Power BI Integration into Business Applications

The world of business has changed over time. Businesses today have a lot of data to deal with. Majorly the self-generated data help enterprises understand their customers and business better. As a result, the pillars of progress have also evolved, with business intelligence (BI) taking center stage. It includes a lot of different solutions working together towards a single business goal.

Modern Business Intelligence (BI) – Explained

Business Intelligence helps transform data into actionable insights leveraging software and services. BI tools access and analyze data and present findings in the form of interactive reports, dashboards, graphs, charts, etc., with detailed insights about the state of the business. The motive of reinventing business intelligence is to help organizations make more intelligent and profitable decisions.

Working with modern business intelligence solutions has benefits in multiple areas like sales, finance, marketing, recruitment, etc. It enables organizations to fine-tune business strategies using actionable data and industry-specific trends.

For organizations looking to revamp their BI tools, Power BI often comes up as a highly-suggested option. It is one of the most popular tools today, with thousands of organizations integrating it into their business operations every year.

What is Power BI?

Power BI, developed by Microsoft, is a set of software services, applications, and connectors that operate in tandem to upscale your business. Its primary goal is to tap into seemingly unrelated data and turn them into coherent, immersive, and interactive insights that promote a more informed decision-making model.

Power BI tools are existing model-friendly; be it Excel Spreadsheets, cloud-based solutions, or on-premises data warehousing, it can be easily integrated into every platform. It connects data sources to visualize and discover revenue-generating information and share them seamlessly with internal teams and external business connections.

Power BI Integration – Is it feasible?

Microsoft Power BI is a software service that has been made to uplift an organization’s data handling model. It can both be integrated into existing structures and also be used for a complete overhaul. So to answer the question, ‘is Power BI integration feasible or practical?’, the answer is ‘yes’. Here are a few reasons that make it a wise choice.

1) Fast Setup

Power BI solutions are easy to set up and can reinforce an organization’s data insights model with minimum downtime.

2) Cost-Effective

Newer services have been developed with cost-effectiveness in mind. Eliminating the reliance on costly on-premises solutions, Power BI can help save and reallocate huge amounts of funds in the long run.

3) Real-time data

Power BI is the perfect data analysis service made for the fast-paced world of business. Having the ability to refer and take decisions based on real-time data helps organizations fine-tune their course of action based on the latest developments.

4) Collaboration

Power BI connects the entire workforce using a universal platform designed to promote a collaborative work culture.

5) Cross-Platform

Microsoft Power BI data and insights can be accessed from several different platforms enabling the workforce to stay connected remotely using their choice of device.

To most, Power BI is one of the most promising tools for upscaling business intelligence to stay relevant in rapidly developing industries and markets.

Increase collaboration with Power BI & MS Teams integration

As a result of the recent global crisis, a distributed workforce has become the primary approach. As the model develops, a growing number of organizations are relying on Microsoft Teams to operate as a coherent unit. While Microsoft Teams has been valuable to bridge the unforeseen gap, Power BI integration makes daily operations even more synchronized.

• Power To Channels – Power BI adds the ability to include interactive reports within Microsoft Teams channels. It enables every employee to fetch data and work on better solutions using the same platform.
• Insightful Previews – Integrating Power BI helps to embed previews for reporting, dashboards, and other connected applications into the Teams inbox. The previews are insightful and help to glance through top-priority information.
• Upscale Teams Chat – Power BI integration into Microsoft Teams helps employees view, study, analyze reports and start conversations directly from their inboxes.
• Track Productivity – Integrating Power BI into Teams enables an organization to generate Teams usage reports with simple clicks and analyze productivity patterns.

Power Apps + Power BI + Power Automate for immersive data and insights

Most decision-makers are more likely to glance through and look for insightful bits of information. Combining the power of insightful data with immersive visuals will surely give an edge to make a lasting impression.

