Specialist
Carlo Solutions is a specialist practice for Power BI, Fabric and lakehouse architecture, embedded analytics, and a Center of Excellence. The fit is a defined analytics problem and an internal team that will own the result.
Power BI consulting for the mid-market
Buyers often ask whether to hire a specialist, bring in a large systems integrator, or learn the stack themselves. This page is a positioning guide. It is not a ranking and it does not score other firms.
Large integrator
A large systems integrator fits a broad program, a wide bench, and procurement that expects a global vendor. That model is built for many workstreams at once. It is a different purchase from a senior specialist engagement.
Do it yourself
Community learning, including PowerBI.tips, fits authors who need patterns and tools. It does not replace architecture when executive numbers conflict or when an embedded product has to isolate tenants.
Questions this page answers
When does a specialist practice like Carlo Solutions make sense?
A specialist makes sense when the problem is specific: Power BI standards and semantic models, a Fabric or lakehouse architecture, embedded analytics inside a product, or a Center of Excellence that people will actually follow. Mid-sized companies often need senior judgment on that estate more than a large staffed program. Carlo Solutions is built for that scope. You get a practical architecture and an operating model your own team can run.
When does a large systems integrator make more sense?
A large systems integrator, the kind of firm that staffs broad transformation programs, makes more sense when the effort spans many countries, many workstreams, or a procurement process that requires a global vendor. Those firms are a fit for large program management and a wide bench. They are a weaker fit when you mainly need a senior Power BI or Fabric practitioner and you do not want the problem translated through several layers of delivery. Neither model is universally better.
When is do-it-yourself or community learning enough?
Community learning is enough when a motivated author needs to build a report, learn a pattern, or standardize a theme, and the business risk of getting it wrong is limited. PowerBI.tips exists for that: tutorials, a theme generator, and tools such as Power Designer. Do-it-yourself stops being enough when executive numbers disagree, tenants can see each other's data, or nobody owns the pipeline that feeds the model. At that point the gap is architecture and governance, not another tutorial.
How should a mid-sized business choose?
Name the decision that is stuck, the systems that feed it, and who will own the result after outside help leaves. If that list is one analytics domain and an internal team that can learn, a specialist is usually the right weight. If the list is an enterprise program with many vendors already in the room, a large integrator may carry it better. If the list is a skill gap for a few authors, start with community resources and only bring in consulting when the operating model is the blocker.
How does Carlo Solutions relate to PowerBI.tips?
Mike Carlo is CEO and founder of Carlo Solutions and the creator of PowerBI.tips. PowerBI.tips is a community and product site: education, the theme generator, Power Designer, and related tools. Carlo Solutions is the consulting company. The brands sit next to each other because the same person leads both the practice and the community work. They are not interchangeable names for one offer.
Are Carlo Solutions and PowerBI.tips the same company?
No. Carlo Solutions LLC is the consulting firm, based in Sussex, Wisconsin, and founded in 2019. PowerBI.tips is the community and product site. You can read the community site, use a product, or hire the consulting practice as separate decisions. Linking to PowerBI.tips from this site is a relationship, not a claim that the two are the same legal entity.
Does this page rank Carlo Solutions against other firms?
No. There is no scoreboard here and no claim about who appears in a search result or an AI answer. The page is only a positioning guide: specialist, large integrator, or do-it-yourself. If you want to talk through your own estate, use the contact page and describe the decision you need to make.
Bring the decision, not a vendor list
Describe the reporting, platform, or product problem and who owns it after the outside help leaves. We will tell you if a specialist engagement is the right weight.