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A Complete Guide to Reporting and Analytics in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations

A Complete Guide to Reporting and Analytics · SSRS reports from within the D365FO application, connected directly to the OLTP data. An externally deployed version of SSRS can also

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Page 2: A Complete Guide to Reporting and Analytics · SSRS reports from within the D365FO application, connected directly to the OLTP data. An externally deployed version of SSRS can also

Reporting and Analytics Capabilities in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations ....................................... 3

An Overview of D365FO’s Out-of-the-Box Reporting and Analytics Tools .............................................. 5

7 Report Authoring Tools in D365FO ................................................................................................... 6

6 Data Sources Available When Authoring a Report or Dashboard ................................................... 10

Alternatives to the Microsoft BI Stack................................................................................................... 13

How to Assess Your BI Landscape and Prepare for D365FO ................................................................. 14

Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations Reporting and Analytics Recommendations ............................... 17

A Complete Guide to Reporting and Analyticsin Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations

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Reporting and Analytics Capabilities in Dynamics 365 Finance & OperationsMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (D365FO) is a web and cloud-based business management solution built from the robust architecture of Dynamics AX. While some functionality has stayed the same as Dynamics AX, other areas have changed quite drastically, including the user interface, CRM integration, and most importantly: reporting. Whether you are new to the world of Dynamics or not, it’s important to understand the out-of-the-box reporting and analytical capabilities available in your new system and how to make them fit your company’s needs.

In this white paper, we are going to educate you on the reporting and analytics tools that currently exist within the D365FO framework, show how customer requirements are met, and share the best approaches to achieving your complex data and analytical goals.

Before you get started -

There are two key components you should always consider when it comes to effectively delivering a reporting and analytics solution: curating data and authoring reports. One does not exist without the other. When embarking on any reporting and analytics initiative, you need more than a proper authoring tool. You also need to understand where to source and curate data, how to structure that data, and what tools and skills are required to do this work. If you don’t get the data part right, there are consequences that range from slow reports and system performance issues to the inability to access required information and harmonize data with other sources.

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TERM DEFINITION

Report FormA business form developed using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Ex. Invoice

or Bill of Lading.

Report GridThis is a predefined “grid” of information displayed within the D365FO application. A

grid of information may be easily sorted and filtered. You may also export grid data

into Excel via OData protocol depending on size. Grids are developed using X++.

Paginated ReportThis is typically a printed report with columns and lines of transactional data,

possibly with totals and subtotals. Paginated reports are typically developed using

SSRS.

Excel ExportThis is when transactional data is exported into Excel for the purpose of serving a

more exploratory business reporting requirement. Excel is both storing the data as

well as authoring the report.

Excel-Based ReportThis implies that Excel is connected to a governed data set and is used merely as

the reporting authoring tool.

Embedded WorkspacesThese are dashboards viewed within D365FO. They can be either Analytical

Workspaces or Operational Workspaces.

Analytics

Process of discovering and communicating meaningful patterns in your data.

Related to interacting with and visualizing data, leveraging aggregated or

summarized data sets with the ability to slice and dice, and interactively drill into

lists and individual transactions in a more ad hoc exploratory fashion.

Analytics implies the use of dashboards and the ability to set up KPIs and metrics

to visually understand where the organization is trending, and also to potentially

use more advanced predictive BI capabilities to understand the key performance

drivers of the business better and predict where it is heading.

Augmented Analytics

Leveraging Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to analyze current and

historical data to generate actionable predictions of future events. Augmented

Analytics can also be used to automatically perform tasks that normally require

human intelligence, such as speech recognition, decision-making, and translation

between languages

Microsoft reporting and analytics terms you should know:

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An Overview of D365FO’s Out-of-the-BoxReporting and Analytics ToolsWhether you are brand new to D365FO or you are migrating to D365FO from Dynamics AX, you need to consider how to pull data from multiple sources and what report writing tool will help you not only create standard financial reports but also custom and ad hoc reports as well. In D365FO, there are seven standard report authoring tools and six areas in which to source data.

