Microsoft’s Power BI is the leading Business Intelligence tool. This modern platform was built to gather a set of tools, services, apps and connectors in order to help us understand and explore our business information. For example, we can visualize insights and compile information from multiple sources in one single centralized dashboard.
A great plus of Power BI is the seamless integration with one of the main sources of information that companies have: Microsoft Dynamics 365.
However, to receive reports from Power BI, you must integrate your business critical data.
For this reason, I will give you the necessary guidelines to efficiently integrate Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Power BI.
How to Integrate Power BI with Microsoft Dynamics 365 from the CRM
1. We have to login in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM
2. At the main menu we have to select the “Settings” option.
3. Then, at the “customization” menu, click on the “customizations” option.
4. We will visualize a new tab. Then we click on “Developer Resources”.
5. At Developer Resources, we have to search and select “instance Web API”. In this blank we must paste the URL that we can find at “Service Root url”.
How to do it from Power BI Desktop
1. First, click the Home button, then, click on the “Get Data ” option.
2. This option opens a new window. There we select “Online Services” and choose the option “Dynamics 365 (Online)”. Finally, click on the “Connect” button.
3. Once we are connected to the service, a new window called “Dynamics 365 (online)” will appear. Then, we have to select “Basic” and paste the Microsoft Dynamics 365 URL (copy the ULR from the “Web API url”) and click on OK.
4. If we are doing this process for the first time, we will visualize a new window. We have to select the authentication method at “OData feed” window.
- In this scenario, we will choose “Organizational account” as predeterminate authentication method.
- We paste the URL previously supplied and we click on the button “Sign in”.
- Then we write the user and password that we use to access in Microsoft Dynamics 365. After loging in, Power BI will show us the “OData feed” window. If we don’t have to make any modification there, we click on “Connect”.
5. The connection between Power BI and Microsoft Dynamics 365 will take a few minutes to function correctly. Once the connection is stablished, we will visualize the “Navigator” window. There, we will find a folder with the name of the URL that we previously entered, it contains all the tables that are integrated in Microsoft Dynamics 365.
6. If we select a table, Power BI shows us a content preview on the right side of the window. Also, we can automatically select all the tables that are related to our selection, just clicking on the “Select related tables” button.
7. As soon as we have selected all the necessary tables, then we click on “load” button to start uploading all the data to Power BI Desktop.
Remember: To access and visualize all the tables within Microsoft Dynamics 365 you have to use the credentials of an authorized user. This information is critical to complete the process.
Hope this article was insightful to efficiently use Power BI Desktop and Microsoft Dynamics 365. In this order, Microsoft business solutions will help your company to deliver its full potential.
If you require more details about Power BI or if you want to schedule a Demo, and one of our experts will contact you.