07 / Data & insight
Power BI, reporting & business intelligence.
Turn business data into reporting people can use and understand. ArcticTech brings Power BI, SQL, ERP and CRM reporting together around agreed measures, reliable data and the decisions behind them.
- Decisions
The questions to answer
- Definitions
Shared measures and ownership
- Data
Sources and reconciliation
- Use
Access, refresh and adoption
The starting point
When reporting takes longer than the decision
A polished dashboard is useful only when the numbers are understood. If teams export separate spreadsheets, disagree on a metric or cannot trace a total back to its source, start with definitions and data quality.
We help finance, operations, sales and service teams identify the questions their reporting should answer. The work can include operational reports, executive views or a more consistent model across ERP, CRM and other sources.
How we help
The work around the platform.
- Measures & reporting requirements
Define KPIs, calculations, dimensions and the decisions each report supports. Identify the business owner who can explain and approve each measure.
- Data models & reconciliation
Review SQL, Dataverse, ERP and CRM data sources. Shape relationships, cleanup and reconciliation so totals can be checked against the systems of record.
- Power BI & operational delivery
Build reports and dashboards with useful navigation and context. Plan refresh, access, distribution and the responsibilities needed to keep reporting current.
The approach
Work backwards from the business question
Define the decision
Choose the audience, business questions and measures that matter for the first reporting scope.
Review the sources
Check data availability, quality, ownership and the transformations needed for agreed definitions.
Build & reconcile
Develop the model and report views, then validate calculations and totals with business owners.
Publish & maintain
Agree access, refresh expectations and how new measures or source changes will be managed.
Plan with the right information.
What shapes scope & cost
The number and quality of sources, calculation complexity, historical requirements, access rules and refresh needs affect scope. Report count alone is not a reliable measure of effort.
Bring to the first conversation
- Existing reports and disputed or manual measures
- Source systems and available data owners
- Audience, access needs and refresh expectations
Before you begin
Questions about Reporting & analytics.
Can Power BI combine ERP and CRM information?
A Power BI semantic model can combine data from multiple sources. The important work is agreeing how those sources relate: customer identifiers, dates, definitions and ownership. Validate the combined measures against the originating systems.
Will the dashboards always show live data?
Refresh behavior depends on the source, connection approach, licensing and service configuration. Agree how current each measure needs to be, then select and test the appropriate design. A refreshed report should make its data timing clear to users.
Can we keep existing operational reports?
Yes, where they remain useful. Review the audience, purpose, maintenance effort and data source of each report. Keep, improve or replace it based on the business need rather than assuming every reporting task belongs in a new dashboard.
Talk with ArcticTech
Start with the question your reports cannot answer.
Bring the current report, the source systems and the decision it should support. We’ll help identify what needs to change.