7 REPORT AUTHORING TOOLS:

1. Embedded Operational Workspaces

2. Embedded Analytical Workspaces

3. Management Reporter

4. SSRS

5. Dynamics 365 Grid

6. Excel

7. Power BI

6 DATA SOURCES AVAILABLE:

1. Transactional OLTP Database (AxDB)

2. Data Entities within AxDB

3. Management Reporter Data Mart

4. Entity Store (AxDW)

5. Bring Your Own Database (BYOD)

6. Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW

In the next two sections, we are going to describe each report authoring tool and walk you through the data sources available in D365FO. From there, we will help you assess your business intelligence (BI) landscape and give you tips on how to prepare your data. The end goal? To help you determine your overall reporting and analytical strategy in D365FO!

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7 Report Authoring Tools in D365FOWhile most people interact with business applications daily, fewer than 22% of employees have access to analytical insights. That’s why Microsoft intends to bring analytics across the organization with the new Excel for business users – Embedded Analytics. Embedded analytics is a new reporting and analytics feature in D365FO designed to empower and enrich the user experience. Essentially, they are screen representations of your data, displaying information back to you.

There are three types of embedded analytics included in D365FO: Operational Workspaces, Analytical Workspaces (also referred to as “Embedded Power BI”), and Embedded PowerBI.com.1

1. Embedded Operational Workspaces Operational Workspaces help D365FO users manage and prioritize daily tasks by providing big-picture statistics with drill-down capability to the detailed transactions. These workspaces directly access the D365FO transactional data in real-time and are relatively easy to personalize. For example, you can add a tile to your workspace that lists the number of unapplied customer payments with a drill-through to the associated detailed payments. This allows an associate to navigate to the list of payments requiring settlement easily. Microsoft delivers over 50 pre-configured Operational Workspaces within D365FO that can be enhanced to meet your specific business requirements. The underlying technology for these workspaces is a native X++ programming language and embedded chart controls.

1Embedded Power BI and Embedded PowerBI.com are two different capabilities and are also implemented completely differently.

Figure 1: Credit and ColleCtions operational WorkspaCe

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2. Embedded Analytical WorkspacesAnalytical Workspaces, also referred to as Embedded Power BI, deliver business insights by leveraging data summarized in charts, KPIs, and Power BI visuals. These workspaces are intended to help users identify trends, relationships, and anomalies expressed through data visualizations. Analytical workspaces leverage aggregated data sourced within the Dynamics 365 Entity Store and are designed to quickly analyze large volumes of data at once. The aggregated data in the Entity Store is updated from the transactional data near real-time.

Microsoft delivers over 18 pre-configured Analytical Workspaces within D365FO that can be enhanced to meet your specific business requirements. These workspaces, developed using Embedded Power BI, require data preparation - which is accomplished through the development of “Aggregate Measures.” Aggregate measures are used to push data to the Entity Store, a database separate from the OLTP that we will cover in the next section. The creation of aggregate measures requires knowledge in proper data modeling design, X++, MDX2 and native D365 application configurations.

NOTE: Embedded Power BI should not be confused with Embedded PowerBI.com Dashboards, which are explained below.

Figure 2: Credit and ColleCtions analytiCal WorkspaCe

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2.5 Embedded PowerBI.com DashboardsIn addition to embedded operational and analytical workspaces, PowerBI.com dashboards can also be embedded into the D365FO form. This requires each report viewer to have a Power BI Pro license (or Premium) in addition to their D365FO license and is configured by the user (as opposed to an enterprise configuration). Any user who has both a D365FO license and a Power BI Pro license can select the “Get Started” option to embed a PowerBI.com dashboard that they have access to quickly.

The data and dashboard are entirely separate from the underlying D365FO data unless the data has been first curated and surfaced through PowerBI.com. In this scenario, the D365FO form is merely being used as a display for the PowerBI.com dashboard. There is no drill-through into the D365FO forms in this case. The data source for the PowerBI.com dashboard is not limited to D365FO data and can include data from any source that has been curated and surfaced through PowerBI.com.

With the Embedded PowerBI.com feature within D365, a user can quickly embed this dashboard wherever the option for Power BI is made available. For example, the PowerBI.com dashboard shown below has been created using a separate PBI.com model file (completely unrelated to the D365FO data) and embedded in the Credit and Collections Operational Workspace. This feature is not available to be made at the corporate level and is handled as a personalization by individual users.

