Tag Archives: Power BI

Embedding Power BI Dashboards and KPIs with Endeavour Solutions

Embedding Power BI Dashboards and KPIs

KPI’s, Business Intelligence, Custom Reports and Datamarts are nothing new to Microsoft Dynamics GP, but the potential for user adoption and ease of access has improved significantly with the release and recent updates to Microsoft Power BI – Microsoft’s new cloud based dashboard and reporting tool.  As a testament to Microsoft’s backing of this great tool, we’ve been told that Power BI will be embedded across the entire 2018 Microsoft Dynamics portfolio including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.

What is Business Intelligence?

Business Intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information to help corporate executives, business managers and other end users make more informed business decisions.

Embedding Power BI Dashboards and KPIs in your organization

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be used as a defined measure to gauge the performance of how your business operations and strategies are being implemented and executed.  Microsoft Dynamics GP can obviously give you the answers, but typically only if you are looking for them, and periodically additional outside information is needed to form a more complete story.  Additionally, there are users that may be outside of your core GP team, who would love to gain access to AR, Sales and other KPI.  PowerBI can be a good means to help expose such valuable insights.  For example, Endeavour’s GP Bistro product connects GP with Dynamics 365 for Sales (CRM) and used Power BI within CRM to provide dashboards for sales by custom, AR aging by customer, and popular products sold.  www.endeavour365.ca/gpbistro

Telling a story with KPIs and dashboards via Microsoft Power BI can serve to “keep a pulse” on such metrics, supporting an aggregation of information and a more frequent review of metrics by business users.  This higher frequency (weekly, daily, even multiple times a day) of reviewing and taking action based on specific metrics relevant to each department is what is referred to as “embedding KPIs” within your organization.  Before we look at user adoption in relation to your efforts to embed dashboards and KPIs, let’s take a quick look into what makes a great dashboard and set of KPIs in the first place.

Image - link to Video of Demand for Microsoft Power BI

What makes a great Power BI dashboard and set of KPIs?

Most KPI’s and related visualizations seen on a dashboard (graphics, numbers, pie charts, maps, bar graphs) represent specific metrics.  Each metric can tell its own story and together with other related metrics on the same dashboard, can tell a broader and more complete story, including storytelling elements such as a timelines, cause and effect relationships, and a shared context.

Each KPI on your dashboard should follow the M-C-A method for KPIs; an acronym representing: Measurable, Common understanding and Actionable.

Great KPIs require all three (M-C-A) and typically start with a Measure represented by a $, # or %.  The measures should be supported by a Common understanding around the source of the data, the timeline represented, the method of calculation, and the desired targets. Periodically our consultants will host a cross-functional team meeting to assist clients in reaching an internal agreement on specific measures such as % Available Inventory.  Finally, great KPIs should be Actionable. Actionable refers to the underlying business commitment to keep a pulse on business performance and to hold specific people accountable for the results. Actionable also refers to the documented set of future actions that will be used to adjust the ‘people, processes or technology’ if the KPI targets are missed.

Supporting User Adoption of Embedded KPIs

Once the dashboards and KPIs are designed and published using Microsoft Power BI, there is a need to ensure that the business users are able to embrace and accept these dashboards within their daily practices.  Without adoption, your team will be hard pressed to achieve any positive action and performance improvements if the dashboards are not used.

Borrowing from our Project Managers at Endeavour Solutions, user adoption is best supported by facilitating three key inputs: Knowledge, Attitude and Practice, or what has also been referred to as reaching the user’s head, heart and hands.  Our lead Consultants and Project Managers often include a change management plan (communications and training) that strives to anticipate and address potential user gaps such as the following:

Knowledge of what the change is, including the difference between the old and the new.

Attitude towards the change, sometimes boiling down to either: WIIFM – “what’s in it for me”, or addressing any issues of ‘trust’ related to the questionable success of past changes.

• Ability to Practice, test, trial, and live through the change.  From a Dashboard and Power BI perspective, this would involve a short training session and clear set of communications on what the KPI’s mean, how they are calculated, desired thresholds, future targets and the actions that can be taken to improve results.

