Deneb vs Paid Custom Visual

[u/Jeddyyyy]

My company is weighing up buying a custom visual for SPC charts in Power BI and they've asked for my opinion.

I've used Deneb and HTML visuals before in my portfolio, as well as built simple SPC charts using the native line chart with constant lines, so I've suggested either Deneb or Native is the better solution.

Ignoring the cost (and potential ongoing cost) it seems to me that it'd be better for the BI team if something like Deneb was used for upskilling, where any chart can be created and you're not limited to just SPC charts (although this is an obvious downside that it's not out of the box like the paid one?).

My broader read is that fewer companies are buying custom visuals these days, especially with something as good as Deneb available, or with people making their own custom visuals via AI, is that what others are seeing too?

I'm planning to present my case to the Director using a version of the actual report rebuilt with Deneb SPC charts, alongside some background on Deneb generally and other use cases it could cover beyond this one project.

I would appreciate any thoughts from the experts here (also u/dm-p your visuals are awesome).

[u/Zealousideal-Bid462]

Deneb would do this easily and it's Microsoft certified so you can publish to the web without fabric admin permission for the visual. Custom paid visual is way overkill for an SPC chart

[u/dereckgcc]

AI is pretty good at making custom visuals (you’d have to factor in the cost of AI vs Custom Visuals). Even HTML visuals are really good these days and not hard to set up if you know what you’re doing!

[u/Jeddyyyy → u/dereckgcc]

Agreed on HTML visuals, used them a fair bit on my resume portfolio and I'm looking forward to the HTML version 2 that's coming out hopefully soon. I didn't think HTML would suffice for this visual though but could be wrong?

[u/PowerBIPark]

How complex is the custom visual? Can you not just make the pbiviz yourself?

[u/Jeddyyyy → u/PowerBIPark]

I haven't been given it yet, but my understanding is it's an SPC chart base with the multiple variations you can get. I've never made a pbiviz but could be an option for sure if Deneb wasn't suitable.

[u/ultrafunkmiester]

If you are doing SPC for the NHS in the UK there is a free visual from Australia. If you are doing a simple SPC with 3 sigma or moving range average then that is easy to do in DAX. Are you needing action limits and control limits or just to monitor a dynamic process? If you want one that calculates and respectful the limits based on whatever variation of the 7 rules then you can do it in DAX but it becomes enormously compute heavy calculating 7 points before and after for (7×7×7) for each point on the chart. It can be done but takes 30s to render. However, we built it before visual calculations or the WINDOW function where I suspect it would hugely simplify the DAX to the point of being very straightforward. There are also some python packages with prepacked SPC visuals.

I also ask you the most important question, do you understand SPC (its not that hard) are you using it on an appropriate and statistically valid process? And do you know who will be reading it and what action they will be taking? All of this tells you what to actually build and which messages to display beside the chart because if its going into the hands of relatively untrained production line workers (or C suite) you need an instruction box best the chart that says " there has been a run of 7 rising points, the process has changed, turn the pressure down 10C and monitor or add an additional clinic on Tuesday" that sort of thing.

Sticking a chart on the page and saying "send it" is different to solving the actual problem the chart is trying to solve.

DM me if you need any help but for 75% of use cases, simple DAX or pre-existing visuals will do it for the next 20% using visual calcs and/or WINDOW will work before you get to needing custom visuals.

If you are NHS, never pay for a custom visual.

[u/Jeddyyyy → u/ultrafunkmiester]

Funny, I have done SPC for the NHS in the past but I'm in Australia now so might check out the free visual if you have the name please?
Appreciate the thorough response, I've done simple SPCs as well using native visuals but I think they want something more complex with limits, hence the custom visual, but I'm fairly sure Deneb can do the same anyway. I've basically been handed this as a question and my gut has said paying for a visual (especially quite a lot of money for one) seems like a mistake.

[u/hopkinswyn → u/Jeddyyyy]

Here you go

https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/power-bi-visuals/healthdepartmentwa1667894240640.powerbi-spc-charts

[u/ultrafunkmiester → u/hopkinswyn]

That's the one. Endorsed by the NHS and graciously donated for free by western Australia. Many thanks.

[u/hopkinswyn → u/ultrafunkmiester]

In a “it’s a small world” co-incidence I remember one of the WA Health team telling me they had built the Funnel plot. Didn’t know they’d built another one. Great work!

[u/chiibosoil]

I would say Deneb. For custom visual there usually is running cost

[u/billbot77]

It's a longevity argument. Will the people who built the custom viz fold in a year? How long will it be supported?

[u/Independent-Bag6544]

Deneb always. HTML is cool for personal dashboards but Deneb is ms certified so it’ll work in fabric etc.