Figure 3: embedded poWerbi.Com dashboard in Credit and ColleCtions operational WorkspaCe

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3. Management ReporterManagement Reporter is the report authoring tool included in D365FO licensing focused on financial reporting and the general ledger. It is somewhat complex and requires technical skill to build reports and manage data. In general, it’s not perceived as the favorite report authoring tool offered by Microsoft.

Management Reporter leverages its own data mart, which prepares the underlying OLTP data for consumption. This data mart is a “black box” – meaning external data cannot be brought in, nor can it be modified in any way. In fact, most customers are not even aware that it’s there. No other report authoring tools may access the data mart.

4. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)SSRS is the tool IT resources use to generate pixel-perfect paginated reports, with structured headers and footers that include columns and rows of transactional data with subtotals and totals. While the programming language is tedious and time-consuming, it is a widely known language that is easy to interpret. SSRS is useful for writing high volume, simple reports based on D365FO data. However, it is not suitable for complex reporting needs and can result in bottlenecks and expensive fees for custom development.

Microsoft delivers around 2,000 SSRS reports available with out-of-box D365FO. Customers with the required technical acumen can write custom SSRS reports from within the D365FO application, connected directly to the OLTP data. An externally deployed version of SSRS can also be used to author reports. The most significant difference with SSRS reports in D365FO, compared to Dynamics AX, is the additional layer of bureaucracy. Any report customizations must be submitted to Microsoft first. Once they’ve been approved, they will post it to your D365FO instance.

5. Management ReporterDynamics 365 Grid is a form that has a predefined grid of information displayed within the D365FO application. Once the grid is defined and developed by IT development resources, business users are able to easily sort and filter the live D365FO data and even export it to Excel, with an OData connection. D365FO grids also allow for some limited personalization by users to add or hide data fields.

6. Microsoft ExcelExcel is the most common analytical tool used by business users. It allows for tabular reporting and data exploration.

7. Microsoft Power BIPower BI is considered an analytical tool used by IT and business users that allows for data exploration and visualization. Generally, Power BI is used over an aggregated or summarized data set. The degree of aggregation is dictated by how the underlying data has been modeled. Data may be ingested into Power BI directly, or a “Direct Query” method against an external data source may be used. Any Power BI dashboard can be displayed within D365FO forms, as discussed above.

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6 Data Sources Available When Authoringa Report or DashboardThe curation of data is a key inflection point in determining your overall reporting and analytical strategy because it can be time-consuming and complex. Preparing your data does require time and strong technical skills in several environments to make it work the way you expect. Here is an overview of the data sources available in D365FO and how they relate to the report authoring tools mentioned above.

1. Transactional OLTP Database (AxDB) This is the main OLTP transactional database of D365FO in SQL. The AxDB is not available to external report authoring tools.

2. Data EntitiesData entities are extracts from core data in your D365FO system that make it easier to write a report by joining and linking the data in D365FO. You need them to get at your data. They require programming skills to build, so Microsoft has designed almost 2000 pre-built entities for you to choose from. There are two types:

1. Aggregate Entities for aggregated data 2. Standard Entities for transaction level data

Data entities within AxDB are only available to external report authoring tools via an OData connection. Unfortunately, customers have reported super slow performance issues when running through OData.

Open Data Protocol (OData) is an open integration protocol developed by Microsoft and recognized as a global standard for querying and updating data. Unless the BYOD is leveraged, OData is the only way to connect with D365FO data from external report authoring tools (including PowerBI.com). Access to D365FO data via OData is only available through Data Entities.

The OData protocol limits transfer to 10,000 records at a time. If using an external report authoring tool (Excel or PowerBI.com, connecting directly to the Data Entities), and running reports with data volumes exceeding 10,000 records, the report will not be performant.

3. Management Reporter Data MartThe Management Reporter Data Mart is a way for Management Reporter to access the data required to create financial reports in D365FO. IT aggregates data for financial reporting into its own database instead of running queries on the live company databases.