• Easy Source Data Editing – When paired with Power Apps and Power Automate, Power BI  is a great platform to modify the data directly in the source system without switching tabs.
• Edit/Update Read-Only Reports – Power BI enables business users to make instant changes on the read-only Power BI report by leveraging Power Apps, and Microsoft Flows
• Additional Data Sourcing – Integrating Power BI with Power Apps offers the power of adding additional information to databases with minimum hassle. In addition, it stays visible to other team members, which can be used to develop better solutions and reports.
• More Actionable Options – Like source data editing and additional intel gathering, integrating Power BI with Power apps helps take quicker actions with complete information. From alerting team members to launching campaigns, employees have complete control to initiate progress.

Power BI & Salesforce Integration

A lot of businesses around the world rely on Salesforce to manage accounts and track potential opportunities. But combining Salesforce and Power BI has proven to be highly efficient to carve out a strategic plan. Here are a few benefits of embedding Power BI into Salesforce.

• Access to CRM – Connecting the two platforms gives Power BI access to rich CRM data of Salesforce, which helps organizations with more powerful insights.
• Universal App – Linking both together does not offer resource sharing. But embedding Power BI reports in Visualforce pages allows professionals to access data and reports in a single application.
• Power BI Dashboard – Integrating Power BI with Salesforce opens up a new world of possibilities; it allows importing custom Power BI dashboards to make data more job-role friendly.

Power BI & MS Dynamics 365 Integration

Microsoft Dynamics 365 comes with compatibility with most services within the Microsoft ecosystem. Additionally, Power BI integration adds capabilities enhancing business intelligence to existing Dynamic 365 CRMs.

• Consolidated resources – Integration allows connecting almost every data source along with sales figures into a single platform.
• Embed reports – Integrating Dynamic 365 with Power BI enhances the ability to include sales reports, charts, and graphs you create into your Dynamics 365 CRM dashboards.
• Import Dashboards – Power BI integration brings in pre-built dashboards, reports, and data models, adding customization features like custom fields with ease.
• On-The-Go – The power of sharing and accessing Power BI reports from anywhere and anytime enables businesses to stay aligned with the goal and make decisions on-the-go

So, for companies and organizations looking to scale up their data analysis and reporting efforts, Power BI can be one of the most feasible options. It offers a vast array of advantages and comes with the power of modernizing existing services to suit modern business requirements. Also, the cross-platform compatibility of Power BI services and applications makes the process extremely smooth and quick, eliminating lengthy downtimes.

LevelShift and Power BI integration

Incorporating or reinventing with Power BI software services and applications can help scale up operations and develop a high-performance workplace. LevelShift can help transform your organization into a more coherent unit if you’re looking for similar solutions. We are a long-standing Microsoft Gold Partner and have helped over 50+ companies go fully digital over the years. For more information regarding Power BI integration, Please reach out to us at your convenience.

FAQs

What is Power BI integration?

It is the process of integrating Power BI into existing business environment of an organization. Power BI can be integrated into various data sources such as

• File – Excel, PDF, Text/CSV, JSON, XML, SharePoint folder, etc.
• Database – SQL Server, Oracle database, IBM database, SAP, Amazon, Snowflake, etc.
• Power Platform – Power BI datasets, Power BI dataflows, Common Data Service, etc.
• Azure – Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Databricks, etc.
• Online Services – Dynamics 365 Online, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Azure DevOps, etc.
• Other data sources – Web, Active Directory, MS Exchange, OData Feed, Spark, R Script, etc.

Why should you integrate Power BI into Salesforce?

Power BI integration into your Salesforce account can retrieve Salesforce data in Power BI. Salesforce contains rich customer data of your organization where you can keep a 360-degree view of your customers and competitors. Power BI is a tool used to process and visualize data in the form of interactive reports and immersive dashboards.  Moreover, you can embed Power BI dashboards into any app within Salesforce while retaining the function of the pre-built dashboards connected to the ERP.

Why should you integrate Power BI into Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a collaborative tool used to chat, organize meetings, and share content between teams in a distributed workspace. By integrating Power BI into Microsoft Teams, you can work with paginated reports, interactive dashboards, apps, and workspaces while collaborating with colleagues live, bringing a whole new level of interaction to your company.