Sharing Reports with Free-License Users – Ep. 346

Sharing Power BI reports with free-license users can be confusing — in this episode, Mike, Tommy, and Seth break down what works, what doesn’t, and the practical options for organizations.

News & Announcements

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Main Discussion

In this episode, the team talks through the real-world scenarios that trigger the question “can we share this report with free users?” and what the tradeoffs are across the common approaches (including organizational licensing, who needs Pro, and what happens when you embed content in other tools).

Looking Forward

If you’re trying to reduce friction for report consumers, map your audience first (internal vs. external, anonymous vs. authenticated), then pick the sharing model that matches both your security requirements and your licensing budget.

Episode Transcript

0:18 you [Music] good morning and welcome back to the explicit measures podcast with Tommy Seth and Mike good morning everyone good morning gentlemen we are back good morning live I know took a couple days off people were traveling

0:49 couple days off people were traveling doing different things and yeah we’re back back now again for audio people literally no change but for us this is great I haven’t seen you guys in two weeks missed you I will say Tommy the beard is looking really good you you’re always worried about oh it doesn’t look right it’s not going to be great I it looks wonderful so I I I I definitely in I haven’t seen you in a week Tommy is for those of you who are on camera or off off liting to the audio podcast or on the audio side of things Tommy was almost clean shaving when I left Tommy looks like he has a eight-month beard

1:20 looks like he has a eight-month beard going on right now it is very dark and he doesn’t have a bit of gray in it and when my wife was looking at me the other day she’s like you’re all gray yeah all gray say the wife first a lot of trimming there’s a lot a lot of TLD or Tender Loving Care there t TLD the other here that I’m really enjoying is the is the chin rug thing when you’re thinking which I’ve just started doing it good point yeah it is it’s that’s the same as having a really good

1:50 that’s the same as having a really good point like and you’re gonna say something you’re like really truthful you got to take the glasses off like well let me tell you about workspaces you take the glasses off like I can’t take the glasses off then I wouldn’t be able to see anyone if I did that i’ would be talking to like the sky and people be like why are your eyes crosseyed so I don’t take glasses when I dramatic things you can do but next time you have a truthful thing to say just take the glasses off like and then just put them back on as you’re saying it I think I just I just fiddle with my my coffee cup it’s usually if I have something to say I’ll I’ll say something and then I’ll take a sip of coffee and

2:21 and then I’ll take a sip of coffee and that that is the finality of the statement yeah you’re looking sharp Tommy I’m a little jealous here no no Grays no whites up here and on the sides now we we’re we’re going strong Italian blood yeah longevity right so no no no no it’s not long we’ll keep the black hair but croak kind amazing all right let’s jump into our of amazing all right let’s jump into our our main topic we’re going to skip our

2:51 our main topic we’re going to skip our intro today we started a little bit late today we can’t oh no we can there’s a short one no there’s a short one because we were we before the break we we were talking about paginated and you were like man this so difficult this interface blah blah blah blah blah and the next day August 5th first release of the paginated experience in the service only yes service build only correct have you been playing with this I have not but I was like oh because I just got packed I’m I’m under a flood of trying

3:21 packed I’m I’m under a flood of trying to catch up now right true there’s a penalty for taking a week off it is there is now yes true and it is all the work that you didn’t do coming back in spades but no caught that one can’t wait to go go check it out but yeah a simpler drag and drop interface for you Mike yes I love it honestly bam this is what ioft responding all the time this is what I was saying from day one I was saying from day one it was like look page reports is not that complicated it’s actually if even if you just look

3:51 it’s actually if even if you just look at the bits of the software you need to download it’s much smaller make the whole thing be a web- based program I think people will like it honestly I love the experience it’s a little bit jarring from what it was previously but I get a lot more capability now I can it looks like there’s a couple buttons that might let me add images or other text items on the page the my biggest thing is parameters just at let me letting me make reports with required parameters is really huge because when I’m using in the desktop application for a port Builder it’s

4:21 application for a port Builder it’s actually quite confusing to make a parameter and make it work correctly this shouldn’t be rocket science this this should be pretty straightforward so having the the website or the the web version of Pat reports just do that for you dude I’m a fan it’s it’s really good and it makes a lot of sense just to be the web it’s it really has the experience of what it should have been the whole time if that if they had technology was available but why why have another file for something that well think of it it’s like they’re trying to gauge I think it’s

4:51 they’re trying to gauge I think it’s like a gauging interest thing right you build these powerbi reports and know you build these powerbi reports and you could yes technically you can connect page reports to them well why is any of this pagein report stuff appearing as on the development road map people are requesting it Microsoft is getting request from companies that say look we just need to get access to the data there’s no good tool to access the data in table form I I can’t be restricted by 100, 000 rows EXA all I need million rows like okay here’s more

