Who Looks After Your Power BI Reports After They Are Built
Many businesses turn to Microsoft Power BI to improve their reporting, often working with a developer or consultant to build dashboards that provide better visibility of their data.
At the point of delivery, these dashboards can look impressive. Key metrics are clearly presented, reports are easier to access and management teams gain a new way of reviewing business performance.
However, an important question is often overlooked:
Who looks after the reports once they have been built?
In many cases, Power BI projects are delivered as one-off implementations. A developer creates the dashboards based on the requirements at that time, and the business is then expected to use and maintain the reporting environment going forward.
For SMEs, this can quickly become a challenge.
Reporting requirements rarely stay the same. Businesses evolve, new products are introduced, pricing structures change and management teams ask new questions about performance.
As these changes occur, reports need to be updated.
With Power BI, making these updates often requires someone who understands how the data models, relationships and calculations have been built. Without that knowledge, even relatively small changes can be difficult to implement.
In organisations without in-house BI expertise, this creates a dependency.
Some businesses rely on the original developer to make updates. While this can work, it means that changes depend on the availability of that individual and can introduce additional costs over time.
Others attempt to manage the reporting internally. This often places responsibility on finance or operational staff who may not have the technical background required to maintain the reporting environment effectively.
One finance director described how their business initially implemented Power BI dashboards but found that maintaining them became an ongoing task. Changes that seemed simple required technical input, and over time the reporting process became something that needed to be actively managed.
Another issue is continuity.
If the original developer is no longer available, a new developer may need to understand how the system has been built before making any changes. This can take time and adds further cost, particularly if the data models are complex.
As a result, what began as a one-off reporting project can turn into an ongoing responsibility that requires both time and expertise.
For many SMEs, the challenge is not creating reports — it is maintaining them.
Illuminis provides a different approach through the Octelas business reporting platform.
Rather than delivering dashboards and leaving the business to manage them, illuminis acts as a long-term data partner. The reporting system is designed, implemented and continuously supported as part of an ongoing service.
This begins with understanding how the business currently reports its data. Existing spreadsheets, calculations and reporting logic are interpreted and recreated within a structured reporting environment.
Once implemented, reporting is maintained and developed over time. When requirements change, updates are handled as part of the service, without the need for the business to manage the technical aspects.
This removes the dependency on individual developers and ensures continuity.
One managing director described the benefit as having a reporting system that simply worked without requiring internal effort to maintain it. Instead of worrying about how reports were built or updated, the team could focus on using the information to run the business.
For SMEs, having clarity over who is responsible for reporting is critical.
While Power BI can provide powerful dashboards, many organisations find that a fully managed reporting solution offers a more practical and reliable approach.
By ensuring that reporting is continuously supported and developed, businesses can avoid the challenges of maintaining dashboards themselves and gain consistent access to the information they need.