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The Future of Operations study series provides our partners with deep insight into the small to medium sized business segment. 

We invest in quantitative data to support your ability to respond ahead of emerging demand.  

Let’s turn this insight into action! 

 

To help our partners monetise demand trends in the study, we’ve matched solutions from our portfolio to analysis of SMB objectives, prioritised IT actions and adoption intent within the study. 

In this article, we’ll cover how partners can help customers advance objectives to drive more value from business data, using Power BI integrated with Business Central.

Data is the new differentiator

Data is the new differentiator

Data is no longer just a byproduct of business operations. It’s a vital strategic asset, capable of informing decisions, revealing opportunities, automating workflows, and personalising experiences. It’s also the lifeblood of the new AI technology wave. 

Acquiring data isn’t the challenge. Most businesses are awash with the stuff – sales data, stock data, operational data, performance data, customer data… the list goes on.

Yet many SMBs still struggle to connect disparate sources and systems in ways that allow them to extract genuine, actionable business intelligence (BI) from the mountains of data generated every day. 

However, our recent study into SMB operations across the APAC region shows that making better use of business data is a critical objective for the majority.

In fact:

  • 70% of APAC SMBs ranked unlocking the value of their data with improved access to insights as a high or critical priority for the next 24 months.
  • 67% want to improve their use of data and analytics technologies, such as enterprise data fabric and cloud data warehouses.
  • 49% expect to implement data lakes to handle large amounts of diverse data.
  • 42% plan to adopt new business intelligence tools within the next two years.
Source: The Future of Operations, Advancing AI=Driven Innovation and Cloud Agility for Small and Medium Sized Businesses, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Crayon, March 2025.
SMBs need external expertise.

SMBs need external expertise.

Unless they have a data scientist on the payroll, most smaller businesses will be challenged to find golden needles of insight buried in the enormous data haystack.

They need the power to create real-time dashboards, custom reports and intuitive data visualisations that allow them to extract more accessible, more meaningful insights – without anyone requiring a data science degree. 

As a result, there is a wave of demand for external expertise to implement the necessary tools and workflows, which is where partners like you come in.

By integrating Microsoft Power BI directly into Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can provide your SMB clients with a powerful analytics tool capable of informing smarter and more valuable decisions.

BI doesn't need to be complex

BI doesn't need to be complex

Business intelligence isn’t just about capturing, collating, and crunching more data. It’s about being able to ask the right questions of the right datasets to extract quite specific and actionable answers in the right format. 

It’s one thing to know that sales are unexpectedly down this month. It’s quite another to be able to dig deeper into the data and reveal why. 

The missing piece in the SMB analytics toolkit is often a flexible way to not only interrogate data but visualise findings in ways that are easily understood by anyone in the business.

 

 The right Business Intelligence tool can help SMBs to cut through the noise and uncover real meaning: 

  • Track KPIs and metrics in real time across finance, sales, operations and inventory. 
  • Spot trends and identify risks early enough to take the appropriate action. 
  • Customise reports to specific departments, teams or even individual roles. No more one-size-fits-none spreadsheets. 

In short, Business Intelligence drives value from data by making it understandable, and actionable. 

Power BI – now part of the Microsoft Fabric platform – fills these needs beautifully. 

Enabling Data-Driven Business Value.

Enabling Data-Driven Business Value.

Power BI equips you with the tools to help your SMB clients see their business more clearly. 

Crucially, Power BI leverages the full Microsoft 365 ecosystem, meaning it works with and within standard toolsets your customers likely already using – such as Word, Excel and Microsoft Teams.

That means fewer hurdles, faster deployment and a clear path to demonstrating increased return on existing investments. 

When combined with Microsoft’s Cloud ERP for SMBs, Business Central, you can provide your clients with a proven backbone for digital operations, and the means to start unlocking the value of their business data.  