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4. Entity Store (AxDW)The Entity Store is a database dedicated to reporting and analytics available out-of-the-box for D365. It is a “Clustered Column Store Database,” separate from the OLTP, and as such, data is near real-time. At the time of this writing, the Entity Store is only available to be refreshed as a full load and incremental refresh in an early Microsoft preview program. It is anticipated that once the incremental load is available, the Entity Store can be updated as “Low Priority” to refresh every 15 minutes, or “High Priority” to set up every 1-5 minutes.

To populate the Entity Store, “Aggregate Measures” must first be configured within the D365FO application. Conceptually this is similar to building OLAP cubes, but less complicated when using the D365FO Aggregate Measures options. If more complex features are required, such as building out complex calculations, MDX language (calculations and scripts) may also be used to augment out-of-the-box features of building Aggregate Measures. Aggregate Measures provide the definition, or data model, for the Entity Store. The creation of Aggregate Measures requires knowledge in data modeling design, X++, MDX, and native D365 application configurations. There are currently 52 out-of-box Aggregate Measures within Dynamics 365FO that are used to publish data to the Entity Store.

5. Bring Your Own Database (BYOD)The BYOD features let administrators configure their own Azure SQL database and then export data entities available in D365FO into it. BYOD is built leveraging the Data Management Framework in D365FO and supports large batch data exports. To set up the BYOD, D365FO Standard Data Entities must be configured to incrementally export the transactional data into the customer’s own Azure SQL data store. D365FO customers are licensed for BYOD, however, an additional Azure subscription will be required. The BYOD has no Microsoft driven limitations in terms of data access and is available for all external report authoring tools, including PowerBI.com, Excel or external SSRS.

It is recommended that customers create custom Standard Data Entities as opposed to the out-of-box Standard Data Entities that are delivered with D365FO to create the BYOD. The out-of-box Standard Data Entities were developed with data import in mind, not data export and reporting. For example, the out-of-box Standard Data Entities include ALL the underlying attributes within a table. In a reporting scenario, you would not need all the fields within all the required tables. Further, the out-of-box Standard Data Entities are not set up for incremental load. In a real-world scenario, you want the BYOD to load incrementally, especially as the underlying transactional dataset grows. The out-of-box Standard Data Entities have been somewhat de-normalized, which will create data redundancies within the BYOD. This could potentially be seen as an asset for reporting directly from the BYOD, however, if the BYOD is being leveraged to support a broader Enterprise Data Warehouse scenario, we recommend a more normalized data set with minimal transformation from the underlying AxDB.

NOTE: Aggregate Measures are different from Aggregate Entities. Aggregate Measures must be defined and created first before you can create an Aggregate Entity.

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Either way, the creation of custom Standard Data Entities is quite simple and should be architected to meet the specific needs of the customer. Understanding whether or not there will be an Enterprise Data Warehouse in play for reporting is a crucial consideration. If you do require a data warehouse, BYOD will be used to facilitate the transfer of information. BYOD does not connect via OData, which would be quite limiting with the more extensive data requirements required to support transactional level table updates and data warehouse integration.

6. Enterprise Data WarehouseFor organizations that have a high level of data diversity or complex data and analytical requirements, a data warehouse is typically a part of their overall reporting and analytics strategy. A data warehouse is a central repository of integrated data that is controlled and managed by an IT team. It stores transactional level details and serves the broader reporting and analytical needs of the organization – creating one source of truth for building semantic models or serving structured, simplified and harmonized data to tools like Power BI, Excel or even SSRS. A data warehouse’s data architecture is designed to optimize reporting (i.e. read operations), not transaction processing (i.e. write operations), which is an entirely different framework for storing data. A data warehouse does not replace the operational reporting and embedded analytics within D365FO - it augments and enhances it. Creating reports and analytics sourced from a structured, simplified and harmonized data set is quick, efficient, and will allow more non-technical users to explore the data and get value from it. Reports are simpler to build, empowering the average user to dig into the data, build their own reports, analyze new information, and make discoveries not thought of previously.

If multiple source systems are in play that require data harmonization for the purpose of reporting, transforming this data through more standard Microsoft ETL capabilities with a data warehouse will result in less risk, less cost and a higher degree of adaptability that is required for BI.

