Power BI vs Phocas

Complex setup: self-managed setup, deployment and maintenance can be challenging, especially when consolidating non-Microsoft data sources or large, complex datasets. Data warehousing isn’t included, adding costs.

High expertise required: understanding Power BI requires significant learning. DAX experts or consultants ($150-$200/hour) may be needed for data prep and building reports and dashboards (6-8 hours per dashboard).

Limited support: only online forums, videos and documentation are included, requiring time and effort to navigate and learn.

IT resource dependency: in-house specialists may need to continue dedicating time to creating and adjusting datasets, reports and dashboards that are otherwise self-serve in Phocas.

Cloud gateway needed: On-premise data requires a Power BI gateway to move data to the cloud.

Streamlined implementation: a dedicated team delivers a tailored, pre-built cloud solution. Multiple data sources (financial, non-financial, third-party) are consolidated.

Secure data warehousing: fully included with multiple data sources mapped for seamless updates and ongoing validation.

Ease of use: training empowers technical and non-technical users to quickly gain insights.

Robust support: global support teams provide technical help and business-aligned guidance. No bots, no runaround, but an actual Phocas person ready to help.

Faster ROI: Phocas does the heavy lifting, achieving in weeks what Power BI often takes months to accomplish.

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.

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. 

As Power BI is best suited to the technical user, this ultimately leads to data being held and understood by a limited number of people, or in many cases one person. If they leave, they take this experience and expertise with them.

As your business scales, so too does demand on this resource, which is further compounded by the software’s inability to ingest data complexity. Loading this data manually can be extremely slow with time-outs being a common pain point. As for financial capabilities, Power BI is a traditional analytics tool only, which means you will need to manage additional software alongside Power BI.

BI Analytics is a foundational product of the Phocas Business Planning and Analytics (BP&A) platform which includes comprehensive FP&A; Financial Statements, Budgeting and Forecasting and Rebates. This makes it very easy for businesses to seamlessly merge operational and financial data. Reporting is automated, financial statements (P&L/income, cashflow, balance sheet) are customizable and give you quick answers any time. In addition, budgets and forecasts are built using real-time data pulled from your analytics platform; review budget against actuals and forecast, facilitating forward planning with rolling forecasts and quick scenario planning. So, whether you have a 2, 5 or 10-year plan to scale your business, Phocas provides a full suite of BI and FP&A products along with ongoing global support to help you achieve your goals.