As a data analytics engineer at BALANCED+, one of the most common conversations I have with clients sounds something like this:

“We’re spending a fortune on our BI tool… but no one seems to be using it.”

This is not an isolated complaint — it’s a pattern. Over the past two years, we’ve helped multiple organizations move away from Sisense, where they were paying close to $90,000 a year, and migrate to Power BI for just $3,000 a year — a 96% drop in licensing costs.

But this wasn’t just about saving money. It was about fixing fundamental issues in how these companies approached data and reporting.

The Real Problem: A Good Tool That Became the Wrong Fit

Sisense is a powerful BI platform. But as organizations grow and their data maturity evolves, several issues start to surface.

1. Cost vs. Usage Imbalance

Sisense licensing is structured in a way that quickly becomes expensive as teams expand. Many of our clients were paying for dozens (sometimes hundreds) of seats — yet actual usage was limited to a handful of power users.

  • One client had 120 licensed users, but only 15 logged in more than once a month.
  • Another was paying for advanced modules they hadn’t used in over a year.

2. Slow and Complex Development Cycle

While Sisense is capable, building and maintaining dashboards often required:

  • Specialized skillsets to handle complex data modeling
  • Additional support from IT teams for basic changes
  • Long development and deployment cycles

This led to bottlenecks, backlogs, and frustrated business teams waiting weeks for a new report.

3. Low Adoption from Non-Technical Users

Many end users found the Sisense interface unintuitive. Without strong internal champions or training, adoption dropped quickly. Dashboards were built but not used. Teams reverted to exporting CSVs or creating offline Excel workbooks. Data-driven decision making stalled.

4. Maintenance Burden

On top of the licensing cost, many companies underestimated the operational overhead:

  • Maintaining servers or dedicated cloud instances
  • Frequent version upgrades and patching
  • Dealing with performance issues at scale

When you put all this together, it became clear: the platform was delivering far less value than it was costing.

Why Power BI Was the Strategic Alternative

Power BI offered an immediate and strategic alternative:

  • Massive cost savings with a simple licensing model
  • Tight integration with Microsoft 365
  • Low learning curve for business users familiar with Excel
  • Modern, flexible visuals with fast rendering and easy sharing
  • Cloud-first architecture with minimal maintenance overhead

This made Power BI a natural fit for teams that wanted enterprise-grade reporting without the enterprise-grade bloat.

Our 5-Step Migration Framework

Over multiple projects, we’ve developed a proven 5-step migration framework designed to make the transition smooth, controlled, and impactful.

Step 1: Discovery & Audit

We start by identifying:

  • Which dashboards and KPIs actually matter to the business
  • Which data pipelines are still relevant vs. what’s collecting dust
  • Who the real user base is and what level of interaction they need

This allows us to shrink the scope and avoid blindly lifting and shifting every asset.

Step 2: Data Model Rationalization

Most Sisense environments we inherit are bloated — with unused tables, outdated joins, or overly complex schemas. We rebuild the data model cleanly for Power BI with streamlined data sources, simpler transformations, and faster refresh and query times.

Step 3: Dashboard Rebuild & Modernization

We don’t just copy dashboards — we redesign them for usability:

  • More intuitive layouts
  • Drill-through and interactivity where it matters
  • KPIs front and center without visual clutter
  • Consistent design language for easier onboarding

Step 4: Governance & Enablement

A successful migration isn’t just technical — it’s cultural.

  • We set up access policies that make sense for each team
  • Train analysts and business users to self-serve
  • Build documentation and templates to scale reporting

Step 5: Go-Live & Optimization

Finally, we run a staged rollout ensuring zero downtime:

  • Parallel run with old dashboards during the transition period
  • User feedback loops to tweak reports
  • Ongoing support for fine-tuning performance and usage monitoring

Real Results: Six-Figure Savings and Better Analytics

The results speak for themselves:

  • 96% average reduction in BI licensing cost (from ~$90,000/year to ~$3,000/year)
  • Faster dashboard load times and easier maintenance
  • Higher engagement from business teams — in some cases, daily usage tripled
  • Leaner data stacks with fewer moving parts to maintain

“We cut our BI costs to a fraction and actually got a better reporting experience. The migration forced us to simplify and focus on what really mattered.” — Client CIO, Manufacturing Sector

Why This Matters

Migrating from Sisense to Power BI isn’t just a technical exercise — it’s a strategic reset. It allows organizations to:

  • Re-evaluate what they actually need
  • Eliminate inefficiencies built up over years
  • Empower teams with modern, accessible analytics
  • Free up budget for innovation rather than overhead

Let’s Talk

If your BI platform feels like a cost center rather than a value driver, you’re not alone. Many organizations reach this exact inflection point. At BALANCED+, we’ve helped multiple clients through this transition — from audit to architecture to adoption — unlocking six-figure annual savings while modernizing their analytics environment.

👉 Book a free consultation to explore how much your organization could save by rethinking your BI strategy: https://balanced.plus/contact/