The client is a well-established food manufacturing company with a long history in the market. They produce a wide range of baked products for both retail and foodservice customers. By combining traditional recipes with modern production methods, the company serves cafés, restaurants, and large distributors with consistent quality. Their focus on taste, reliability, and product variety has earned them a strong reputation as a preferred supplier in the baked goods industry.A case on how sales and inventory modules were integrated from D365 F&O to Power BI, giving leaders a unified view of the supply chain.
The Client
The client is a well-established food manufacturing company with a long history in the market. They produce a wide range of baked products for both retail and foodservice customers. By combining traditional recipes with modern production methods, the company serves cafés, restaurants, and large distributors with consistent quality. Their focus on taste, reliability, and product variety has earned them a strong reputation as a preferred supplier in the baked goods industry.
Challenges Faced by the Client
The client was using Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations for their financials, supply chain, manufacturing, and operations on a unified platform. However, without the right reporting setup, even the most valuable information can remain underused. They wanted to move away from manual Excel downloads and instead have a connected view of their operations inside Power BI. Before this could happen, there were some key challenges to solve:
- No direct link between F&O and Power BI: The client’s teams had to export raw data from F&O into spreadsheets before any analysis could be done, which was slow and repetitive.
- Large and complex datasets: F&O held information across multiple modules (from inventory to sales), making it difficult to compile a single, structured view for decision-making.
- Multiple regions and currencies: Sales data came from different regions, and there was no automated way to apply daily currency conversions for accurate reporting.
- No unified dashboards: Without a connected reporting system, leadership teams could not see real-time trends or track performance across the supply chain.
Solutions
The client wanted an easier way to see their Finance and Operations (F&O) data inside Power BI, without downloading huge Excel files every time. With our team’s technical and functional proficiency in F&O, we set up a system connecting both tools and updating the reports automatically. Here is how we did it:
- Connected F&O to Azure using OData: With secure access provided to the client’s F&O system, we used OData (Open Data Protocol) to fetch the required data. This allowed us to pull information directly from the source in formats like XML and JSON.
- Stored Data in Azure SQL Database: The extracted data was sent to the client’s Azure SQL (cloud-based storage) database, so that it was always available in one place for reporting.
- Automated Data Movement with Azure Data Factory: Using Data Factory pipelines, we scheduled and automated the process of fetching fresh data from F&O and updating the database, ensuring that Power BI always had the latest information.
- Applied Data Engineering for Performance Optimization: The raw data fetched from F&O was cleaned, transformed, and structured in Azure before being sent to Power BI. This included identifying around 20 key tables (selected from over 4,000 available), migrating and transforming them along with 15 stored procedures, and setting up Azure Data Factory pipelines to manage the flow.
- Automated Daily Currency Updates: The system automatically added that day’s currency exchange values to the dataset, ensuring all calculations and reports reflected the most accurate and up-to-date rates.
- Integrated Multiple F&O Modules: From inventory tracking to detailed sales performance, we created visual dashboards that allowed managers to view line items across the supply chain, compare regions, and make faster business decisions.
Solutions Benefits
The integration of Dynamics 365 F&O with Power BI through Azure brought the client several clear advantages:
- Real-Time Insights Without Manual Work: Teams no longer had to export large Excel files from F&O. All data now flows automatically into Power BI, ready for instant analysis.
- Faster Decision-Making: Leadership can see updated dashboards at any time, covering sales, monthly invoices, stock level, and more, without waiting for manual report preparation.
- Optimized Performance for Large Datasets: Data engineering in Azure means even massive datasets load quickly in Power BI, allowing smooth interactions without delays.
- Scalable Setup for Future Needs: If new F&O modules or additional data sources must be integrated later, the existing ADF pipelines can be extended without redoing the entire setup.
- Improved Currency Accuracy: Daily exchange rate updates ensure that regional comparisons and global sales performance metrics are always based on correct values, avoiding costly miscalculations.
Conclusion
The Dynamics 365 F&O to Power BI integration moved the client’s reporting from a slow, manual, Excel-heavy process to a fully automated, real-time analytics environment. Leadership teams can now track sales, inventory, or other operational metrics across multiple regions without delays, while daily currency updates ensure financial accuracy. UB Technology Innovations, Inc. continues to deliver intelligent, scalable data solutions that help enterprises turn complex ERP data into valuable insights for prompter, more confident decision-making.