Common data transformations such as standard costing, currency conversions, unit of measure conversions, and other business approved and validated calculations are all built into the data warehouse, ensuring that reports are truly displaying the expected results. The Dimensional Model design of a data warehouse allows for the implementation of slowly changing dimensions, displaying the state of the various transactions and attributes exactly as they were at that point in time.

Prepare Your Data for Business Analytics and Intelligence

DOWNLOAD WHITE PAPER

How Master Data Management Reduces Riskin Any Data Warehouse Project

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Alternatives to the Microsoft BI StackNot everyone has a team of in-house experts in SSRS, X++, Excel, PBI, and MR - or the budget to hire consultants for every custom report they need. And without the knowledge or skill to navigate the performance issues and data entities in D365FO, you’re going to have a hard time getting what you need. That’s why third-party solutions exist: to make built-in reporting and analytics tools more accessible to an organization.

These pre-built reporting and analytics solutions are designed to eliminate complexity, reduce cost, and decrease the risk of lengthy implementations. They typically combine pre-built data warehouses to organize your data sources with an easy-to-use report authoring tool. Jet Analytics, for example, is a reporting and business intelligence solution that provides a pre-built data warehouse, OLAP cubes, and tabular models with a platform for non-technical users to easily create their own reports in Excel or Power BI. We’ve helped simplify and speed up data building in D365FO and fully support incremental loading, so you have the most accurate, up-to-date information from all your data sources at all times.

DOWNLOAD COMPARISONTop 7 Microsoft Dynamics BI andAnalytics Platforms

Jet Analytics is a reporting and business intelligence solution that provides a pre-built data warehouse, OLAP cubes, and tabular models with a platform for non-technical users to easily create their own reports in Excel or Power BI.

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How to Assess Your BI Landscape and Prepare Your Data for D365FO

Now that we have most of the technical considerations explained, let’s consider all this in terms of your D365FO ERP implementation. At the beginning of every ERP implementation project, your team will be very focused on the basic blocking and tackling of business process transformation and marching towards a go-live date. When the new system is turned on, you will need to be ready to take customer orders, ship products, and invoice your customers. But don’t forget, there will be baseline reporting capabilities required to be in place from day one.

In D365FO, there are many different ways to achieve the same result, so you need to consider the bigger picture instead of making reporting decisions one report requirement at a time. Business intelligence fuels much excitement with your business leaders, and it may be easy to get sidetracked with ad hoc requests. It will be essential to keep your eye on the prize when implementing a new transaction processing system, manage expectations and cost, and avoid future surprises.

When D365FO is put into production, your business will not want to step back from where they are at today with reporting and analytics. That’s why it is important to understand your company’s current level of business intelligence maturity, the application landscape, as well as the organizational alignment that serves an organization’s reporting and analytics needs. We have put together a quick checklist to serve as a “BI Temperature Check” to help you make foundational decisions from the start. Answer the questions as best you can, and you will start seeing some patterns emerge.

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BI MATURITY

What is the scale of your analytical capability?

Individual (s)

Departmental

Enterprise

What is the use of data in the organization?

Corporate Reporting

Ad-Hoc/ Exploratory

Dashboards & Visualizations

Advanced Analytics (predictive, AI)

What is your data infrastructure?

Reporting from transactional systems only Spreadsheets

Independent Data Marts

Enterprise Data Warehouse

Big Data Eco-System

How does your organization think about data?

Tactical

Mission Critical

Enterprise Data Warehouse

Strategic

APPLICATION LANDSCAPE

How many source systems or other data sources are required?

Is there a need to merge or harmonize data from multiple source systems? Y/N

To what extent will you need to harmonize historical transactional data with D365 data?

Are applications running on-premise, in the cloud, or both?

On-premise

Cloud

Both

What report authoring tools are/will be used?

Jet Global Business Intelligence Assessment

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ORGANIZATIONAL ALIGNMENT

What is the business geography?

Who is the business executive champion for delivering analytics within the organization?

Tactical

Mission Critical

Enterprise Data Warehouse

Strategic

Is there a data and analytics team? Y/N

Who manages and controls master data? Does this occur in a systematic or ad hoc?

Systematic

Ad hoc

What is the breakdown of mainstream users (from IT to authoring reports) VS the business analysts and super users?