5:22 need million rows like okay here’s more capacity exactly right and to Microsoft’s credit here like look you want it here it is it just consumes capacity it just runs so that’s that’s what it should be doing honestly maybe see that was the Miss thing right out of the gate right like if you want to talk about Hogs of capacity it’s going to be it’s going to be these like yep I want to I want the entire table every time dump out and it’s like yeah we can give that to you here’s a capacity for you and it for you well it’s it’s I really like that you made that point Seth because that’s

5:53 you made that point Seth because that’s this is our qu this is think we’ve made this point a number of times it’s either access to data or insights on data and I feel like the report side is more of the insightful data we’ve already done the analysis and said here’s a regular report that you’re going to need over and over again aggregated the way you need to see it but there’s a lot of times we don’t know yet we just need access the information and the pageant reports is that meeting that need there’s one other point here I wanted to make around this one was the the page reports piece a Blog we were just working with a client recently

6:24 just working with a client recently trying to get page reports to work on really big tables like billion row tables we have a table that has multiple segments of information and I’m going to get down to like a couple hundred thousand rows in a in in a table from a from a very large single table right the real the real idea of like a cube right this is the actual data warehouse well you can now run page reports against the SQL endpoint which reads directly from direct lake so you can make your tables in Delta format in The Lakehouse and

6:56 in Delta format in The Lakehouse and your SQL endpoint can then listen to the page report parse the query and then just go grab just the data it needs from the massive T this was huge some lady was I can’t remember her name I really apologize but I I saw a Blog someone wrote an article she did a great job on it and she said look I’m using direct l or the semantic SQL endpoint the the SQL endpoint to go get tables of data in pageant reports and it was Blazing fast to go parse down because again it’s just filtering data down

7:26 again it’s just filtering data down sense to a flat white from a flat white table so like this is this is really important for people to know this exist where do you think where where where we’ve been or where we’ve come from back in the day when we wanted that I felt like an old like Chicago C here’s what you need to do you open this Excel file touch that data tab here’s that power quer don’t do anything else click refresh now you’re gonna wait like 10 15 minutes go get some coffee then come back and you’ll have some of your data and now this makes a ton of sense with the direct they just also

7:57 with the direct they just also released we’ll talk about this our next podcast but another mirroring feature

8:01 podcast but another mirroring feature with SQL databases this is incredible in terms of the ability for us to access our data in ways that I don’t knowly not capable of doing very much changes what the do it is a super cool do you watch D perfect you must watch du perfect that’s a thing off D perect is it I’ve consumed a lot in my Min years maybe it’s just regurgitating we could have a cool not cool Fe in here yeah cool not cool that was definitely super cool yeah I love it

8:34 was definitely super cool yeah I love it awesome reports super cool super cool always been with that let’s jump into our main topic then so thanks for the intro Seth I appreciate that one that was good didn’t I didn’t realize we had an intro so my apologies all right that being said let’s jump into our main topic Seth if you don’t mind we have a great mailbag question today talking about free users and using that within the powerbi ecosystem give us a read hi guys huge fan of your podcast my question is about sharing to users

9:04 question is about sharing to users within the company that only have a free license I have easily digestable and fairly simple productivity reports that I want to send out daily how can I share these if I can’t add them as a subscriber would love to hear your thoughts on digestible report sharing am I missing something huge thanks and I look forward to hearing from you all it’s a great question I think this is going to very quickly devolve into licensing because the licensing is the

9:35 licensing because the licensing is the tricky part here that is not clean or easy to understand I guess it is if you spend a lot of time thinking about it but for companies that are just showing up to this they’re like whoa there’s like a thousand options here which is the most costeffective option for what I need there’s a lot of like it depends type questions on what you’re doing with your data models so so this is so I let’s talk let’s break this up because yes it will instantly go licensing but I think so in this scenario we have like a pro user right

10:05 scenario we have like a pro user right and then they’re building reports and they want to share those reports with unlicensed users yep what are what is that experience right like yes how can they do that in that framework without any pro licensing like what are the options I guess and we’re also making a clear note here is there is a free I clear note here is there is a free you can you can either have have mean you can you can either have have users with Pro this is what I think this is doing here Pro free and and or none basically is what

10:37 free and and or none basically is what I’m thinking about here because there you could have users in your organization that don’t have a free license attached to them and then what I’m assuming here is I’m making some assumptions with this question that we’re talking about all the other users that you’re wanting to share reports are in that have already been authorized the free powerbi license which means they can get to powerbi. com they can use my work space but they can’t get to anything that’s inside a workspace sorry my workspace they have access to they

