Introducing the Power BI solution template for Credit and Collections

Today we are excited to announce the Power BI solution template for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations for Credit and Collections analytics. Purpose of this blog post is to explain who should use this solution template any why should they use it.

Before we start, see this video for a quick tour.

You probably know what Power BI solution templates are. If not, this blog post is a great introduction.

Analytical workspaces and solution templates

I trust that you read the blog post on Analytical workspaces posted by my colleague TJ.

As mentioned in the blog post, Analytical workspaces offer an Analytical view of operational data. A single Analytical workspace combines information provided with many operational reports.

Built using embedded PowerBI (or, a version of PowerBI included within Dynamics 365 for Operations), analytical workspaces appear as a new Tab within workspaces. If you have a PowerBI report that was authored using Entity store, an AX developer can convert that report into an Analytical workspace by following the links provided in the post.

Analytical workspaces are available to all users of Dynamics 365 for Operations – whether they have a PowerBI.com license or not. In fact, a user does not need a PowerBI.com account to be able to use analytical workspaces within Dynamics 365 for Operations.

Data shown in Analytical workspaces are sourced from Entity store – the operational data warehouse included with Dynamics 365 for Operations. You can extend ready-made analytical workspaces or create new ones using data in entity store.

But what if you wanted to include your own data into reports – ie. data that’s not housed in Dynamics 365 for Operations into the same report? – what if you wanted to include data from your legacy data warehouse or perhaps data from cloud sources?

The answer is ... Power BI solution templates.

With the Solution template for Credit and Collections, In just a few minutes, you can stand up an end-to-end solution including data extraction, Azure SQL Server, Azure Analysis Services, and ready-made Power BI reports. This solution is provisioned in your own Azure subscription - you can extend the solution by incorporating other data and business logic.

Credit and Collections Power BI solution template features the richness contained within the Credit and collections Analytical workspace included in the spring release of Dynamics 365 for Operations.

Kick-start your data mart project using Solution templates…

For Operational reporting on Dynamics 365 for Operations data, Entity store and analytical workspaces may be a cost effective option. But if you have an existing Data warehouse or want to develop a data mart for Credit and collections analysis, solution templates are a great starting point.

As opposed to standing-up a database and developing ETL scripts to extract and transform data from dynamics 365 for Operations, solution template deploys a ready-made solution in your subscription. You can tweak the solution deployed and modify the components as you see fit.

Use Solution templates to package your BI solution

If you are an ISV or a partner, you may have built content to be distributed as Analytical workspaces with the spring update of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Now, you have an opportunity to package the same content as a Solutions template and make it available in AppSource.

Using the code samples freely available on GitHub  you can package your content as a solution. You can submit your solution to existing gallery of solution templates by sending a mail to pbisolntemplates@microsoft.com

If you have a custom data warehouse solution that was built using Dynamics 365 for Operations data, you could package and deploy the solution using solution templates – as opposed to writing your own deployment and installation code.

Give it a try…

This is the first of many solution templates to come. We plan to release solution templates corresponding to ready-made PowerBI content available as Analytical workspaces.

Give it a try and tell us what you think. Also, please tell us which of the ready-made Analytical workspaces that you would like to see as solution templates soon.

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 08, 2018
  I have tested your solution template for credit and collections. Here are my observations:Your ETL script transfers data for multiple legal entities into one Azure SQL DB instance. This is great for my scenario, thanks.Please note that the default AOT view (CustCollectionsBIAgedBalancesView) sets a criteria on "OpenBalanceMST > 0...so that only debit balances show in the report visual. This fact should be clearly stated on the "Aged Balances" report page. Or, customer should have the view modified to remove the range criteria value on "OpenBalanceMST". Doing so will result in a much more accurate report that can clearly show (in the visual) column measures each for credit and debit balances.