Mainstream Users – IT and report authors

Mission Critical

What is the overall level of data literacy within the organization?

Once you have an understanding of where you stand, the next step is to complete an inventory of your current reporting and analytical needs. The goal here is not to reproduce every report that exists in your legacy ERP environment – it’s to identify, at a high level, the holistic informational requirements of your business. Once the inventory is built and your reporting and information requirements are known, a recommendation can be made on where your data should be sourced (or curated) from and what report authoring tools would work best.

For each reporting or information requirement, identify: 1. Usage – Individual, Departmental, Business Unit, Enterprise 2. Output Type – Document, Paginated Report, Excel, No Print/Screen (i.e., Power BI, D365 Grid) 3. Info Type – Statutory, Operational, Analytic, Exploratory 4. Dataset Size – Data sets over 10,000 records should be noted 5. Level of Complexity – Joining data from multiple areas within D365 or multiple systems or complex calculations? 6. Single Source D365 or Multi-Source Data? If Multi-source, name Sources. 7. Priority – critical for Phase I go-live, must-have, or nice-to-have? 8. Frequency – how often is the report run? Multiple times a day? Once a day? Once a month? 9. Data Refresh (Currency) – up to the minute, 15 minutes, 4 hours or end of day

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Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations Reporting and Analytics Recommendations

Now that you’re armed with knowledge on the reporting and analytics capabilities in D365FO and you have a clear understanding of your own BI requirements for the new system, it’s time to take a look at your options for data sourcing and report authoring. In the table below, you will be able to compare each report authoring tool with the data source and technology required to access it.

REPORT AUTHORING

TOOL

AUTHORING TECHNOLOGY

DATA SOURCE

AxDB D365 Data Entities

Management Reporter Data

MartAxDW BYOD Enterprise

Data Warehouse

Embedded Workspace – Operational View

X++, Chart Controls X X

Embedded Workspace – Analytical View

Embedded PBI X

Management Reporter MR X

SSRS SSRS X X X X

365 Grid X++ X X

Excel Excel OData X X

Power BI PBI OData X X

IT’S TIME TO TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR OPTIONS FOR DATA SOURCING AND REPORT AUTHORING.

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If taken as a whole, you can put a winning reporting strategy in place that will meet expectations, maximize your investment, and build a solid foundation for a future, more comprehensive analytics program. At Jet Global, we are committed to delivering on the promise of total data access. We’ve worked with hundreds of Microsoft Dynamics clients with a high level of data diversity and complex data requirements. That’s why we developed ready-to-use analytics for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations – Jet Analytics.

Designed to improve efficiency and optimize business performance, Jet Analytics is a flexible corporate business intelligence, reporting, and data management platform that will help you curate your D365FO data and easily write (i.e. author) reports and dashboards. With a familiar Excel interface, non-technical users have the power to build and modify their own reports and dashboards inside or Power BI. And the best part? Turnkey installation in hours, with:

● Point and click environment for data entity development ● Pre-built Microsoft Dynamics Data Warehouse ● Pre-built Microsoft Dynamics Report Templates● Streamlined Data Migration from Legacy Systems● Pre-built Microsoft Dynamics BI OLAP Cubes and Tabular Models● Supports all report authoring tools that can consume SQL, SSAS OLAP or SSAS Tabular Data ● Automated Data Warehousing – 5x faster than traditional DWs and you get 80% of the BI you need directly upon installation – saving on development costs and delivering value immediately!

Request a free personalized demoof Jet Analytics today!

SCHEDULE A DEMO!

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About Jet Global

Jet Global delivers complete data access and control from Microsoft Dynamics so board members, executives, finance professionals, and managers can make decisions at the speed of business without the need for bottlenecked technical resources, or data expertise.

Through flexible reporting, fast analytics, and controlled budgeting solutions that leverage Excel and Power BI, Jet Global empowers users to become instantly successful and productive in an environment that is both user-friendly, familiar, and secure. Jet solutions focus on reducing the ongoing tension between IT and stakeholders by liberating the consistently over-tasked technical resources, allowing them to focus on innovating and driving the strategic aspects of the business.

Visit www.jetglobal.com to see why 14,210 companies rely on Jet Global for their business insight every day.