It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the scope of Microsoft Dataverse, however there is a logical process that you can follow to establish the ideal Dataverse and Model-driven Apps system for your organisation.
Dataverse is a powerful yet user-friendly cloud-based data storage and management solution designed to help businesses organise, protect, and use their data more effectively. It serves as a central hub for all your company’s information, allowing you to securely store various types of data – from customer details to product inventories – in one place.
Dataverse allows you to transform the way your organisation uses data, particularly when used in concert with Power BI and Power Automate. The possibilities are huge and so there is great value in planning your desired outcomes and business goals, so that the data curation can be shaped in the right direction.
Dataverse offers a straightforward way to harness the power of your company’s data without getting bogged down in complex technical details. It provides robust security features to keep your information safe, while also making it easy for authorised team members to access and use the data they need.
With Dataverse, you can improve decision-making by having real-time access to accurate information, streamline operations by automating routine tasks, and ultimately drive your business forward more efficiently. It’s like having a highly organised, secure, and intelligent filing system that not only stores your data but also helps you put it to work for your business.
Dataverse can combine your own internal data with external data sources and the information within those datastreams and can transformed to unlock modern reporting and data collection methods.
Whether your information is stored in Excel spreadsheets, SQL databases or a custom system, Dataverse provides a user-friendly method of organising this data into Tables. You can build relationships between Tables that empower you to build Views of the data that can be tailored for functional needs.
Whether it is board level reporting, or individual case management, Views, and their accompanying Forms, offer user friendly methods of viewing and adding data into a cohesive system. Now you can use PowerApps to create mobile responsive microsites for gathering and understanding information – the days of scrolling through spreadsheets are gone!
Views can be turned into Charts, for simple reporting purposes, and the Charts can be combined into Dashboards, bringing disparate data elements together for new business perspectives.
Add to this the business flow options from Power Automate and the growing scope of Power BI to present your data in user friendly ways, and you can begin to understand the capabilities of Dataverse to revolutionise your business intelligence.
The beauty of all these elements is that the same core Data Environment underpins everything, but this means that it is important to establish the right data configuration at the start of the Dataverse application process.
To identify the best Dataverse setup for your organisation, here are six questions that need answering:
- What are the organisational goals and how these goals measured?
- What is the most useful way of sharing progress towards these goals?
- What are the different layers of the organisation, and what are their reporting needs?
- How is data captured by the organisation?
- What external data sources need to be included?
- What regulatory processes must be upheld?
Taking time to consider these questions and plan out your answers will help you pinpoint the outputs that can be created using PowerApps, from data input forms on mobile devices to dashboards that can present sales and stock figures in real time.
If you want to learn how Dataverse can help your organisation, Blackbird Corporate has brand new training courses on the Power Platform toolset. Contact us today to find out how we can help you.