11:07 my workspace they have access to they can’t get to anything that in any other shared workspace across team members because that would require a pro license to do that and it sounds like to the the big thing here is not the access to the report we’re talking about subscriptions that’s the major aspect here too that I I caught myself too that’s a good point Tommy changes it yes and I I was also interested in the subscriptions part of this because subscribing to things well it’s the new it’s the new experience I I like if you think about sharing right like

11:39 if you think about sharing right like they changed that to like that SharePoint subscriber dialogue box so like I think that’s one in the same no we’re I to me it sounds all like an email email subscription that’s where I initially went but I’m not sure if that’s really what I wanted though like so there’s not what you want well again I was just trying to read into the word subscript because that I wanted to dive into that word specifically because if you talk about subscribing to things I want to send out daily I think that’s

12:09 want to send out daily I think that’s what that means because there’s also you could subscribe to when the data set refreshes because you could you could also just be alerted when it when a refresh has occurred and you’re subscribing to a report it will email you hey this report is now done and data is now loaded you can now click this link and go someplace basically to par. com par. com to go see the a current report so I think the word subscriptions we need to Define that word in order to for us to answer the rest of the question because I thinke we have to make some assumptions around what he means or he

12:40 assumptions around what he means or he or she means by subscriptions so Tommy you’re saying is that sound like an emailed report of a subscription it sounds like the subscription because there’s three things that I I see I want to share to users I want to easy send out daily how can I share if they’re not a subscriber and I want to report so those are the two ones I’m like okay there’s no way that someone actually clicking a link and going to the report that sounds like an email only access thing or or that’s the way they want to

13:10 or or that’s the way they want to deliver the content I want to send it out daily I’m not I’m not sending a link out daily manually that’s that’s an automated system which is only the email subscription so I want to again when I say when I think about the word subscriptions I think about like pagey reports and I’m sending you tables of data that’s what I that’s what I initially think about when I hear the word subscription so that’s what I think about not saying it’s right so when I hear that word I also one thing I would communicate to this user and

13:40 communicate to this user and potentially to their organization is did did you realize like the data is always fresh if you’re using certain parts of the fabric ecosystem or powerbi Pro license ecosystem I think things slightly change here depending on what Licensing you’re using so if we’re talking about hey I’m creating a refresh an import mode and I need to let everyone know the import mode is done that’s potentially a different experience then I need to send you

14:10 experience then I need to send you something to your inbox that is a table of data that needs to appear so if you say subscriptions is I want you to know the data is refreshed that’s a different pattern and I think the Assumption with me as if I this were me in my spot I would communicate to my organization hey the data is always up to date every night it’s current so it doesn’t matter you don’t need an inbox email to show you the data is current I would add something to my reporting that says data refreshed as of and then put an actual date on the report and just tell

14:40 date on the report and just tell everyone look the report’s always up to date you don’t need to do anything special go to this app or SharePoint site or wherever but they can’t access the report so this is where this is where the license discussion comes in right but but in in the free realm right sub subscribing to a report where it gets emailed to you or not you get a notification or whatever yep is still a pro licens thing it’s not a free so if you’re trying to share or subscribe or

15:11 you’re trying to share or subscribe or do things on the report you’ve developed and give it to other people you’re G to run into the roadblock of Licensing regardless yes but an f64 or P1 so it’s a difference of but but this is a pro is a pro for pro one one user has a pro- license creating content or no users have yeah right so either they’re creating their own stuff in their own workspace

15:42 their own stuff in their own workspace right because you can you for free for free yep you can download powerbi desktop you can connect all these things you can create man fantastic reports and you can deploy them to your workpace in the powerbi service that’s it yeah like the the licensing has always been constructed around sharing the content

16:04 constructed around sharing the content correct right yes so so what’s so my question then maybe would be is what’s the cheapest way so so regardless any fre user showing up to power b. com requires some additional licensing would we would we agree to say it that way as a consumer as a free user consumer of content there needs to be a licensing change from just Pro there has to be some it’s the pro user plus some other purchased something right to consume content in the service

16:35 right to consume content in the service yes yes okay I want to make sure we level set on that one because there’s two there’s like a cheap option and then there’s an expensive option well I’m I’m low to bring this up too okay go ahead because I because I am I’m gonna say it just because it’s an option I know what you’re but I I hate saying it emailing around the file or is an option here and it’s published

17:07 web th up my mouth a little bit you should you should because you could get fired yeah that’s the that’s the Instant Fire button right yeah that that is that is that is an around but you’re putting your your public you’re publicly exposing all of your data from your yeah that is that is not a good option fireable effects fireable effects so around around the the techn ology of powerbi that would be the only way a user could could access a report yeah

