Power Automate and Power BI Integration
Power BI is one of the widely used data analytics and business intelligence platforms across the globe. For more than a decade, we have been helping businesses implement, customize, and optimize their Power BI platform. We often get clients who are already using Power BI but feel that they are wasting too much time doing repetitive tasks on the platform. In such scenarios, we recommend Power BI and Power Automate integration. Microsoft Power Automate is a part of the Power Platform suite of applications (just like Power BI). It is a low code Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool that allows you to create software ‘bots’ which can run repetitive tasks on their own.
Discover More About Power Automate
Explore more about Power Automate as a platform and how we, at Evolvous, can help you leverage it to its fullest potential.
When Should You Think About Power BI and Power Automate Integration?
So, if you are using Power BI, or even if you are new to the platform, the question is – why should you think about Power Automate and Power BI integration? Well, there are a lot of scenarios where this makes sense. Here are some of them.
- Automated Approval & Action Workflow from Power BI Insights
The Problem: Power BI reports give you insights, but if approvals or escalations are required, they need to be done manually.
How Integration Solves It: Power BI can be configured to the flag insights. For example, when there is a stock shortage or demand, it crosses a threshold. Power Automate can initiate an automatic workflow, notifies the managers and logs in the approval when received.
- Notifications for Data Refresh and Readiness
The Problem: Power BI automatically refreshes the data, but people are not notified instantly about it. So, when refreshes fail, you are not aware of it and believe that it to be the latest data.
How Integration Solves It: Power BI triggers the refresh, and Power Automate monitors the status. When the refresh fails or succeeds, Power Automate sends an immediate mail to the relevant personnel, informing them of the status.
- Automatic Alerts from Power BI
The Problem: Most managers want to know when things go wrong, and they want to know it fast. However, in most cases, they have to monitor the dashboard to get a sense of what is happening.
How Integration Solves It: Power BI will detect threshold breaches and respond accordingly. For example, when there is an alarming drop in sales, delay in production, or budget overruns, Power Automate can send alerts via mail or Teams chat.
Discover More Use Cases for Power Automate and Power BI Integration
There is a wide array of situations where Power BI and Power Automate integration can solve your critical problems. Contact us for a FREE Assessment today.
The Process of Power BI and Power Automate Integration
Let us now dive into the process of Power Automate and Power BI integration. Here is an overview of the process that we follow at Evolvous.
The Overview
- Assessment : We analyze your exact problem and engage with the relevant stakeholders.
- Choosing Architecture and the Methodology : Based on the needs of your organization, a custom solution architecture will be developed, along with choosing the right methodology for integration.
- Prepare a Shared Data Layer : Since both the platforms will be using effectively the same data layer, we often utilize SharePoint Lists, Dataverse or SQL and Fabric for the same.
- Entra and Governance Tools: Finally, we will include Entra ID and other security tools to secure the system and ensure complete compliance and governance.
- Testing and Go Live : Before deploying the solution, we will test it thoroughly and all issues will be resolved.
Different Methodologies for Power Automate and Power BI Integration
- Setup for Data Driven Alerts
This is done when you want to setup threshold-based alerts, exceptions, and KPI breaches. Here are the steps involved:
Create Your Power BI Report
- To do this, you can use imported or Direct Query datasets
- Publish the report to Power BI Services
Pin a KPI or card visual to the Dashboard
- This needs to be done as alerts only work on dashboards, not from reports directly.
Configure the Data Alerts
- Go the relevant tile on Power BI Dashboard and choose ‘Manage Alerts’.
- Set the required conditions.
- Choose the frequency.
Create Power Automate Flow
- Choose the trigger
- Connect to Power BI
- After that, select the workspace and give the name to the alert that is created.
Add Suitable Actions
- You can choose from different actions when the flow is triggered. For example, you can send Teams messages or email, create a task in Planner, or even save it as a file in a pre-determined SharePoint folder.
Implementing Integration through Power BI Button and Power Button Flow
This type of Power Automate integration with Power Automate is ideal for automating approvals, write-back, and actions triggered by users. Here are the key steps that you should follow:
Create a Flow in Power Automate
- Choose a trigger that is suitable for the flow. For example, you can trigger the flow when the Power BI button is clicked.
- You will need to define the input parameters like text or numbers, as required by the flow.
Design Workflow Logic
- Depending on the requirements, the workflow needs to be designed. Different approaches need to be followed for approval, creating records, or updating systems.
Add the Power Automate Visual in Power BI
- Insert -> Power Automate visual
- You will need to bind fields like customer, region, amount, and the likes.
Attach the flow
- Next, you will need to select the flow from the list.
- Map the Power BI fields to the relevant flow inputs.
Publish and Test
- You will need to publish the flow and test it thoroughly.
- Once the user clicks on the Power BI button, the flow executes the filtered context.
Tips for Maintaining Security and Governance Issues During Implementation
Integrating Power Automate and Power BI can make data analytics more efficient. But it is critical to look after security and data governance. At Evolvous, we implement the following measures to ensure complete security:
- Entra ID authentication: This ensures that only authorized personnel will have access to Power BI data, even if the integration is implemented across the organization.
- Following Power Platform Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to protect sensitive data from any misuse or accidental loss.
- We always ensure that a service account is used for running flows. We always avoid using personal user accounts to run production flows.
Get Professional Support for Power BI and Power Automate Integration
Get complete support from our certified Power Platform consultants and discover how you can execute Power Automate and Power BI integration and make operational business intelligence even more efficient.
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