How to Migrate from DOMO to Power BI: Step-by-Step Guide

Modern businesses need data to grow along with them. If you are still struggling with limited customization and high licensing costs of DOMO, then consider moving to other platforms like Power BI or Tableau. Power BI is a strong choice over DOMO. 

It offers greater agility, flexibility, self-service capabilities, faster insights, seamless integration with Microsoft tools, improved decision-making, and enhanced collaboration. DOMO to Power BI will give a more cost-effective solution.

In this post, we will see a step-by-step guide to walk you through the DOMO to Power BI migration without disruptions.

What Makes the DOMO to Power BI Migration Beneficial?

Migrating from DOMO to Power BI becomes beneficial as it unlocks greater business value, lower total cost of ownership, and data science options. The key benefits of DOMO to Power BI Migration are

• Cost reduction: Power BI gives a more cost-effective solution than DOMO. So, Power BI migration can reduce the DOMO licenses and support costs. This will assure long-term growth.
• Integration: Power BI integrates with Microsoft 365 tools like Azure, Excel, Teams, SQL Server, and SharePoint, along with Azure services. This centralized integration organizes workflows and reduces dependency on disparate tools and connectors.
• Advanced data modeling capabilities: Power BI is driven by AI analytics such as key influencers, anomaly detection, and seamless integration with technologies like Python and machine learning. Its robust semantic modeling layer allows users to manage relationships, apply calculations, and create reusable datasets.
• Customization and Visualization Flexibility: Power BI offers rich visualization options, extensive custom visual libraries, and an advanced dashboard. Power BI’s flexibility supports tailored analytics to customized specific business requirements and user profiles. 
• Scalability and performance: Compared to DOMO, Power BI can handle large datasets effectively through in-memory processing and DirectQuery options. This takes businesses planning long-term data expansion.
• Security and Compliance: Power BI provides more robust, enterprise-level control over data access and compliance. It also offers enhanced data protection mechanisms, auditing, and role-based access control.

Challenges faced during the DOMO to Power BI Migration and ways to overcome

Though the DOMO to Power BI migration gives lots of benefits, all transitions come with a set of challenges that need to be addressed by careful planning and execution. 

• Data Model differences: DOMO and Power BI use different data modeling approaches, ETL pipelines, and architectures. Directly mapping DOMO’s custom dataflows, scripts, and connectors will lead to compatibility issues. To overcome this, conduct an audit and collect the data. Find the equivalents of the DOMO datasets, transformations, and calculated fields in Power BI. 
• Rebuilding Dashboards and Reports: DOMO does not give interactive features like Power BI. So rebuilding them from the start can be time-consuming. To solve this, create a reference of all the DOMO reports and dashboards. Prioritize critical dashboards first before the DOMO to Power BI migration. 
• User training and adoption: Power BI’s enterprise-focused model, advanced customizations, and complex features like DAX and Power Query may need a deep understanding. To overcome this, provide training sessions for Power BI’s advanced features. Execute change management plans to facilitate smooth adoption across teams. 
• Data governance and security alignment: Align Power BI’s role-based access control, auditing capabilities, and compliance standards with organizational policies for secure controls. To overcome this challenge, as a pre-plan step, review existing DOMO security roles and access levels. Implement robust data protection strategies, including encryption and access controls. Involve compliance and IT teams to align with organizational data governance policies.
• Performance optimization: Performance is an important factor to be noticed. When there is a large amount of data, poorly optimized Power BI models can lead to slow dashboards and frustrated users. To overcome this, optimize query performance with DirectQuery or import mode based on use case.

Best Practices for a Smooth DOMO to Power BI Migration

A successful DOMO to Power BI migration relies on careful planning, technical execution, and change management.

• Do a comprehensive audit of DOMO reports to avoid migrating unnecessary data.
• Consider moving high-value dashboards and reports to avoid disruption.
• Map and document data sources, data flows, calculated fields, and transformations before recreating them in Power BI. 
• Adopt the Star schema data model to ensure performance and scalability in Power BI.
• Recreate role-based access control (RBAC) and row-level security (RLS) in Power BI.
• Validate the migrated Power BI reports and compare them with the DOMO reports.
• Provide training sessions about advanced Power BI features.

