Your guide to Power BI to Dynamics 365 integration

Businesses that use Microsoft know how Power BI has changed data visualization and report generation. Dynamics 365 as a CRM software is designed to help organizations attain business excellence and accommodate customer requirements. Power BI and Dynamics 365 bring numerous features and advantages to the table. The Power BI to Dynamics 365 integration is a fast-spreading phenomenon. What happens when they join forces?

Features of Power BI

1. Access vivid visualization: Visual representation of data makes it easy to view and perceive details and helps create better and well-researched reports and dashboards. Custom visualizations with specific libraries allow Power BI to adapt to different business types and industries.
2. Gather data: This feature from Power BI helps organizations gather data from on-premise to cloud-based. New data is updated every month, which can be either structured or unstructured.
3. Filter datasets: Datasets are a collation of various data sources and can be used to create meaningful visualizations. Power BI is built with a feature to filter datasets and curate smaller subsets that contain important data. Built-in connectors such as Excel, SQL, Oracle, and Azure help users to access data quickly and create desired datasets by importing data from their respective resources.
4. Customize your Dashboards: Dashboards represent data insights visually as tiles. These dashboards display single-page reports that are easy to be shared and printed.
5. Better answers with Natural Language: Power BI comprises multiple unique features such as the Question and Answers box, dataset filtration, navigation pane, and a range of visualizations. A user can raise a query in the box to search for data and information within the Power BI system. The “cognitive engines” search for raw data or visualizations that match the search and return results to the user.

Features of Dynamics 365

1. Intelligence in Sales insights: Dynamics 365 provides information and insights which help organizations analyze vast volumes of data with trends and opportunities from their CRM system for better customer engagement. Dynamics 365 is built with an algorithm granting access to customer information at any time.
2. Mobile access: Dynamics 365 mobile offers complete dashboards and helps representatives access all activities, leads, and contacts—from any location. In addition, organizations can monitor real-time customer interactions that facilitate them to view their sales channels in detail.
3. Integration with LinkedIn: A Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn integration helps access prospects’ LinkedIn profiles. Activities such as documenting InMails and LinkedIn messages are included within Dynamics 365 analytics. This feature gives businesses critical information for precise customer targeting and fosters new opportunities.
4. Customer service dashboard: This feature assists managers when they need to access urgent queries and their request status. Suggestions of response are provided with an overview of the customer’s experience with the company’s services, creating adequate space for improvement.
5. Intelligent search: A search component helps gather information across all records, contacts, templates, and opportunities. This mass search provides faster information, saving the team significant time and effort.

Why integrate Dynamics 365 and Power BI?

Integration with Power BI noticeably boosts the capabilities of Dynamics 365 and helps businesses leverage a wide range of functionalities and grow as industry leaders. Power BI to Dynamics 365 integration increases the sales performance of organizations with the help of reporting layer as it can reach beyond Dynamics 365’s Advanced find tool.

Two reasons why integrating Power BI with Dynamics 365 is creating a change across various industries:

• Combining these platforms complement one another exceptionally well.
• Sales teams can benefit from the integration and make better decisions based on their intuitive data and insights.

Advantages of the Power BI to Dynamics 365 integration

1. Paves the way to boost a company’s business intelligence capabilities.
2. Provides powerful insights into the productivity of sales staff which helps address internal issues affecting the team’s overall work.
3. Real-time reports are simplified, allowing organizations to view and modify reports from the business app at any time and location.
4. The integration increases the quality of customer service as organizations can identify their customers’ demands effortlessly.
5. Customization is key to getting work done quickly, and the personalized dashboards make that possible as they are tailored to help different departments with varying needs.

Related: Benefits of Microsoft Power BI Integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM

Steps of Power BI to Dynamics 365 integration

Step 1: Register your system: For the Power BI initiation, you must register an application for Power BI. You must log in to the Azure portal to get started.

Step 2: Information about your app: Within the registration application, there is a section where you must fill in ‘app name,’ ‘app type,’ ‘Redirect URL,’ and ‘Home page URL.’

Step 3: Choose APIs: Once the form is filled, you will receive a client ID and key, which you must copy and save. After this, select your APIs and the level of access your app requires.

Step 4: Register the app: As soon as all the details are filled in, click on the ‘register app’ button to get your app registered. Client ID and Client Secret will appear below, which you must copy and save.

Step 5: Link to Power BI: Log in to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Connect to PowerBI.com using the following steps: System administrator>Setup>Power BI

Step 6: Establish Power BI-Dynamics 365 database connect: Login to the Power BI desktop and select ‘get data’ and ‘SQL server.’ Enter essential details such as ‘server’ and ‘database,’ and ensure that ‘data connectivity mode’ is set to ‘DirectQuery.’ Once the connection is established, Dynamics 365 aggregate measures will appear, from which you can choose the required ones to view reports.

Read also: Revolutionize Decision-Making via Power BI integration with Dynamics Finance and Operation (F&O)

The perfect integration with DemandDynamics

The integration setup might sound simple, but with the help of professionals trained to perform the unification of the software, you save time, resources, and money.

Microsoft partners—DemandDynamics in particular—have experienced experts in the field with years of training and practical knowledge. Our team provides clients with the best possible solutions and perfect integrations within a stipulated time.

DemandDynamics is known for its on demand services, such as implementation, migration, integration, support, and maintenance. Our services are based on a pay-as-you-use model where you only need to pay for the services used.

Reach out to one of our experts for more information about the Power BI to Dynamics 365 integration and other services.