Why Power BI is best for Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM
Get the most out of Dynamic 365 ERP & CRM with Power BI for a unified ERP & CRM Reporting Experience and see the fuller picture!
In this blog, we’ll cover some of the key areas outlining Why Power BI is best for Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM…
Do you find it a struggle to know exactly what you need to be doing with the ever-growing volumes of data and information across your ERP and CRM business systems and processes?
Your data is one of your most valuable assets and if you are not reaping the real benefits of this data – then you are missing the bigger picture! Unless you are getting access to the data that really matters and knowing what to do with it, then you are missing out on lost opportunities to help you to remain competitive and to enhance your business performance.
To get the most out of your ERP and CRM data, Power BI is the go-to Solution for Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 CRM users. This winning combination enables data driven insights and decision making for all. Power BI presents the data in the form of reports or interactive tables, making the information easy to use, analyse and share across the business.
Data visualisation – There are multiple visualisation options available for your data with Microsoft Power BI – from tables to diagrams and maps to charts and more.
Data processing – Power BI will do a deep dive into your data, enabling you to get access to the critical business data and information across your ERP and CRM Systems.
Data sharing and Distribution – Power BI enables you to schedule data updates and making it easy to share reports, dashboards and visualisations with all key stakeholders, whether internal or external.
ETL and data storage – Power BI for ERP offers companies ETL solutions. Extract – extract data from its source, Transform – transform and standardise the data according to the business needs, and Load – load the data to a new location. Once the ETL processes are all completed, the data is then stored in a data warehouse.
Multi-source data – Power BI can connect to multiple internal or external data sources such as online services, text files, or other ERP and CRM databases.
Full integration with other Microsoft products – Your BI ERP and CRM Solutions can be integrated with existing Microsoft products such as Office 365 and the Microsoft suite.
With so many powerful BI features, Power BI for ERP & CRM empowers you to get the most out of your data flow – for end-users to Management, from Business and Data Analysts to the IT experts.
A BI ERP and CRM Solution to Consolidate, Analyse, Automate and Manage all your Data:
Power BI enables you to quickly access and visualise all types of real-time data across your business including:
- Sales and Marketing
- Transactions
- Finance
- Customer Interactions
- Customer Service
- Products
- HR / Employees
- Supply chain and more…
With Power BI you promote flexibility, security, efficiency, and collaboration among your team members and provide some real benefits across departments and teams.
Senior Management & Decision-Makers – Busy Decision-makers are caught up in everyday business management issues and where time is of the essence. Management needs to be in control and aware of and respond to daily business issues which may impact on the Business. Power BI empowers the Management team to easily and quickly access real-time reports and dashboards to meet all their IT and Business needs.
Business & Data Analysts – Analysts might often be overwhelmed with data-overload on a daily basis and their key function is to ensure they provide the right data analysis to the right people and at the right time. Analysts can leverage Power BI to analyse the raw data and transform it into the Business Insights which really matter and to make this data available to all end users.
IT Team – IT teams can leverage Power BI to ensure your business data is secure as well manage data access, monitor user activities, and ensure the compliance of all your processes – whether data sourced internally or externally.
Microsoft is a leader in its field when it comes to Business Intelligence & Analytics Solutions (Why Power BI is recognised as the best in its field for 15 years in a row by Gartner Report 2022). Power BI is an easy-to-use BI Tool which enables you to explore and deep dive into the Business data which really matters and provides you with data-driven Insights for informed data-driven decision making.
Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work seamlessly to help you to create, share and consume key data driven business insights effortlessly!
Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence tool. It consolidates data from multiple data sources into the one central platform. It allows you to access and use this data to create meaningful, real-time, and accurate reports and dashboards that tell a visualisation story of how your business is performing. Power BI will consolidate data across multiple data sources and software programs – even if the different data sources are not integrated!
Why Dynamics 365 ERP & CRM and Power BI?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the leading ERP and CRM Solutions in the market providing an end-to-end business suite to cover all business operations from Finance to HR and Sales, Marketing, Services, Manufacturing, Distribution to Operations and much more. As well as the core modules, Dynamics 365 has a range of value-add enhancements such as Dynamics 365 Add-ons and Apps DynamicsShop to meet all business needs and to enhance the ROI of your ERP and CRM technology investments.
With Microsoft’s Power BI you get an industry leading BI & Analytics solution. Power BI enables you to drag data from multiple sources and systems and present it in easily understood data formats. Power BI will quickly and easily create and generate reports, dashboards and visualisations and provides you with a 360 view across your entire business.