17:37 user could could access a report yeah you wouldn’t even need a free user at that point without without a license you could be any user and it’s been proven I I’m I’m not recommending it I’m just saying from a technology perspective it’s it’s an option it does exist but as I say that it’s been proven even when this feature came out by the Microsoft power the MVP community that these links are findable and searchable Y so if you don’t think or if I would I would even caution for listeners that are using that potentially in this scenario

18:08 using that potentially in this scenario y that your data is exposed 100% it’s exposed to someone and if somebody finds it what is it gonna do right we’re GNA recommend pause the podcast now we’ll be here yeah you go go turn off publish the web have that feature I maybe we don’t have the time to I feel like we’re talking about the branches here and not necessarily the root of the problem we’re talking about this axis that which I I’m finding this more common actually this question I

18:40 more common actually this question I think that’s why I chose it on I need to give more people greater access to very simplistic type data but I don’t want to worry about the bells and whistles about the cost and to me that’s what I’m hearing and this is literally the second time this week outside of the podcast that I I’ve heard this type of question this type of query so to speak and I don’t know this is there’s power automate I think there’s still obviously more technology things and Licensing we can get into but there’s the greater

19:11 can get into but there’s the greater question about here is I have basic data I need to send to key people that I don’t need them to spend $20 a month because we’re not doing $20 a month worth of worth of consumption let’s well let me I want to unpack some price let’s talk like this is pricing based off the us and so I do want to I think you’re right on spot on point here Tommy like we’re talking about Pro users Pro users like what what is the value of these reports right let’s quantify the value of these reports that we’re trying to produce here so if your sharing audience is

19:43 here so if your sharing audience is small 30 40 50 people you can turn them all on to Pro licenses and you can publish everything through an app and so to me that means it depends on the audience size here to some degree if you’re talking about Pro users your first option is well you can’t have for users consume content from powerbi. com with only Pro so we’re let’s talk about that first it’s an easy win turn off turn on Pro users licensing or all the users that you need and everything’s sharable boom done 30 people that’s $300

20:15 sharable boom done 30 people that’s $300 a month in the US it’s it’s $10 per user per month that’s that’s your cost if that’s too expensive and you want to go other routes the only other cheaper method that I’m aware of is moving into the fabric F SKS so the pro user still needs to exist you’re still paying $10 a month per person on that one and on the powerbi pro or sorry the fabric skew you can embed content internally and externally so what that means is a fabric F2 skew is $250 a month it’s $150

20:48 fabric F2 skew is $250 a month it’s $150 a month if you pay for prepaid pricing or something like that it goes down in cheaper so you you get now to this $150 a month pricing there’s a lot of restrictions that go along with that model has to be a certain size those users that are free do not get access to the powerbi. com portal so you’re now forced to embed the report into teams or SharePoint or some other thirdparty application more it’s more management but if we’re already in the realm of I’m

21:19 but if we’re already in the realm of I’m trying to get all my free users access to something it already sounds like the company has made the the decision that look we’ll let this user do extra work in order to save us money monthly to get to this point so at $150 a month now we’re talking we only need 15 users to consume the report so if your audience is greater than 15 a fabric F2 skew is the cheapest free user consumption method you can use so Pro $10 per month plus an extra $150 per month and then

21:50 plus an extra $150 per month and then you can use that for as many for users as you need until you run out of capacity and things start falling over so if you don’t have an efficient model and it’s not very small you’re going to run into problems if you do that and it just scales from there but it’s the okay the easiest is pro the easiest is just but it’s a little bit more expensive than the fabric F skill well expense expense in terms of the licensing to do correct but you’re adding more expense in terms of

22:22 adding more expense in terms of implement a solution that works yes right correct and this is where balance I’ve I’ve always I’ve always been on the side of even I won’t bring up names but there have been significant MVPs who worked in the realm of like smaller midsize companies who oh worries we’re talking about licensing yep yeah even in this CA and I’ve always been on the on the other side which is why are we having this argument like

22:52 is why are we having this argument like like $10 a month like in this value you’re saying $300 a month for 30 users that’s $3, 600 a year it what what do you get for that yes you get an entire ecosystem yes you’ve okay so one you get an ETL tool you get out of thee boox connections to almost every third party application orlic like thing you would be using that stores data you get tabular models compression of data you

23:24 tabular models compression of data you get a reporting tool you get a service that shares that you get entire ecosystem that lets you build business intelligence in your organization for 3600 bucks yeah and almost unlimited storage if you use data flows and the service for like what is it 100 terabytes of storage information you can have in your workspace it’s crazy mindblowing the value there yes right so in in many cases like going down this free route or trying to like copy PBX

23:55 free route or trying to like copy PBX files or pay like it’s it’s not a solution and if you think about like how much companies spend on third party tools to solve a problem oh my gosh with powerbi

