August 29, 2024
Summary: This write-up explains the capabilities of Power BI in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and its benefits in visualizing key data. Thriving businesses can connect with an official Microsoft Partner to make the most of BI Reporting and enrich business processes with real-time insights.
Power BI in Business Central allows business leaders to easily connect to, model, and visualize their data. For the most part, Power BI Reports in Business Central creates personalized and secure reports for an organization, irrespective of their size, ownership type, and industry. Here, connecting to an official Microsoft Partner can help get optimum value from your technology, get a Business Central connector, and visualize your data by using Power BI with your existing Microsoft technology, including Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Key Components of Power BI in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
- Unlike other applications, Power BI creates live, real-time dashboards. This helps business administrators see real-time data interaction with various reports.
- Embedded Power Bi assists businesses in creating visualizations that suit their data and help them analyze the important components.
- You can Integrate Business Central with Power BI or integrate Power Bi with other Microsoft applications to extend your business capability, and performance, and make more strategic decisions.
- Power BI can be integrated with any ERP /software including custom software or Microsoft products like Excel to get desired reports.
- Power BI reports come with natural Language query that enables users to ask questions about their data intuitively and simply.
- You can access data and insights at any time, at any place, and on any device.
How Does Power BI Transform Your Data to Insights?
For the most part, Power BI in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central needs to get your data and access it. There are different connectors, including Business Central Connector, and data sources that you can affiliate with to get your data. Additionally, you can connect to the data sources through your system and the Azure Data Lake. This renders extensive support to you in terms of the data integration to your system.
Power BI Insights with Dynamics 365 Business Central Data
Business administrators can embed some Power BI reports in Business Central. For the most part, you can view Power BI reports in Business Central and you don’t have to leave the system to view them. Alternatively, users can view and create intuitive dashboards and reports in Power BI using Business Central data.
Moreover, Power BI and Business Central can function together to generate custom reports that can be made available to you. These reports might not generated out-of-the-box for Dynamics 365 Business Central.
However, within Business Central, you can create predefined Power BI reports, trends, diagrams, or any visualization. These visualizations can help your business organization discuss the data to another level. Power BI reports deliver an agile alternative, allowing business leaders to drill down and customize the visualization.
Case Study: How NavisionIndia performed price group setup and embedded Power BI Reports in Microsoft Dynamics Business Central?
Introduction:
Microsoft Dynamics Business Central is an all-in-one business management solution that helps organizations streamline their financials, sales, services, and operations. Our client already using Business Central and they wanted to view the reports from Business Central data in a graphical format so that it will be easy for the company to examine the places they are lacking.
The Challenge
The company faced several challenges, including:
- Setup of Price Groups: To accommodate different pricing structures for various customer segments, the company needed to establish price groups. This involved categorizing customers into different groups and assigning distinct price levels or discounts based on their group membership.
- Embedding Power BI Reports: The Company aimed to leverage the power of data analytics by embedding Power BI reports directly within Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, allowing users to access and analyze business insights seamlessly.
The Solution:
To address these challenges, the following solutions were implemented:
Setting Up Price Groups:
Sales Prices can be for all customers, specific customers, customer price groups, or sales campaigns. These prices may include conditions such as order date, unit of measure, or minimum quantity purchased.
To accommodate different pricing structures, the following steps were taken:
- Assign sales price in an item: We set up distinct customer price groups to categorize customers based on their pricing needs. For instance, wholesale customers were categorized in a “Wholesale” group, and special customers were placed in a “Special” group.
- Assign Price Groups to Customers: Customer Price Groups were assigned to individual customers in their respective Customer Cards
The sales price functionality within Business Central enables users to provide accurate quotes and estimates in an instant and speeds up the sales process. With accurate pricing information up front, businesses can reduce or eliminate returns and price adjustments.
By implementing these solutions, the company achieved the following outcomes:
Accurate Pricing: The setup of distinct customer price groups and the alignment of customers to these groups led to more accurate pricing. Wholesale customers received pricing that suited their business needs, and special customers enjoyed personalized pricing structures. The result was greater accuracy in pricing strategies and less need for post-sale price adjustments.
Speedier Sales Processes: The ability to quickly identify and apply the right pricing for each customer segment streamlined the sales process. With accurate pricing information upfront, the company could provide quotes and estimates in an instant, expediting the sales process and improving customer satisfaction.
Embedding Power BI Reports:
To embed Power BI reports within Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, the company executed the following process:
- Create Power BI Report: A Power BI report was developed to provide a comprehensive visualization of their data. The report was designed with data connections to Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, ensuring that it could access real-time data. This step was pivotal in enabling the company to harness the full power of its data for analysis.
- Publish Report in Power BI Workspace: The Power BI report was published in the company’s Power BI workspace. This ensured that the report was accessible and updatable by authorized users. The workspace provided a central location for managing and sharing reports securely within the organization.
- Integrate Power BI Report: The Power BI report was integrated directly into Microsoft Dynamics Business Central. This integration was the key to the company’s success in data analysis. It allowed users to seamlessly access, interact with, and analyze data within the same environment where they conducted their daily operations. This enhanced decision-making capability by providing real-time insights that were easily accessible to all users.
By implementing these solutions, the company achieved the following outcomes:
Improved Data Analysis: With Power BI reports integrated into Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, data analysis became more efficient and accessible. Users could now visualize and interact with their data in real time, enabling them to make informed decisions quickly.
Increased Efficiency: With data analysis tools readily available in the Business Central environment, employees no longer need to switch between applications. This increased efficiency and reduced the time required for data analysis and reporting.
Overall, the company successfully overcame the challenges of report layout customization, price group setup, and Power BI integration, resulting in a more efficient and data-driven business environment.
At NavisionIndia, you can connect with our skilled and adept Business Central Consultants to customize your data visualization and make the most of Power BI-embedded reports to make data-driven business decisions. Our team of skilled and experienced consultants can let you drive technology enhancements, scale with a proven methodology, and industry standard-based practices, and that too, without bearing a hole in your pocket.
For more details, write to us at info@navisionindia.in Or Schedule A Demo