Your Guide to Power BI and Dynamics 365 Integration

Businesses that use Microsoft know how Power BI has changed data visualization and report generation. Dynamics 365, a CRM software, is designed to help organizations attain business excellence and accommodate customer requirements. Together, Power BI and Dynamics 365 offer numerous features and advantages. 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 Power BI feature helps organizations migrate data from on-premise to the cloud. New data, which can be structured or unstructured, is updated monthly.
3. Filter datasets
   Datasets collate 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 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. They display single-page reports that can be easily 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 various 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 that 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, enabling 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 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 the 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 complements one another exceptionally well.
• Sales teams can benefit from the integration and make better decisions based on their intuitive data and insights.

While the synergy between these two tools is powerful, achieving a seamless connection requires technical precision. Our specialized Microsoft Dynamics 365 integration services ensure that your data flows accurately between platforms, eliminating silos and providing a single source of truth for your leadership team.

Advantages of the Power BI to Dynamics 365 integration

1. It paves the way for a company to boost its business intelligence capabilities.
2. It provides powerful insights into sales staff productivity, helping to 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 completing work quickly, and personalized dashboards make that possible by tailoring them to help different departments with varying needs.

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 connection: Log in 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.

The Power BI to Dynamics 365 integration is a foundational step for any data-driven business. If you are looking to expand your ecosystem further, check out our comprehensive guide to successful third-party integration with Dynamics 365. It covers the best practices for connecting your ERP and CRM with other essential business applications safely and efficiently.

The perfect integration with LevelShift

The integration setup might sound simple, but with the help of professionals trained to unify the software, you save time, resources, and money. We have a proven track record of handling complex connectivity challenges, such as our recent work achieving seamless integration between Dynamics 365 FO and Salesforce. This project highlights our ability to synchronize high-volume data across diverse platforms without compromising performance.

LevelShift has 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.

LevelShift is known for its on-demand services: implementation, migration, integration, support, and maintenance. Our services are based on a pay-as-you-use model where you only 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.