24:05 solve a problem oh my gosh with powerbi you can solve many different problems in as it relates to insights I want to I want to hang on your point there just a little bit well hang I want to hang on your point Tommy Seth you said one thing $3, 600 a month for the value I get it no per year or sorry per year $3, 600 per year for the whole solution for all those users so like totally understand that part I think there’s a cultural aspect of this that is being communicated here but that’s not quite in this yet the reason there are free

24:36 in this yet the reason there are free users here is that all those free users are not required yet to have the full capability of Pro work spaces and apps and so I think potentially here is in cultures in companies where the data culture is more of a there is a person there’s a Tommy make me my reports just send them out and let me know when they’re done there’s the the culture is not yet ready to spend the $3, 600 per year to really bring because

25:06 $3, 600 per year to really bring because the rest of the team doesn’t have the knowledge or the capabilities yet they’re still very basic in their analytical skills and I think what’s how I read this question is the user is saying look without saying it directly the culture is not there yet I couldn’t bring everyone on as Pro users all I’m looking for is the most easiest less the least cost expensive way of developing and building this out for the rest of of our team and so they will get there and I think the answer is as you expose them more to this experience more and more

25:36 more to this experience more and more users will adopt it but that’s a cultural push that’s also happening here so there’s there’s some it feels like there’s a little bit of a language of a cultural aspect here as well this is close what I was gonna say go ahead close where they’re either actually I was gonna say they’re actually either Prime for that push now or tin of switch companies because it sounds like they’re at that beginning FC sorry this is a hot take this is a hot hot no but honestly though they’re either at that point where you I feel

26:07 either at that point where you I feel like this user can have that conversation like what’s the long-term plan here like what are we really doing here because someone’s asking for this there’s probably other situations like this this is not the one time he’s this person has heard this type of question where this is a perfect time to bring that conversation Seth I think you hit it on the head on the break point or the threshold of what are we doing here are we just going to be sending out data well we can spend $3, 600 a month for the entire

26:38 month for the entire team and provide that and I think that this is the perfect time to have that conversation because the odds are too they’re not goingon to just want this one digestible data and they’re going to be happy forever this is the start of something or in the middle of something that data culture right to me is primed to say what’s the long-term plan here for data what are we really going to do here we can do this we can do it a really cheap way and it works or for a very very minimal cost and an

27:12 for a very very minimal cost and an incredible amount of value make this a scorecard if it’s digestible and you’re trying to track your kpis we can do that with $10 a month per user to me this is someone perfect primed to have that conversation around can we talk about what the shortterm midterm plan for data in our company is I’m I’m gonna Tommy you’re you’re making a great Point here I want to jump on this one as well I saw a YouTube short from Marco Russo at sqlbi Marco brought on this thing he

27:42 sqlbi Marco brought on this thing he says how to get your boss to buy you something and he he literally goes and was literally talking through like the TBL editor purchase experience and he goes don’t talk about the tool don’t talk about what the tool is going to do for you talk about the value in the time you save to use said tool so yeah I’m going to put the link in the chat window here here I did not see that so this is this is is like it’s so true don’t talk about the

28:12 like it’s so true don’t talk about the tools and I think the reason why we’re having this conversation also is to your point exactly Tommy right it’s a point in time where we’re saying the the company doesn’t really understand the value of the dollar spend to make this thing become a reality or in the organization and maybe leadership education needs to be held here to a higher degree around look we’re going to get this we’re going to get this extra storage we’re going to get all these extra features we’ get models at this one gigabyte size this would fit all of our data in our company whatever the things are right it’s not

28:42 whatever the things are right it’s not just a little oneoff experience that someone is building in a in a one Department it’s this this is a strategy for the organization to start adopting these things and you start with right part of this strategy starts with let’s get this thing correctly built for those free users let’s adopt them and then let’s actually plan to say look this is going to be step one in multiple steps in our company where we’re going to continue to invest more on our people our learning our education so that way

29:13 our learning our education so that way this we maximize the use of this parb tool because it’s it’s silly for you to go out and buy a parb tool and not actually use it to its full potential yeah I I think I would even back it up further before we go down to like huge cultural back it up back it up changes things is is in in that same vein it’s not hey I need $10 per user per month so I can send this report out right the the sell here is I there’s this report that

29:43 sell here is I there’s this report that is the first of many that were are are going to solve this problem for the organization or give insights this like what powerbi allows us to do is have a single interface have build all like all of the infrastructure anybody needs to not just consume these but we can teach people how to leverage this stuff themselves too and there’s no additional cost for any of this right so we as an organization all these people who want to consume from the same singular location where all of our reporting is