Next Steps

Dashboards and KPIs serve to keep a view of specific tactics, keeping a scorecard on the actions and programs that are implemented to support your organization’s efforts and strategic goals. We’ve found that the ease of deployment, when using Microsoft Power BI, has been greatly increased, and thus reducing the cost of deploying Dashboards and KPIs within your organization.

As a next step, we recommend watching our Power BI Demo video (39min) accessed on-demand via our website at www.endeavoursolutions.ca/businessintelligence , then talking with your peers and broader business community around the types of KPIs  (that are M-C-A) and dashboards that can help to improve your organization’s performance.  In the video, we outline a project methodology as well as additional recommendations and next steps for you and your team.

Need help? 

Our consultants at Endeavour Solutions have a number of pre-defined KPIs, sample dashboards and a defined project methodology, that can help to accelerate the adoption and embedding of dashboards and KPIs as part of your next Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Intelligence project.  www.endeavoursolutions.ca/about-us

 

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Congratulations from Endeavour Solutions to Microsoft Power BI – Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant

Congratulations from Endeavour Solutions

to Microsoft Power BI – Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant

Follow this link to read the full article, and gain access to the Gartner Report (Microsoft Power BI Blog)Power BI Canada Consulting Toronto, Halifax, Montreal, Edmonton, London

 

 

Also, Endeavour Solutions is pleased to announce our February webinar series launched earlier this month includes a Webinar on Microsoft Power BI for sales dashboards and sales KPI pulling data from Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Register here: February 23, 2016 https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1477620854672946434

Watch a recording of our past Microsoft Power BI demo and webinar at www.endeavoursolutions.ca/power

Image - link to Video of Demand for Microsoft Power BI

Endeavour Solutions – Sample KPIs and Analytics by Industry

 

Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM for Manufacturing Companies

Microsoft Dynamics for CPG, Supply Chain & Distribution

Microsoft Dynamics for Services, Media & Software

Microsoft Dynamics for Financial Services

Microsoft Dynamics GP for Not-for-Profit & Member Associations

Microsoft Dynamics ERP for Venture Capital and Holding Companies

Microsoft Dynamics for Aquaculture, Mining & Energy

Microsoft Dynamics GP for Field Service (Cross Industry)

Endeavour Solutions Canada is a Microsoft Gold ERP and Microsoft Silver CRM Partner focusing on consulting, development, implementation, upgrades, support and training for Dynamics GP, Dynamics CRM, Azure Cloud and Office 365. We are one of the top Microsoft Dynamics partners in Canada and a President’s Club Member.
With over 400 active clients, Endeavour Solutions is in the top 5% of Microsoft Partners worldwide with consultants working from our Canadian offices in: Toronto, Halifax, Montréal, Edmonton, and London and full consulting support for the USA.  Our 25+ year success is due to our focus on our customers, our people and our core values of integrity, trust, and accountability.

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Top 5 reasons why you should start your Dynamics GP 2015 upgrade plans now – ERP consulting for Microsoft Dynamics GP Canada

 1.      Microsoft support for Dynamics GP 2010 ends mid-October 2015 and Dynamics GP 10.0 is no longer supported and nearing obsolescence

Although Endeavour will continue to provide clients with support on older versions of Dynamics GP, Microsoft’s mainstream support for GP 2010 SP1, SP2 and SP3 expires on October 13, 2015.   Microsoft’s mainstream support for GP 10.0 has already ended. The following link will take you to the official Microsoft Support Lifecycle page.   Unsupported applications carry an increased risk that bugs or errors discovered within these products will not be fixed by Microsoft.  For some companies having an unsupported ERP poses a non-compliance within their Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and/or ISO plans and certifications.

The upgrade process from Dynamics GP 2010 to GP 2015 R2 is a one-step upgrade, however to upgrade from Dynamics GP 10.0 to GP 2015, will require a 2-step upgrade with an upgrade to GP 2013, then to GP 2015 R2.  Our team at Endeavour is well versed in each of these upgrade approaches.  We HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you consider embracing many of the new workflow, reporting and business automation functions as part of your upgrade.  Such considerations may require additional configurations and business process re-design.

