A close-up look at how to leverage analytics functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX, covering traditional BI, modifying role centres and Power BI. Dynamics Day is Australasia's leading event for users of Microsoft Dynamics. For those of you who couldn't make it along to the event, we have made all session content available online.

1. Business
Intelligence Insights
Dynamics AX
Douglas Daley, Solution Specialist
Anna Tarasoff, Business Intelligence Practice Manager

2. Traditional BI in
Dynamics AX

3. Type of web parts
Navigation
Links
Reports
Business Intelligence Insights | 3

4. Type of web parts
Action
Work List
Cues
Business Intelligence Insights | 4

5. Working with dates
Relative date functions
Function Parameters Example
day relativeDays (day(-1)) = yesterday
dayRange relativeDaysFrom, relativeDaysTo (dayRange(-6, 0)) = last 7 days (inc today)
greaterThanDate relativeDays (greaterThanDate(0)) = greater than today
lessThanDate relativeDays (lessThanDate(0)) = less than today
monthRange relativeMonthsFrom, relativeMonthsTo (monthRange(-1,-1)) = last month
yearRange relativeYearsFrom, relativeYearsTo (yearRange(-2,-1)) = last 2 years (not including current)
Business Intelligence Insights | 5

6. Type of web parts
Scorecard
KPIs
Indicators
Business Intelligence Insights | 6

7. Type of Web Parts
Reports and charts
High
Speed
Charts
High
Speed
Reports
Business Intelligence Insights | 7

8. Types of Web Parts
Other commonly used web parts
AX Report
Viewer
SSRS
Report
Viewer
SharePoint
Library
iFrame
Business Intelligence Insights | 8

9. Modifying role centres

10. Modifying role centres
Personalisation
“Personalisation”
Business Intelligence Insights | 10

11. Get out of jail free
.aspx?.........&contents=1
 Adding a web part
can break a role
centre page.
 This is how you
recover:
Business Intelligence Insights | 11

12. Modifying role centres
“Development” Development
Business Intelligence Insights | 12

13. Modifying role centres
You are updating this layer
 Import into the AOT to add as a
“customisation”
 This way it becomes an
“upgradable” object.
Business Intelligence Insights | 13

14. Power BI

15. Demand Forecasting and Planning in the
Cloud
Interactive
Dashboards
Simple and Fast
Mobile Access
Near real time
inventory levels
reports
Business Intelligence Insights | 15

16. What is Microsoft Power BI for Office 365
Self-service BI with the familiarity of Office and the power of the service
Discover Analyze Visualize Share Find
Mobile
Q&A
Microsoft Power BI for Office 365
Business Intelligence Insights | 16

17. Data Management Gateway in Power BI
Business Intelligence Insights | 17

18. Power BI Solution Conceptual Architecture
Power BI for Office 365
Cloud Data
Sources
(Facebook,
Twitter, etc.)
Import Data
Automated
Data Refresh
Corporate Data
Sources (AX,
CRM, etc.)
Data Management
Gateway
Corporate
Data Catalog
Team sites, Interactive Dashboards, Q&A
Import data,
Publish report and
dashboards
Analyst
Consume interactive
reports, ask questions
Executive
Publish data
sources or
expose them as
OData feeds
Data Refresh
Desktop and
Mobile
Business Intelligence Insights | 18

19. Data Refresh Process from Power BI Sites
Gateway
Cloud Service
(7) Compress,
chunk and return
the data
Data Management
Gateway
Excel Workbook in
SharePoint Online
(2) Connects to Gateway
Cloud Service
(8) Returns data to
Excel Workbook
(3) Checks whether
user is authorized to
perform a refresh
(4) Sends command
(SQL statement,
connection string) to
on premise Gateway
(5) Sends SQL to
SQL Server
(6) Return Results
Advice:
Power BI is an add-on to Office 365 and
requires an additional subscription on
top of Office 365 subscription. The
subscription is per user per month. You
can assign these licenses only to the
users who require an access to
interactive dashboards.
Business Intelligence Insights | 19

20. Power BI Key Considerations
Access to your
business data from
anywhere
Secure Mobile Access
Requires add-on
subscription
Consider data
volumes
Business Intelligence Insights | 21

21. BI Architecture
Custom
Cubes /
Reports
AX DB
(Replica)
Power BI and Replication
CRM DB
(Replica)
Data
Warehouse
Standard
AX Cubes
Data
Management
Gateway
(DMG)
AX DB
(OLTP)
Note: Standard AX and CRM SSRS reports
would continue to execute against the OLTP
databases.
CRM DB
(OLTP)
Business Intelligence Insights | 22

22. Thank you
Email: anna.tarasoff@intergen.co.nz
douglas.daley@intergen.com.au
Twitter: @TeamIntergen