30:13 location where all of our reporting is it’s super it’s simplified solves this immediate need it also enables them to do more right which we can show them how to do and in terms of Licensing there’s T tons of ways we can scale with this too like we can start off with this we can monitor who using it who’s not we can repurpose licenses we all of that stuff but the value to the business is we now have a central place things can be shared in this ecosystem this is where people can like digest the content digest the data get

30:43 content digest the data get access to things not in silos we can centralize all of that around this ecosystem you can do that with a pro license yeah and this also speaks to where we’ve done a ton of our one of our series of the Strategic implementation of powerbi I think as you look at this I think we initially all I was looking at this in a vacuum of this one particular solution or problem and how do I solve this one problem but again I think when you’re dealing with something where your

31:13 you’re dealing with something where your organization or your team doesn’t have the Necessary Technology or the qualifications at that time there’s a request like this this is great opportunity this is a great opportunity to say what’s the long-term plan here how can we think more strategically rather than trying to do this with Band-Aids and tape and glue we’re trying to obviously have a big there’s a longer term solution here and from from a yeah I think you communicate I think you communicate the longer solution but I think right now we just need to like

31:44 think right now we just need to like right now we’re in a place where we’re just trying to get it to work now because we know we have a need like someone built a good report we’re just starting I’m not sure if I can put my head around the full we’re going to have a whole strategy day one I think this is going to be like a a slow and grow standpoint like we’re going to land it we’re going to get started and and I would probably start

32:05 and and I would probably start with what’s the cheapest way I could get started with the free users now and then we’ll figure it out the rest of this later on you hire Tommy or Mike or Seth later on to to come in and give you like the pl the road map of like where you are culturally where you are the technology and then figure out the next steps like I think that’s where you go but I don’t I don’t I don’t know I wouldn’t assume a new user again this is relatively thinking here this is a newer user to the power we’re not going to come in like Coe cop all the like we’re still just trying to get things off the

32:35 still just trying to get things off the ground here I think at this point well I don’t know I’m I’m I feel like if my boss comes to me with this situation it’s like listen we don’t have any we gotta do this for free or whatever the the situation that we have I want to push back a little with my boss say we can do it we’ll figure out a but everything though so that’s why listening to the podcast well thank you for listening to the podcast help me get some knowledge out of this I’m not saying oh by the way we need to set up the Coe do we have a data governance team we need data governance I’m just saying what’s the longer term plan here

33:06 saying what’s the longer term plan here because I don’t want to set this up and then agree with and then we’re just doing the house of cards we we should be looking a step or two ahead you don’t need to look at the the finish line and say we need to look at the finish line right now I don’t think you’re going to see it this far out I is maybe it depends on the person’s role right like if I’m building reports and I just like the question is I’m building reports I need to know how to get these reports into people’s hands okay do I care about the long-term strategy of business intelligence if my job is to build

33:36 intelligence if my job is to build reports heck no fine I would agree like hey guys how do I do this you do this with a pro license okay well let me ask you guys what’s gonna be the what’s the logical next step of the organization once they get this access to the data for for free depends what largely depends on what direction they want to head I know it’s test I have done a test with free users accessing apps using free users attached to a workpace using a viewer

34:07 attached to a workpace using a viewer only access but then giving them a put the workspace in an F2 I think that either you go all pro users depending on how many proes you have I think that’s your first step you can’t go after this with three users or if you want the free users experience it’s going to be 150 bucks a month minimum to get them in the hands of all your free users or you’re looking at a like a P1 which even then I wouldn’t recommend any of the P skes anymore because oh yeah all the features you would need in the PE skes are now all

34:38 would need in the PE skes are now all included in the fabric SKS and there’s more features so I would honestly say look if you’re really trying to get to these free users if you want to cons you’re going to have to pay more than just $10 like to to Matt allton’s point on talking about embedding stuff and getting things working for organizations you’re never going to get below that threshold of $10 a month for all of your users please pay for the tool because it’s an amazing tool you get all the value from it it is a something that you need to pay for but the cheapest entry point is a yearly

35:09 the cheapest entry point is a yearly subscription on an F2 skew that gives you the ability to embed it into either SharePoint teams or you can give them app access by adding as a viewer in the workspace they can’t access the workspace but they can access the reports through the app so if nothing else you can at least give them direct access to the information and then you can have that scheduled or emailed out so all that should work if you’re if you’re going to email data to everyone like you’re going to give them tables of information go down the pagey reports route you can set up subscriptions you

35:40 route you can set up subscriptions you can send them tables of data every single time on that Pro user that Pro user can do a lot of things in that that single thing and that way no one gets access to the report but they have access to the data so it depends on what you’re trying to share if you’re trying to share visuals you’re going to have to go down the the fabric route if you’re going to share just tables of data and give them regular expects subscriptions to getting the data that happens with the the pagey reports on table table experience is that how I would design this well maybe maybe quite Mard if I