9 Step DOMO to Power BI Migration Process

DOMO to Power BI migration is a multi-stage process that requires careful planning, execution, and data validation. Here is a breakdown of the process:

1. Assessment and Planning: Conduct a thorough analysis of the DOMO environment and analyze existing DOMO reports, dashboards, data models, and data sources. Identify business-critical reports and categorize them. Make a document of all data sources, transformations, and security rules in DOMO.
2. Define migration scope: Now it is time to draft your goals for what you will be expecting from the DOMO to Power BI migration. Set clear objectives of which reports to migrate, expected timelines, and what the outcome will be. Choose the deployment strategy methods, whether it is pilot, staged, or full, and define success metrics.
3. Data architecture: Identify all data sources connected to DOMO. Find the equivalent Power BI connectors. Translate DOMO’s Magic ETL and SQL Dataflow into the targeted ETL tools manually. Convert DOMO dataflows, calculations, and scripts into Power BI dataflows and DAX/Power Query expressions. 
4. Data model redesign: Using the Star Schema model, create a structured data model. Convert DOMO’s data structures and calculated fields in Power BI (using Power Query and DAX). 
5. Data migration: Use Power BI’s connectors to start migrating data from DOMO. This can be done via the DOMO ODBC driver or Power BI MSAL Writeback Connector for larger datasets. Translate DOMO’s Beast Mode calculations and formulas into robust Power BI DAX measures. This requires manual effort to check the calculations. 
6. Security and Governance: DOMO security settings must be translated into their equivalent in Power BI. All the role-based access and row-level security should be compliant with data governance policies. Unauthorized access should not be allowed to ensure data integrity.
7. Report recreation: Rebuild the DOMO cards and Dashboards as Power BI reports. This will enhance the performance of Power BI with the help of advanced visualization features.
8. Testing and validation: Perform data validation by comparing results between the DOMO and Power BI reports. Validate performance, data accuracy, calculations, KPIs, and user experience in the new Power BI environment.
9. Deployment: Publish the validated Power BI Datasets and reports to the designated production workspace in Power BI Service. 

Things to Be Considered Post DOMO to Power BI Migration

A successful DOMO to Power BI migration is to ensure they deliver maximum value in their new home. The post-migration steps to be considered are

• Data validation and performance: This is an important step where we can check that the data in Power BI gets matched with DOMO. Any miscalculations or transformations could impact decision-making. Clearly cross-check reports between DOMO and Power BI. Monitor the dashboard performance by doing performance tuning. Do incremental refresh and aggregations. Monitor report loading times and user activity.
• Security and Governance: Redefine the access controls in Power BI. Ensure that Role-based access and row-level security (RLS) are given. Regularly audit user permissions to prevent any unauthorized access.
• User adoption and change management: Users accepting the new Power BI features will only say about the success of the migration, ensuring it runs in the long term. Post migration, continuous training, knowledge-sharing sessions, and ongoing support ensure that employees have adopted Power BI’s features.
• Optimize Cost and Licensing: Cost-effectiveness is one of the primary reasons to move on to Power BI. After successful migration, ensure that all the migrated users are assigned appropriate licenses, such as Pro, Premium per user, or Premium Capacity. This will reduce the licensing costs since all are monitored.
• Decommissioning DOMO: Best practice is to run both DOMO and Power BI in parallel for a period. It will actually act as a time frame to fix the issues that arise during testing. Gradually start decommissioning DOMO once the new Power BI is stabilized. This approach will minimize the downtime and any disruption in business hours.

How can Entrans help with the DOMO to Power BI Migration?

Migrating from DOMO to Power BI doesn’t just move your reports; it is a way of enhancing them. Power BI gives stronger analytics and better business outcomes. A good partner like Entrans will accelerate the transition. But also ensure data governance, user adoption, and long-term scalability. 

We have proven migrations, domain knowledge, and skilled professionals in both DOMO and Power BI. They can handle the DOMO to Power BI migration with ease. Through our clear migration methodologies, flexible pricing models, and cost-effective solutions, we aim to align with your business goals.

Ready to move from DOMO to Power BI? Unlock the full potential of Power BI with us. Book a consultation call.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

1. How long does a DOMO to Power BI migration typically take?

DOMO to Power BI migration depends on the number of reports and their complexity. Small migrations may take a few weeks, while large projects can extend to several months.

2. Can existing DOMO dashboards be directly transferred to Power BI?

No, there is no direct transfer of dashboards. They must be rebuilt in Power BI Desktop. The data model and DOMO logic must also be transferred into Power BI’s DAX and M languages.

3. How does Power BI handle security compared to DOMO?

Power BI handles security by providing role-based access and row-level security (RLS) access control. It ensures that it is compliant with global data protection standards.

4. Is there any automation tool for the DOMO to Power BI migration?

There is no direct tool for the DOMO to Power BI migration. However, an ETL solution like Azure Data Factory can help in automating data extraction and transformation.