Power BI connects seamlessly to Business Central, enabling dynamic dashboards and drill-down reports across key functions – finance, sales, purchasing, inventory and more. 

  • Provide your SMB clients with real-time visibility into every corner of the business 
  • Ensure reports are always current with real-time data refresh 
  • Empower users to ask questions like “What were sales last month?” and get instant answers using natural language queries 
  • Use data storytelling and visualisations to communicate complex insights across teams
  • Budget and plan effectively with AI-powered forecasting and what-if modelling 
Power BI in Microsoft Fabric

Power BI in Microsoft Fabric

In May 2023, Microsoft announced the integration of Power BI into Microsoft Fabric, a unified data platform that combines data engineering, data integration, real-time analytics, and business intelligence under one roof. 

This now means not only can Power BI be integrated with Business Central, it paves the way for engaging customers in full-stack analytics solutions using the Microsoft Fabric platform.

So, what’s changed?

 Power BI Pro and PPU remain available, and these are well suited for SMBs with simple dashboard needs.  

Capacity-based Power BI Premium SKUs (P1–P5) are being replaced by Fabric capacities (F-SKUs), allowing access to a wider array of services such as Data Factory pipelines, Lakehouse storage, Synapse Data Warehousing, and AI modelling. 

Partners can now offer design, deployment and governance services across the entire Microsoft data stack – not just dashboards. 

The Opportunity.

The Opportunity.

APAC SMBs are ready to move from data collection to data action. 

And they’re looking for IT partners with the expertise and tools to guide them on that journey. 

By helping SMBs integrate Power BI with Business Central, your customers can use data to see what matters most in their business, and you become the partner that matters most to their long-term strategic goals.  

Create recurring revenue with Managed Services.

Reposition your business beyond the usual infrastructure and licensing services by moving into SMB analytics consulting and BI dashboard design. Make Power BI a central part of a managed service, complete with:

  • Data integration and transformation
  • Dashboard development and report automation
  • End-user training and enablement
  • Custom analytics solutions across departments

You can also tap into Microsoft incentives and bundling opportunities by offering Power BI and Microsoft Fabric as part of a broader data strategy. Upsell services like cloud data warehousing, ERP optimisation, and AI-driven forecasting.

Deliver simplified Data Security and Scalability.

Power BI (now within the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem) runs on Microsoft’s secure, scalable cloud infrastructure – so you and your clients don’t need to worry about data loss or limits. 

  • Keep all data safe with robust security and compliance features, such as role-based access controls and audit trails 
  • Scale quickly and easily from 5 to 500 users as your clients grow 
  • Deliver insights inside each client’s existing apps with embedded analytics 
  • Run analytics workloads on Fabric, unifying Power BI, Data Factory, and Synapse under a single capacity model for greater efficiency

Offer tailored solutions for each client.

Build industry-specific dashboards or role-based reporting templates to match each client’s individual requirements and use case. 

  • Help retail clients track product margins and sales trends 
  • Give manufacturers real-time insights into supply chain performance 
  • Empower service-based SMBs to monitor utilisation rates and revenue per resource 
Ready to ride the data-value wave?

Ready to ride the data-value wave?

Power BI is more than dashboards. It’s an opportunity to tap into the growing demand for data-driven business operations. 

If you’re ready to seize the moment and move up the value chain into Data Solutions and Services, now’s the time to talk to Crayon about Power BI and Business Central. 

Let's talk about what come's next

Let's talk about what come's next

Data Solutions and Services is a rich and deep field of opportunity for partners.

If you’re curious about expanding your practice in this direction, we’re standing by to help you get underway.

Simply enter “Power BI and Business Central’ into the free text field when you leave your details, and we’ll be in touch to get a conversation started around:

  • Dedicated programs to support building or expanding a Business Applications practice
  • Solution and sales enablement for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Power BI
  • Access to technical and pre-sales resources
  • Options to engage marketing support to promote customer wins and success stories.

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