Power BI easily integrates with Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM in a number of ways such as via the Power BI Desktop option or the Power BI Service. The Power BI Desktop route is geared more towards the technical user and where broader business end users often prefer Power BI Service. Power BI Service is an online option, easy to use and navigate and will have you up and running with your business intelligence reporting and analysis in no time.
With the right BI ERP or CRM solution, all your key data is extracted, processed, and inter-connected regardless of the source. Some data sources could be in the form of a PDF, MP3, or JPG file, or other data systems. After it is converted into the form you need, the data is then accessible across multiple devices – desktop, tablet, iPad or mobiles.
Power BI Desktop – Once installed, Power BI will let you create advanced analytics and personalised, dynamic reports and is enhanced by leveraging AI (artificial intelligence).
Power BI Service – Power BI Cloud-based SaaS is used to publish and share previously created visual reports with other teams and Users.
Power BI Mobile – Power BI is compatible for all devices and is designed to cater for the busy on the go mobile users. Regardless of where you are, you still get access to your data securely and with access to real-time updates.
Integrated ERP & CRM Business Intelligence:
Power BI enables businesses to answer questions about the business performance, which gives them a competitive edge in the market-place. Some of the key drivers why organisations invest in an effective BI tool for their ERP & CRM include: :
- Rapid access to real-time reporting, analysis, dashboards & visualisations
- Improve Operational efficiencies
- Getting to know and monitoring market trends and patterns
- Improve competitiveness & Competitor Analysis
- One version of the Data Truth for all!
- KPI’s & Metrics
- Business Intelligence for all ERP & CRM Users
Power BI Reports – provides multiple dashboards and data visualisations from a dataset, or Custom Reports can also be created on demand. For example, if you wish to see specific Product Sales Pipeline Performance data, then you can create custom dashboards and data visualisations to view the data for specific Sales Pipeline datasets.
Power BI Dashboards – use purpose-built dashboards to highlight specific trends, patterns & Business Insights to enable informed data driven decisions. With Power BI Dashboards you can view multiple visual views from multiple data sources and are designed to provide a 360 view of the wider performance and not just a brief overview of a single data source.
For example, you may wish to view the performance of the full Sales Pipelines status across your full product range and create a dashboard which gives a full picture of the overall business sales pipeline performance.
Power BI Visualisations are tools to help you better interpret data insights discovered by Power BI and presented as a visual story.
With Power BI Apps – will bring all related Dashboards and Reports together into one central, easily accessible location. This enables the sharing of Dashboards and Reports to all relevant stakeholders and indeed across the business, so everyone has the same 360 view of the data and information which really matters to the business.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP & CRM Data Sources – Power BI automates, streamlines and provides a unified reporting user experience within your ERP and CRM environment and enhances the ROI of your Dynamics 365 investments.
Some of the benefits of using Power BI with Dynamics 365 ERP & CRM:
Having Power BI as the Reporting Tool over Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM will transform the way you do business as Power BI enhances your ERP and CRM Solution value-add.
- Connect to almost any data source and consolidate data in one central location.
- Present your data in easy-to-understand visualisation formats such as graphs and charts.
- Provide Users with pre-built dashboards, reports, and data models with the added flexibility to create your own dashboards and reports using custom features.
- Show key data trends and patterns over time to improve performance and adjust your business strategies and goals.
- Makes it easy to collaborate with teams and share dashboards and other critical business insights across your organisation including key stakeholders, budget holders and decision makers.
- Go Mobile with on the go access to Power BI Reports, Dashboards, Charts, Graphs and much more.
- Flexibility to easily filter key data to view key business and customer critical data
Spend less time preparing your data and more time visualising to drive business decisions! By using Power BI as the Reporting Tool over Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 CRM will help you to get the most out of your ERP and CRM Solutions. Get deeper Insights into your end-to-end business operations for more informed data driven decision-making enabling you to enhance the business performance and drive productivity and profitability.
Power BI for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Our Services:
At Simply Dynamics, we aim to ensure you enjoy the many benefits of the ROI in your ERP & BI Technology Investments.
To learn more about how your organisation can drive your Business Success with the right Business Intelligence Analytics for ERP & CRM – Contact Us Now or why not request a Free 30 Minute Consultation with our Dynamics 365 ERP & CRM Specialists Now – we’re here to help