1. Dynamics AX BI Options Featuring Power BI
BI definition – a set of techniques and tools for the acquisition and transformation of raw data into meaningful and useful information for business analysis purposes
March 17, 2016

2. Topics Covered What is Power BI What Businesses Want from BI
Intro
What is Power BI
What Businesses Want from BI
Having fun with Power BI
AX BI Tools
Getting at Your AX Data
Get more in Catherine’s Break-out Session
Perf & Security
What’s in the “new” Dynamics AX

3. Stoneridge Software & Eric Newell
Microsoft Alumni:
Consultants
>50%
Leadership Team
>70%
Largest Dynamics AX Partner in the
North Central Area
Offices
Barnesville, MN (HQ)
Minneapolis, MN

4. What is Power BI?
Suite of business analytic tools to analyze data and share insights
Quickly create visualizations from your data and shared sources
Easily access and share your data on any device

5. Definitions & Features
Normalized Data – data structure with IDs in main tables
Power Pivot – Analysis Services in Excel
Power View – Robust dashboard reporting
Power Query – data exploration and transformation
Power Map – stunning visuals with geographic reporting
Data Source (Get Data) – files, databases, services, etc.
Content Pack – pre-built dashboard from a data source
Data Management Gateway – ability to share on-premise data online
Power BI Desktop – application used to build BI reports
Data Catalog – shared catalog of queries you develop

6. Power BI Data Sources & Content Packs
AX7 – 2 new content packs
Financial Performance
Retail Channel Performance

7. What do you want from BI? 14 Critical Capabilities
BI Platform Administration
Cloud BI
Security and User Administration
Data Source Connectivity
Governance and Metadata Management
Self-Contained ETL
Self-Service Data Preparation
Embedded Advanced Analytics
Analytic Dashboards
Interactive Visual Exploration
Mobile Exploration and Authoring
Sharing Embedded Analytic Content
Publishing Analytic Content
Collaboration and Social BI

8. Gartner’s Report on Microsoft’s BI
Strengths
Cautions
Low TCO
High Business Benefits
User Enablement
Expansive Data Sources
Power BI is new
Forecasting and other advanced options require Excel
Lack of survey references

9. Power BI Licensing Only need an email address to get started Free
Pro ($9.99/mo)
Data Capacity Limit
1 GB
10 GB
Create, view and share dashboards ●
Author Content with Power BI Desktop
Natural Language Search
Mobile Access
Consume content packs
Import data and reports from Excel
Publish to the web
Consume content that’s ready to refresh
Daily
Up to 8 times per day
Consume streaming data in your reports and dashboards
10k rows/hr
1m rows/hour
Consume live data with full interactivity
Access on-premise data with Data Connectivity Gateway
Collaborate with Office 365 Groups
Create, publish and view organizational content packs
Manage access control and sharing through Active Directory
Shared data queries through the Data Catalog

10. What BI Options Exist for Dynamics AX
Application
Vendor
Pros
Cons
Power BI
Microsoft
Great visualizations
Hard to surface the data from AX
SQL Reporting Services
500+ reports built into the product
Requires 40 hrs to build a new one
SQL Analysis Services
Denormalizes data; comes with AX
Requires server and hard to extend
Excel Add-In
Free and easy to get data out
Hard to surface data; can update AX
Atlas
Globe Software
Cheap and commonly used
Requires knowledge of AX tables
Jet Enterprise
Jet Reports
Good warehouse for AX
Not as common
Targit BI
Targit
Free trial; accelerator for AX
Not commonly used
ZAP BI
ZAP
Requires time to implement
BI4Dynamics
Relatively inexpensive; cubes
Small company; limited support
BI360
Solver
Reporting, Warehouse, etc.
More general than AX focused
deFacto Performance
deFacto
Good with budgets

11. Performance Considerations
Transactional Database
Warehouse (Analysis Services)
Backup Database

12. Security Warning
Power BI gets its data from OData, and in AX OData is not security aware
Power BI reports have to be protected through O365 credentials

13. Determine the Data You Want
Three Steps to BI
This is the hard part
Determine the Data You Want
Surface the Data
Build Your Visuals

14. Determine What You Want
What are the important metrics to your business – identify your scorecard
Throughout the requirements process, identify key information needed for reporting
Provide sample reports and dashboards to the implementation team

15. Surface the Data – Analysis Services
Enable Analysis Service on your SQL Server (or a dedicated one)
Configure Analysis Services by running the AX Setup Wizard
Deploy the cubes, configuring cubes, add financial dimensions to the cubes
AX > SysAdmin > Setup > BI > Analysis Services
In Power BI, connect to Analysis Services
Navigate to the data you want to use:

16. Surface the Data – AX OData Feed
Create an OData feed by using Document Data Sources
Service
Query
Custom query
Access the AX OData query service
Navigate to the data source you want to choose to load it into AX
This can be done directly from Power BI or into Excel

17. Surface the Data – Atlas to Excel
Use the Data Inspector to create queries to Excel
Link multiple tables and use views to get de-normalized data
Save snippets to build on existing reports
Easily refreshable

18. Surface the Data – Public Data Sources
Microsoft Azure Marketplace -
Population Estimates –
Corn prices - ooter

19. Build Your Visuals Demo content packs Ask the Data Mobile apps iOS
Android
Windows 10 Phone/Tablet

20. DEMO

21. AX7 Differences from AX2012

22. Data Entities https://ax.help.dynamics.com/en/wiki/ data-entities/
Means of de-normalizing AX data for service or BI consumption
Can build an entity by using a wizard
Data source can be accessed via Odata

23. Plans for AX7 Releases

24. Embedding Power BI in Dynamics AX 7
Power BI in AX7:
Configure Power BI integration:

25. Where Can You Learn More?
Power BI website:
Microsoft Data Insights Summit – steaming live Mar 22-23
Reach out to us at Stoneridge Software

27. TechConference Follow-Ups
AX Launch Event
Lifecycle Services in new AX
Roadmap
Blogs on the new AX:
Videos on ImagineAcademy –

28. Support for Power BI

29. Visuals Standard visualizations
Download custom visuals at