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⇱ Analyze Dynamics 365 Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

Analyze Dynamics 365 Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use CData Connect AI to create an OData API on top of Dynamics 365 data and visualize Dynamics 365 data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform. CData Connect AI creates a pure, cloud-to-cloud connection to Dynamics 365 and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in Analytics Cloud) for Dynamics 365. By pairing SAP Analytics Cloud with CData Connect AI, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect AI as you would any other OData service and get instant, consolidated access to all of your data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to Dynamics 365 from SAP Analytics Cloud (through CData Connect AI) to create a model and build a simple dashboard.

About Dynamics 365 Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Microsoft Dynamics 365 data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Read and write data in the full Dynamics 365 ecosystem: Sales, Customer Service, Finance & Operations, Marketing, and more.
  • Extend the native features of Dynamics CRM with customizable caching and intelligent query aggregation and separation.
  • Authenticate securely with Dynamics 365 in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to manage their Dynamics 365 entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

CData customers use our Dynamics 365 connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources) or analyze live Dynamics 365 data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).


Getting Started


Connect to Dynamics 365 from SAP Analytics Cloud

To work with live Dynamics 365 data in SAP Analytics Cloud, we need to connect to Dynamics 365 from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the Dynamics 365 data.

Connect to Dynamics 365 from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Dynamics 365" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365.

    Edition and OrganizationUrl are required connection properties. The Dynamics 365 connector supports connecting to the following editions: CustomerService, FieldService, FinOpsOnline, FinOpsOnPremise, HumanResources, Marketing, ProjectOperations and Sales.

    For Dynamics 365 Business Central, use the separate Dynamics 365 Business Central driver.

    OrganizationUrl is the URL to your Dynamics 365 organization. For instance, https://orgcb42e1d0.crm.dynamics.com

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Configure Dynamics 365 Endpoints for SAP Analytics Cloud

After connecting to Dynamics 365, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

  1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace). 👁 The Workspaces page.
    👁 Adding a new Workspace.
  2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
  3. Select the Dynamics 365 connection (e.g. Dynamics3651) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
  5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 data from SAP Analytics Cloud.

Create a Model of Dynamics 365 Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the connection to Dynamics 365 configured and the OData endpoint(s) created, we can create a Model for Dynamics 365 data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

  1. Log into your Analytics Cloud instance and click Create -> Model from the menu.
  2. Choose "Get data from a datasource" and select "OData Services"
  3. Choose an existing connection to your Connect AI OData or Create a new one:
    • Set Connection Name
    • Set Data Service URL to the Base URL for your OData API: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
    • Set Authentication Type to Basic Authentication
    • Set User Name to the Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
    • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
    👁 Creating a new OData Services Connection
  4. Choose "Create a new query" and click Next
  5. Name the Execute, select an OData endpoint (like GoalHeadings) and click Next 👁 Choosing a Connect AI OData endpoint to query
  6. Drag the columns you wish to work with into the Selected Data workspace and click Create 👁 Selecting fields (columns) from the OData endpoint
  7. At this point, a Draft Data source is created; click the draft to finalize the model
  8. Perform any transformations, including creating calculated dimensions, location dimensions, and combining data sources, then click Create Model 👁 Finalizing the model
  9. Name your model and click OK

Build a Dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the model created, you are ready to create a dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud based on Dynamics 365 data.

  1. From the menu, click Create -> Story
  2. Click on SAP Analytics Template (this article uses the "Dashboard" template)
  3. Choose a layout and click Apply
  4. From the More menu, select a visualization to insert (Chart) 👁 Inserting a visualization
  5. Select a model to visualize
  6. Select a structure and the required Measures and Dimensions
  7. Save the store 👁 Saving the Story

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live Dynamics 365 data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Dynamics 365 (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Dynamics 365 data in SAP Analytics Cloud.