Power BI · Visio

What The New Visio Web App And Licensing Announcement Means For Power BI

Chris Webb

There was an interesting announcement today regarding Visio:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/06/09/bringing-visio-to-microsoft-365-diagramming-for-everyone/

In summary there will soon be a lightweight, web-based version of Visio available to anyone with a Microsoft 365 Business, Office 365 E1/E3/E5, F3, A1, A3 or A5 subscription. Previously Visio was not part of the main M365 plans and was only available as a separate purchase.

So what? As a Power BI user, why should I care? Well the Visio custom visual for Power BI has been around a long time now and it’s really powerful. Unfortunately it’s very rarely used because Power BI developers don’t usually have Visio licences – but this is exactly what is about to change. With these licensing changes pretty much everyone who uses Power BI will have access to the new lightweight Visio web app. It’s not as sophisticated as desktop Visio but I’ll be honest, I’m no Visio expert and it’s good enough for me and really easy to use. As a result this is going to unlock the power of the Power BI Visio visual for a much, much larger number of people!

To get an idea of what you can do with the Power BI Visio visual, this video is a good place to start:

Published by Chris Webb

My name is Chris Webb, and I work on the Fabric CAT team at Microsoft. I blog about Power BI, Power Query, SQL Server Analysis Services, Azure Analysis Services and Excel.

5 thoughts on “What The New Visio Web App And Licensing Announcement Means For Power BI”

  2. davidjpp – UK – Frustrated as an architect in the late '80s, trying to match 3D building models with spreadsheets, David explored linking Unix CAD and SQL databases in the early '90s for facilities and cable management. Increasingly forced into Windows for presentation, settled on Visio for data-linked diagrams in '96. Became a Visio business partner, invited to present his applications at Visio conferences, and soon started own Visio based consultancy and development business, applying analysis, synthesis & design to various graphical information solutions, and added MapPoint and Bing Maps to the agenda. Has presented Visio solution provider courses for Microsoft EMEA, adding personal anecdotes and previous mistakes hoping that all can learn by them. Based near to Microsoft UK, he still sees the need for Visio evangelism throughout the business and development community.
    davidjpp says:

    I have a free guide to using Visio visual efficiently at http://bit.ly/PowerUpVisio

    Reply
  4. Pingback: Visio Licensing Changes and Power BI – Curated SQL
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