CS/18CASE STUDY

Tableau to Power BI
for an Irish Airline

An Irish airline migrated its key reports from Tableau to Power BI to cut licensing costs, unlock accessibility for non-technical teams, and enable interactive self-service analytics. The result: significant cost savings, broader report access, and faster decision-making across departments.

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At a Glance
Capabilities
Strategic Report Conversion or Rebuild
Power BI Interactive Dashboards
Row-Level Security for Sensitive Data
Self-Service Analytics Enablement
Technologies
Tableau (legacy)Power BIPower Automate
Delivery Model
Agile · PO + WAW Power BI Developer + client Developer
[01]Business Context

An Irish airline held back by Tableau's licensing costs and accessibility limits

The airline industry relies heavily on data-driven decision-making to optimize daily operations and reduce costs. An airline based in Ireland had been utilizing Tableau for its reporting needs but encountered several operational roadblocks, including high licensing costs and restricted report accessibility across its various departments. These limitations were actively hindering operational efficiency and slowing down critical decision-making processes. To overcome this, the airline initiated a project to migrate its key reports to Power BI, taking advantage of its cost-effective licensing and highly intuitive features.

Key Context
High Tableau licensing costs impacting the reporting budget
Reports not easily accessible across different departments
Tableau's complexity limiting non-technical user adoption
Need for a more intuitive, cost-effective reporting tool
[02]Client Needs

What prompted the project

To successfully overhaul the reporting environment, the airline established three primary goals.

N/01

Cost Reduction

Migrate from Tableau to Power BI to significantly cut down on expensive reporting and licensing costs.

N/02

Universal Accessibility

Make data reports highly accessible and intuitive for a wide variety of non-technical teams and departments.

N/03

Enhanced Visualization

Leverage Power BI's advanced data visualization, seamless integration capabilities, and ease of use to generate deeper business insights.

[03]The Challenges

Why an expert partner was required

The migration initiative faced both pre-project and implementation-phase hurdles.

Pre-Project ChallengePre-Project Complexities
Cross-Department Access Limits
Before the migration, Tableau reports were not easily accessible across different departments, leading to delays and inefficiencies.
Non-Technical User Friction
Tableau's complex features made it difficult for non-technical users to fully leverage the tool, limiting the organization's analytical potential.
Impact
A powerful tool that only power users could operate was leaving most of the organization behind.
Implementation ChallengeImplementation Roadblocks
Recreate Without Loss
Recreating the legacy Tableau reports in Power BI without losing any functionality or key metrics proved technically demanding.
Consistent Data Structure
Establishing a consistent data structure to reliably integrate data from various sources into Power BI for real-time reporting.
User Adoption & Licensing
The rollout required focused user-adoption training and careful evaluation to identify the right Power BI licensing model that balanced cost-efficiency with broad accessibility.
Impact
A successful migration had to balance capability preservation, training, and licensing — not just technical conversion.
[04]Solutions Provided

What We As Web delivered

We As Web carried out the migration with a focus on cost reduction, minimal disruption, and enhanced capabilities.

S/01

Detailed Planning and Assessment

Every existing report was assessed to determine if a direct conversion or a complete rebuild was necessary.

The team meticulously assessed every existing report.
Strategic evaluation determined direct conversion vs. complete rebuild — minimizing disruptions and ensuring functional integrity.
S/02

Utilization of Advanced Power BI Tools

Power BI's interactive dashboards, drill-down capabilities, and AI-powered insights — for deeper analytics.

The solution leveraged Power BI's interactive dashboards, drill-down capabilities, and AI-powered insights.
Boosted the visual appeal and analytical potential of the data — driving deeper insights than the previous tool allowed.
S/03

Targeted Security Integration

Custom row-level security settings for sensitive airline data, with granular control over data access.

To protect sensitive airline data and comply with strict data protection regulations, the team applied custom row-level security settings.
Provided granular control over data access — only authorized users can view specific data sets.
[05]Results Achieved

Lower cost, broader access, faster decisions

The transition to Power BI was a major success — delivering immediate operational and financial benefits to the airline.

R/01
Significant cost savings

The shift to Power BI's cost-effective licensing provided an immediate financial benefit to the organization.

R/02
Broader, more accessible reporting

The airline successfully unlocked more powerful reporting features that are now easily accessible to various teams.

R/03
Efficient decision-making across departments

The seamless integration with the airline's existing infrastructure, combined with new interactive and dynamic self-service analytics, enabled much faster and more efficient decision-making across all departments.

R/04
Self-service analytics adoption

Non-technical teams gained the ability to explore data on their own, reducing the dependency on a central reporting team for routine questions.

[06]Technology & Team

Power BI, secured and accessible

A focused analytics stack — Power BI at the center, Power Automate for workflow, and custom row-level security to keep data safe while making it accessible.

Technology Stack
Tableau (legacy, for migration reference)Power BIPower AutomateCustom Row-Level SecurityInteractive DashboardsAI-Powered Insights
Team Composition
Product OwnerPower BI Developer (WAW)Internal Developer (Client)
[07]Conclusion

When reporting tools are the bottleneck, not the enabler

An airline held back by expensive reporting tools and reports that only a few power users could access is flying blind in the modern data-driven operating environment. By migrating from Tableau to Power BI with careful conversion-or-rebuild decisions, advanced interactive dashboards, and custom row-level security, we gave this Irish airline a reporting platform that's both cheaper and more accessible.

The result is significant cost savings, broader access for non-technical teams, and faster decision-making across all departments. For any airline or operator held back by expensive BI tools and limited user adoption, this is what a strategic, capability-preserving migration looks like in production.