sets and create customizable reports and dashboards in minutes, then present insights to the wider business using customizable visualization tools - scorecards, Sparklines, graphs and charts. A unique analysis grid with a familiar Excel format, provides an intuitive ad-hoc analysis layer so users of all abilities can interrogate data. Drill down from macro to transactional-level data to answer your own questions; analyze sales data by customer, product or region to identify trends and spot outliers. Data sharing is not restricted internally or externally via tiered pricing, however sensitive information is protected via global data security that is set up per user. This enables layered permission controls so users can only view and interrogate what they are permitted to.

Power BI's desktop (free) version requires individual downloads to PC desktops or laptops (excluding Mac) to create reports. This makes it difficult to govern multiple users with individual connections to data sources – often containing confidential information. Reviewing static reports that are then manipulated in Excel creates version control issues, making it extremely difficult to manage and consolidate. This is an error-prone process that can lead to potential risks during compliance audits.

If you decide to upgrade to a Power BI cloud-based pricing tier, security is provided at a dataset level. This means that security needs to be defined for each dataset you create, leaving room for human error. DAX capabilities and a significant amount of administration effort are required to achieve this, which puts pressure on in-house resources, or increases ongoing consultant costs and TCO.

Phocas is a cloud-based solution that provides enterprise-grade security as a baseline regardless of the number of business users.

Access and security are defined and provided at a user level. Once this is set up, users will only be able to view and edit what they are permitted to. This type of layered permission control protects confidential information while users are analyzing data. It also enables task assignment and feedback requests, improving collaboration. The administrative workload is dramatically reduced as is the room for human error.