In addition to many excellent technical sessions, last week’s Microsoft Business Applications Summit (MBAS) event also included a series of “Customer Stories” sessions that may be even more valuable.

My recent “Is self-service business intelligence a two-edged sword?” post has gotten more buzz than any of my recent technical posts. Some of this might be due to the awesome use of swords^[1] and the inclusion of a presentation recording and slides, but some is also largely due to how it presents guidance for successfully implementing managed self-service BI at the scale needed by a global enterprise.

Well, if you liked that post, you’re going to love these session recordings from MBAS. These “Customer Stories” sessions are hosted by the Power BI CAT team’s leader Marc Reguera, and are presented by key technical and business stakeholders from Power BI customers around the world. Unlike my presentation that focused on general patterns and success factors, these presentations each tell a real-world story about a specific enterprise-scale Power BI implementation.

• Customer stories with Standard Bank
• Customer stories with Veolia and Bentley
• Customer stories with Cummins and BP
• Customer stories with Fiserv and Schlumberger
• Customer stories with Atrium Health and JCI
• Customer stories with Medtronic and AP Moller-Maersk

Why should you care about these customer stories? I think Sun Tzu summed it up best^[2]:

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

Understanding how to use technology and features is a tactical necessity, but unless you have a strategic plan for using them, it’s very likely you won’t succeed in the long term. And just as any military leader will study past battles, today’s technical leaders can get great value from those who have gone before them.

If you’re part of your organization’s Power BI team, add these sessions to your schedule. You’ll thank me later.

^[1] Just humor me here, please.

^[2] I was also considering going with the Julius Caesar’s famous quote about his empire-wide adoption of Power BI, “Veni, vidi, vizi,” but I think the Sun Tzu quote works a little better. Do you agree?