With Power BI, you are able to connect several data sources together simultaneously and design a data model for your business analysis. The data sources can be systems such as other business intelligence software, corporate tools, project management platforms, and any number of your business’ external systems; documents, images, files, emails, videos, etc. This includes popular systems such as Dynamics 365, Salesforce, Azure SQL DB, Excel, and SharePoint. Power BI integration ensures you aggregate data from every source to configure real-time dashboards, helping you to generate reports and steer your business.

Power BI can use data exported from most professional software such as Jira, CRM, ERP, ITSM, etc, to use as sources for advanced reports. As these software products are used for project and customer management, and daily operations, it means the dashboards and reports will accurately reflect the ongoing state of the business. Through extensive sharing options, these reports and dashboards can be accessed by certain departments, teams, stakeholders, and external parties.

Key features of Power BI data integration

Interactive Power BI desktop

The free Power BI desktop software is an interactive tool that allows you to build reports by accessing data quickly. It is interactive and simple to use as it does not require technical knowledge, so you can get started on creating reports and import/export data integration with ease.

Customisable visualisations

The default visualisation in Power BI may not be suitable, depending on the complexity of the data sources. In these cases, Power BI allows you to customise the visualisations in order to display the right information and provide a better understanding. Custom visualisations in your dashboard can even be shared and behaves the same as other native visuals.

Application connectors

Connectors can enhance Power BI capabilities by bringing together marketing, finance, sales, project management applications both from the cloud and on-premises. There are over 120 Power BI data connectors available which can be installed quickly and easily by non-technical staff. Connect platforms once and easily make changes for maintaining or improving custom integration. It’s important to note that connectors do not access data directly, so your business sensitive information will be safely connected.