There is a lot of noise out there about how Power BI impacts reporting and analytics for Microsoft Dynamics. Some of the information is helpful, some of it is confusing and other parts are just plain wrong. We’re here to help you make sense of it all!
Myth #1 – With Power BI you don’t need Jet Analytics: Power BI is a fantastic data visualization tool, but many business users get stuck from the start by having to build their own data models or waiting for an IT team (that doesn’t have the time) do it for them. Having a highly structured data warehouse and cubes already built for Dynamics simplifies everything to maximize value allow users to create their own dashboards with Power BI from Day 1.
Myth #2 – A content pack from Microsoft is the same as Jet Analytics: The content packs that come with Power BI are a way to get started, but what happens when you need more than the basics or need to include data from systems outside of what the content pack was built for?
Myth #3 – Power BI can do financial statements: While Power BI is a fantastic tool for dashboards, paginated reports are another story. Financial statements, receivable reports and anything showing more than basic detail requires a completely different set of skills.
Myth #4 – Having business users bring all of their various data sources into Power BI is fast and easy: Clarification. Adding a data source is simple; having your data sources link together is actually quite difficult. Things like item numbers, customer numbers and GL account don’t always align perfectly across systems which can cause huge headaches for those not intimately familiar with data modeling.
Myth #5 – Creating custom calculations are quick and simple with Power BI: In order to use any sort of date calculations, such as MTD or YTD, there needs to be a date calendar built into Power BI and this isn’t standard. Otherwise, a custom table or DAX is needed to build this, and that isn’t for the faint of heart. Jet Analytics comes standard with these and customizing or building more is 5x faster than the alternative.
