How to choose a Power BI partner for manufacturing

Buyer checklist: what to ask before you hire

Use this as a working list. If a partner cannot answer these clearly, keep looking. Check items off as you evaluate.

• Can they start with one painful report? A focused early win beats a six-month “BI transformation” with no output.
• Do they model for reuse across finance and ops? Shop-floor metrics and P&L should share definitions—not two sets of books.
• Are they ERP-aware? SAP, Odoo, Infor, and similar systems need practical extract and model patterns.
• Will they fix trust, not just visuals? Slow refresh, wrong grain, and inconsistent KPIs kill adoption faster than ugly charts.
• Who does the work? Prefer senior practitioners who stay on the engagement—not bait-and-switch staffing.
• What does handoff look like? Working report, clear measures, and training on your data—not a slide deck.
• How do they price scope? Flat fee for a defined deliverable is easier to approve than open-ended hours.
• Do they plan for governance? Workspaces, certified datasets, refresh, and capacity once more than one team uses the model.
• Can they say no? A good partner narrows scope. A weak one sells more dashboards.
• What happens after go-live? Optional retainer or clear next steps—without locking you into a platform pitch.

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For manufacturing reporting patterns and where consulting usually helps, see Power BI for manufacturing reporting consulting.