36:13 this well maybe maybe quite Mard if I provide this free service what’s the logical thing the organization G to want next are they going to want it are they just going to be happy with this and say the next year they’re going to just get this emailed subscription you keep you keep talking about like the organization like they know what this guy or girl is right like and it’s not the organization it’s someone in the in the business is trying to solve a business problem and if you go down the licensing route now it has to be part of a larger organizational problem versus like even

36:44 organizational problem versus like even what mik was saying as far as like what are the options I have to just do my job is get data to somebody because sometimes and the reason I’m pushing back here is like sometimes Tommy people don’t want to make it an organizational problem problem right like maybe there is no budget and we all know that already right guys I’m just trying to get some data to these people I have constraints and either I don’t know that like around the licensing or there is no licensing right

37:14 licensing or there is no licensing right so I’m just saying like there’s another way to view this as opposed to immediately tying one of these people to the organization no no no no and here’s all I’m saying all I’m saying is once you do this and no matter how you do it if if you do it the free route and this is their F like I said if we’re assuming they’re at this very early stage this is like dropping a bone for my dog what are they gonna want they’re expecting more and that’s all I’m saying is however you do this if you go this free route with

37:44 do this if you go this free route with something free or whatever your email that I agree with that’s what I’m trying to say and that is a caution right because to Mike if if you’re the person that has to manage everything all the time and configure and set up a lot of things every single time you develop a report if this is going to scale that’s why you would go down the route of like hey Pros super easy because you have these buttons and it’s just like I’m

38:15 these buttons and it’s just like I’m going to deploy I update the app and then it’s already pre-shared right I’m done I would agree with that there’s parts of the system that are designed to work together to build the complete solution versus just parts of it would we go any other route when it comes to solution here because there’s power automate that actually has a lot of abilities you got to pay for power automate I know you got to pay for it so it pushes you in the like I think the power automate is more expensive than

38:46 power automate is more expensive than the F2 skew no if you do one flow one flow with that you could you could yeah then you got probably po no no no I see what you’re saying there’s there’s a really a cost to anything and I think there’s no there’s no great solution here to get away with this for free and I think that’s our point I think our point is like there’s there’s going to like you’re getting an amazing service I think sell the value of the service right and I think we don’t have to look at the whole solution

39:16 don’t have to look at the whole solution but there is a solution to get for users involved and honestly it starts at an F2 skew that’s the cheapest way you can get going outside of that we’re now talking about your next cheapest solution is okay let’s really make a strategic decision around this one we know we need to get these Pro users in in place and again as long as you don’t have 100 pro users because that now turns into a th000 bucks a month $112, 000 a year right if you don’t have a 100 users or less it’s really looking like it should be probably a pro license and to get

39:46 be probably a pro license and to get people started and that’s really the that’s where honestly that’s where most organizations start most organizations start at the pro LIC level and that’s where they begin it’s interesting about it though is and there’s some chatter in like in chat around decisions right it’s

40:05 like in chat around decisions right it’s a pricing model what is what is crazy about it though is Microsoft gives you all of these things for 10 bucks a month and it doesn’t it doesn’t put it behind the immediately you’re paying us, 000 a month just to get started just to have the infrastructure because that’s ultimately what they would have to do so there must be like a scale of as users are engaging they they put the the pay scale around sharing which was

40:37 the pay scale around sharing which was what is the value of data and insights it’s sharing it right so that’s why I’ve always I’m I’m okay with the pricing model yeah and another thing that could be done here is there are because it’s per per person per user right if if these subscribers to these reports are productivity reports could go to a manager maybe you only need five licenses and then those those Li those man subscribe to the reports get the emails and they can forward them onto

41:07 emails and they can forward them onto their team or something yeah right like way yeah there’s ways to like incrementally grab a set of licenses and apply them to a smaller subset make sure those those users are accessing and US using the reports which is also one of the things why I don’t like subscriptions unless like I don’t think those are tracked as far as like usage is concerned it’s 100% tracked in the it is tracked yeah you you will see at minimum you will see an activity in the activities log that will

41:37 activity in the activities log that will show you all that tells you is that a Subs a subscription kicked off yes correct say someone open it no right correct and that’s my that’s my point with emails and why I don’t like them because you can’t tell who’s actually using them nope right whereas if I’m giving you a license if I’m giving you a license and I give you access to the to report I can tell whether or not you’re looking at the report yes you’re utilizing that $10 a month as opposed to I could take your license and give it to somebody else because you you’ve like