2.      The new Dynamics GP 2015 R2 is full of solid enhancements

Our Dynamics GP consultants in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia are thrilled with the added functions and stability of Dynamics GP 2015 R2.  As you may have heard, FRx has been replaced with MR (Management Reporter) for handling your reporting needs via the Microsoft SSRS or Power BI report presentation tools. The enhanced workflow functions are especially exciting and provide a great platform for further automating business processes, improving back-office efficiencies and enforcing financial controls as part of an upgrade of your investment in Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Of course we can’t forget all the “small” improvements in the Dynamics GP 2015R2, like the having Debits before Credits in all your lists and reports or having the option to automatically update your check book and bank rec when doing a cash receipt.  For many GP 2015 is a significant upgrade from older versions such as GP 10.0 and GP 2010.  Endeavour recommends budgeting for additional change management and training to help users adapt to the new screens, new and enhanced workflows and new reporting methods.

3.      Change Management / User Adoption plans have a greater impact in September

Endeavour Solutions has been providing accounting and ERP consulting for Microsoft Dynamics GP customers for over 20 years.  Over this time, we have enjoyed a low turn-over of consultants and a high retention of satisfied clients.  Experience has shown that when it comes to business readiness, change management and training plans, users are more open to change and adoption of new processes after returning from vacation. The top two times of the year for the greatest mass-return of employees from vacation is at the end of the summer and after the New Year.

Psychologically speaking employees are typically a little more relaxed and more open to new ideas (process changes), while at the same time are motivated by messages from popular media around “Back to school” and a “New year”.  It is at these times of the year where we see increased user adoption of newly enhanced systems and their attainment of new goals, KPIs and other performance metrics.

4.      Internal resource discussions are often smoother during the summer

Business decisions these days are rarely made in isolation; choosing when and how to upgrade your current Dynamics GP ERP is no exception.  We’ve found that key executive stakeholders are often swamped with a variety of projects throughout the year, but typically slow down over the summer months.  Although, summer vacations themselves can create havoc on coordinating calendars.  When key stakeholders are able to meet, they are typically less distracted with other projects.  It may seem counter intuitive, but the summer can actually be the most productive time to reach a common understanding and commitment around resource allocations.

Our team at Endeavour can assist and even mediate your internal review of upgrade approaches, hosting/licensing options, and training plans.  We can also assist with your internal review and evaluation of different approaches to defining new job roles, performing custom calculations, unifying your chart of accounts, working with multiple reporting entities, configuring workflow approval hierarchies, adjusting approval thresholds and a variety of other accounting and business controls that impact business autonomy, team collaboration, reporting visibility and even the calculation of bonus / compensation payouts.

5.      Fewer competing priorities in August – Start your plans now

As discussed, the summer often presents a time when fewer corporate projects are running.  Now is a good time to take advantage of the potential lull in activity and insert an upgrade assessment and business proposal review before other projects are slated to begin.

We’ve found that the majority of top companies operate within defined budgets.  ‘Carpe diem’, if you want to seize the opportunity to improve your performance, streamline your business operations and lay the foundation for future growth, you will need to reallocate the funds from other budgets to pay for your September/October upgrade.

Thus the time is now, to consider your Microsoft Dynamics 2015 upgrade plans in preparation for business process improvements and an upgrade to Dynamics GP 2015 this Fall.

 

Call or e-mail Steve Ewing at Endeavour Solutions to set up a meeting to talk about your current Dynamics ERP system and to discuss the various options and approaches available for upgrading to Dynamics GP 2015 R2.

Enjoy these last few weeks of summer, we look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Endeavour Solutions

Looking for a new Dynamics Business Partner? – click here www.endeavoursolutions.ca/newpartner

 

Steve Ewing
Director, Business Development
Endeavour Solutions Inc.
(905) 542-2139 x 213 / (902) 444-7753 x 213
sewing@endeavoursolutions.ca
 
Endeavour Solutions - Dynamics Consulting
 
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