Business Intelligence in Microsoft Dynamics GP 11
The pieces are starting to come together on what the next release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 11 is going to look like. There are going to be a number of changes coming in GP 11 that we will be giving you a sneak peak into. The first thing I’m writing about is the future of Business Intelligence. In GP 10, Microsoft opened up the door to more BI features and functionality. 75 SQL Reporting Services (SRS) reports out-of-the-box, SharePoint integration, and Business Portal functionality were just some of the new features. In GP 11, these features are expanded upon with the hope of greater usability.
The biggest piece in the enhanced Business Intelligence is going to be SQL Reporting Services 2008. In addition to the existing 75 SRS reports shipped with GP 10, GP 11 will include an additional 150 new reports! SRS 2008 is also going to be the underlying technology driving most of our Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and graphs in GP and Business Portal. The homepage of GP will now have SRS KPI of the GP metrics. These KPI’s will also be reusable in Business Portal and the executive center, meaning that now you only have to create them once, and you can reuse them in multiple places.
Another key feature with Business Intelligence is the addition of drill-back capabilities. This allows us to drill back into GP from an SRS report, our Business Portal page, or even a link that we send to people in our organization. Now when we’re viewing a KPI in Business Portal, for example, we will be able to click on a certain field, and it will pull up our customer card or sales document, depending on the window that report is linked to. To make sure that not just anyone can access this window in GP, however, you will need to have a copy of GP open in the background to utilize drill-backs.
As you can see, there are going to be some neat changes coming for Business Intelligence. Watch for the next article, in which we will talk about some changes coming in reporting (here’s a teaser – it involves Microsoft Word!).