42:08 somebody else because you you’ve like you’re not using it at all which happens a ton by the way I know okay I’m gonna slightly push back I and I see what exactly what you’re saying but if we’re in that early stages of data adoption data culture then this is something I’m probably going to still I’m going to be okay with initially because odds are again we’re not I’m not all going to sudden want to push people to this new powerbi experience when they just want their data we’re just now introducing

42:39 their data we’re just now introducing them to data right because this is not they’re not saying powerbi they’re saying email subscription or data subscription so I’m gonna be okay with that initially because I’m push I want to be proactive to them we can get to the point where hey are you using this after month now but these are people who again they’re they’re not willing to spend or they’re not they’re uncomfortable or unaware to spend $10 a month for themselves or for other people so yeah I’ll send it I I don’t think but

43:11 so yeah I’ll send it I I don’t think but that’s not part of the question either right like maybe they don’t even know Pro how do they go about doing it yeah because there wasn’t push back saying I don’t want to pay the pro license it’s just they all have free licenses I assume that but that’s a good point no no that that’s good that could that could also be there’s there’s also some friction here right someone gets a pro license and potentially companies are having third parties manage all their licensing things for them so they may not even be their company may not even own the licensing to do things and so for them to go through it’s it’s it’s a

43:41 for them to go through it’s it’s it’s a a purchase requisition and all this extra there’s a lot potentially there’s a lot of red tape because of the way the company is structured to get people beyond that step and to be honest it’s extremely easy to go into Azure light something up fscq here we go if you have the permission boom if you yeah so I this is a great question and I think this is something that every so often comes up and and really I think this is a new user question I think if I had to wrap my final thoughts here for this one would be really is really understand what the

44:12 really is really understand what the need of your business is and and think through the step where you are right now you can get around some of the free user pieces some of the licensing pieces but but regardless U I think Enterprise AR was was making a note there right just tell the executives the truth right sharing and distributing content costs us money it is a paid service that we’re going to be getting into if we think this report is valuable enough let’s quantify the value of that report and what how important is it to our business if this is a production

44:42 our business if this is a production report and this is essential for people seeing things on their phones their mobiles their whatever whatever those things are this is important and we should put the money behind it and then think not not the full Finish Line but think a couple steps ahead let’s think about where we want to get to with this and does everyone get Pro licenses do we roll us out to everyone in the organization how do we want to start thinking about the data culture because it sounds like what you’re you’re transitioning to is you’re bringing this new tool to your company your data

45:12 new tool to your company your data culture needs to grow a little bit and now you have to bring these two together you have to have a plan for that so just at least plan for how you’re going to get this done as a in investing in the company and the data culture all right that’s my final thoughts Tommy honestly I I think like I said big time this is a great opportunity for looking at what are we trying to do here if this is one of your first data projects the first time your organization’s asking for data in this type of way what a great time to actually say okay what can we do in the next two months is this going to be the same situation where are

45:43 going to be the same situation where are we going from here not saying you have to solve it but start asking that question and it’s a great opportunity to say again to get what you want maybe some licensing but where are we going from from here any final thoughts for you Seth yeah I think the simply Road here is it like just go the pro route and if if there’s a great way to do this is get two licenses one for yourself and one one to share right go use the use the power of all of the Technologies under this tool to Showcase like hey I’ve got this report think about all of the other

46:14 this report think about all of the other stuff that we we now get in this platform how many users do we need make make a business case towards the value ad of this simplified user experience the one place all these people can go and consume reports and and just scale it up to the point where it’s it’s cheap to show in demo and then you can naturally and organically grow in in whatever Direction ultimately the it’s not worth trying to like figure out how

46:44 not worth trying to like figure out how to share content in the free space Microsoft has put enough guard rails in to lock things down from sharing because that’s ultimately where the licensing comes into play so the easiest path forward there is just to to go the pro route and show the value I love it awesome but that thank you very much if you like this episode if you like us answering your question we do mailbags or these questions from our audience very often so these are real questions from real people that are and we talk through like how our perspective or our

47:14 through like how our perspective or our expert perspective on these things we’ve been around this stuff since it came out so we’re trying to help people navigate these roads so if you like that please share this content with somebody else and we really appreciate that that’s the only way we share this content is through your your word of mouth and how you share things either on social media or other places so please be vocal about it we’d love for you to share this content if you found this valuable to you as you’re thinking through free users in your organization Tommy where else can you find the podcast you can find us in apple Spotify or wherever get your podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a rating it helps

47:44 to subscribe and leave a rating it helps us out a ton we off what Mike said we love answering these new questions these basic questions we’re going to challenge everyone if you have an advanced question you want to stump us with something in some situation we’re ready for it go ahead go ahead ahead and if you want to do that make answer for sure yeah that question topic or idea you can go to and challenges at powerbi. com

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