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Microsoft Power BI receives the Esri New Technology Integration Award for 2017

Headshot of article author Kamal Hathi

Power BI is a modern business intelligence solution that brings data and analytics to more people than ever before, across all roles and disciplines within organizations. We started this endeavor intending to fundamentally shift how BI is delivered for organizations using a cloud service that is “five seconds to sign up and five minutes to wow”. Gartner has recognized our vision and execution for ten consecutive years, positioning Microsoft as a Leader in the 2017 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, including farthest to the right on ‘vision’ in the Leaders quadrant. A big part of Power BI’s success is the partnerships we’ve struck to build an eco-system around Power BI where you really can do more with just a click or a swipe.

Today we’re excited and humbled to receive the 2017 Esri Partner Conference (EPC) – New Technology Integration award for taking map visualization and geo-analytics to the next level by integrating ArcGIS in a new or innovative way. In late 2015, we started working with Esri, a leader in the geographic information systems (GIS) industry, to redefine how business users can experience their data using maps and advanced GIS techniques previously available only in specialized tooling. 

“We’re pleased to recognize the achievements of the Power BI team for their innovative collaboration on ArcGIS Maps for Power BI. This is a real testament to how the ArcGIS platform can be leveraged beyond the traditional GIS community to empower business users with accurate and compelling organizational mapping technologies. This helps users make better decisions, faster.” – Art Haddad, Director, Location Analytics, Esri

Power BI report with ArcGIS Maps for Power BI visual

What is GIS? It’s the combination of authoritative data layers on a map with spatial analysis applied to gain a better understating of your world. It’s a way to discover, use, make and share the maps that are important to your organization.

This vision of democratizing GIS by integrating Esri’s ArcGIS technology with Power BI’s business user-driven ecosystem has drawn enthusiasm from Power BI users and Esri’s customers alike. With the ArcGIS Maps for Power BI Preview that was unveiled at Microsoft’s Ignite conference in 2016, we started showing the potential of this vision that includes accurate mapping, fine-tuned control over map styles, access to demographic and reference layers, all deeply and richly integrated into Power BI’s reports and dashboards. And there’s more to come.

Our drive to bring innovation through partnerships is easy to see with the many cloud service connectivity options: Salesforce, Dynamics, Marketo, Adobe Analytics, and so many more.  Our Power BI partner community now has over 1,600 Solutions Integrator partners who are just a click away to deliver solutions to organizations. We’ve built a thriving ecosystem of partners and enthusiasts delivering custom visualizations for Power BI so that you can see your data in the best way to make accurate, repeatable decisions regardless of your product or business domain.

The ArcGIS Maps for Power BI visual is built using the same open sourced visualization APIs that power custom visuals. These interfaces have allowed Esri to build a visual that fully integrates with Power BI's data highlighting, selection, cross-filtering, tooltips, and formatting settings. The visual looks and feels like it's part of Power BI and truly demonstrates just how richly extensible the Power BI platform is. To deliver this sophisticated visual in record time, teams at Esri and Microsoft created a close working relationship and continue to iterate and improve based on customer feedback, reflecting the agility and customer oriented approach of the two companies.

This award from Esri is one additional validation of the work the Power BI team is doing in a partner-centric way, making Power BI a great place for partners to showcase their unique value. From everyone on the Power BI team, we’d like to thank Esri for this recognition and say a big thank you to the dedicated team that spans Microsoft and Esri working to infuse breath into our shared vision of bringing GIS to every business user.

If you’re already a fan or curious to learn more, I would like to invite you to join us in Seattle this June for the second annual Microsoft Data Insights Summit. We’re welcoming Power BI users from around the world to meet with the engineering team, attend sessions and network with fellow data enthusiasts. Find out more now and register on the Microsoft Data Insights Summit site.