Positioning Business Central Insights for Microsoft Partners
This page provides a clear and structured guide to help Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central partners position Business Central Insights (BCI) in comparison to Microsoft's standard Power BI content packs.
Core Message
Microsoft's free Power BI apps are introductory reporting templates. Business Central Insights is a full enterprise analytics platform designed for multi-company finance, operational, and executive reporting.
Purpose of This Guide
This resource is designed to help partners:
Explain the difference between Microsoft templates and BCI
Recommend the right solution based on business maturity
Position BCI as the enterprise analytics upgrade path
Support long-term BI success and customer adoption
Positioning Summary
Microsoft Power BI Templates | Business Central Insights (BCI) |
Free basic dashboards | Enterprise analytics platform |
Designed for simple reporting | Designed for CFOs and leadership analyses |
Single-company focused | Multi-company, multi-environment, multi-currency |
Self-serve starter reporting | CFO, executive, and operational analytics suite |
Suitable for early-stage BI adoption | Designed for scaling and mature organizations |
Use Microsoft templates for introductory reporting. Deploy Business Central Insights when reporting becomes strategic and complex.
Recommendation Guide
Customer Situation | Recommended Solution |
Requires simple dashboards | Microsoft Power BI Templates |
Multi-company consolidation | Business Central Insights |
Multi-environment operations | Business Central Insights |
Multi-currency financial reporting | Business Central Insights |
Row-Level Security | Business Central Insights |
CFO suite and board reporting | Business Central Insights |
Enterprise analytics adoption | Business Central Insights |
Key Differentiators of Business Central Insights
Advanced Analytics Architecture
Advanced BI Cubes (configurable reports): https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/cubes
Multi-Dimensional Reporting (e.g. Cost Centre, Department, Entity, Salesperson, etc.): https://businesscentralinsights.com/analyze-data-by-dimensions
Multi-Company Support: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/company-setup
Multi-Environment Support: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/multi-environment
Multi-Language Support: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/multi-language
Row-Level Security: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/rls
Legacy Data Support: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/legacy-data
Configurable User Profiles: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/profiles
Financial Intelligence and Control
Financial Reporting (replication of row definitions / Account Schedules): https://businesscentralinsights.com/financial-reporting
Excel Drill-Through: https://businesscentralinsights.com/analyze-in-excel
Multi-Currency Consolidation: https://businesscentralinsights.com/multi-currency
Configurable KPI Library: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/measure-setup
Configurable Daily Budgets: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/budgets
Operational Intelligence
Advanced Service Management Reports: https://businesscentralinsights.com/service
Advanced Manufacturing Reports: https://businesscentralinsights.com/manufacturing
Delivery / Receipt Analytics: https://businesscentralinsights.com/delivery-analytics
Total Sales: https://businesscentralinsights.com/total-sales
Sales Order Fulfillment: https://businesscentralinsights.com/sales-order-fulfillment
Item Attribute Analytics: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/item-attributes
Unit of Measure Conversions: https://www.businesscentralinsights.com/uom-setup
Business Central Insights provides an enterprise data foundation, not just Power BI visuals.
Pricing and Value Proposition
Pricing: https://businesscentralinsights.com/pricing
The BCI subscription includes:
Installation
Initial product training (includes self-learning tutorials)
Ongoing support
Continuous product improvements
New features and reporting packs added continuously with each product update
The value included in the subscription alone justifies the investment, particularly in support, training, and continuous enhancements.
Our Partners
Many Dynamics 365 Business Central partners around the world have already recognised the value of a turnkey, enterprise-grade analytics solution. Business Central Insights helps them accelerate deal-closure, deliver with less risk, and elevate customer satisfaction from Day 1.
We are proud to work with a global network of partners who bring BCI to customers across industries and geographies. You’ll find the full partner list on our Partners page: https://businesscentralinsights.com/partners
Partner Talking Points
"Business Central Insights provides a scalable analytics foundation with advanced cubes, executive reporting, governance, and continuous enhancements built specifically for Business Central customers."
"We start customers on Microsoft’s standard Power BI reports when needs are basic. As soon as reporting requirements include consolidation, multiple companies, multiple currencies, or CFO-level insights, we deploy Business Central Insights."
Strategic Benefit for Partners
Win competitive deals versus other ERPs
Tap into growing demand for modern, Power BI–based reporting
Help SMBs adopt analytics quickly without complex implementations
Generate recurring revenue through partner commissions
Offers a tiered analytics adoption path
Supports long-term BI maturity for customers
Reduces partner reporting support load compared to custom-built Power BI
Positions partner as a strategic analytics leader, not just a system implementer
Visual Comparisons
Standard Income Statement by Month
A simple table that lists GL accounts with figures by fiscal year (not month), little interactivity, context, or insight beyond raw numbers.
Business Central Insights Financial Reporting
Mirrors the structure of the configured Financial Reports within Business Central, ensuring complete alignment between ERP and Power BI reporting. It’s fully interactive, allowing users to slice and filter by company, period, or dimension while toggling between multiple measures such as Net Change, YOY %, Budget, and Variance. Statistical elements can also be added, for example, analysing profit by cost centre or employee, transforming the income statement into a powerful, interactive performance management tool that provides both financial and operational insights.
Standard Sales Overview
Simple charts with limited metrics, minimal interactivity, and no clear layout or design hierarchy.
Business Central Insights Total Sales Overview
A polished, enterprise-level dashboard experience, combining dozens of key measures such as sales amount, gross profit, invoiced, expected or outstanding transactions. Users can slice and dice data by item, customer, salesperson, company, or period, apply advanced filters instantly, and explore the data from multiple perspectives.
Standard Inventory by Item
Provides a simple, structured view of quantities and basic movements but offers limited analytical depth or flexibility.
Business Central Insights Inventory Table
Fully interactive analysis experience, combining financial and operational measures such as inventory value, sales, COGS, and profit %. Users can slice and filter by company, item category, item, location, or period, and drill down through multiple hierarchy levels. With configurable measures, visual profit indicators, and multi-company, multi-dimensional capability, it transforms inventory reporting into a dynamic performance and margin analysis tool.
Standard Production Overview
Basic summary of production orders, costs, and completion ratios, but offers limited flexibility for analysis across locations, items, or time periods. It’s useful for a quick operational snapshot but lacks interactivity and deeper insights.
Business Central Insights Production Overview
A comprehensive, interactive analytics experience covering the full production process. Users can filter by company, period, location, item, or status and analyse measures such as quantities, throughput, efficiency, and completion rates. With visual breakdowns by item, area, and industry, along with trend and performance tracking over time, it transforms production reporting into a powerful decision-support tool that highlights productivity, bottlenecks, and profitability drivers.
Cube Reporting
Cube Reports give users complete freedom to create their own ad-hoc reports in just a few clicks, something the standard Microsoft reports simply don’t offer an equivalent for.
You can define your own rows and columns, build hierarchies to drill through data, and select the measures that matter most, such as sales, margins, quantities, or costs. Once configured, your layout can be saved as a bookmark for instant access anytime. Available across all Business Central Insights apps, Cube Reports are often described by users as a pivot table on steroids, the go-to tool for clients who want fast, flexible answers with only a few clicks.
Contact
To learn more or become a partner: Email: info@eknowtion.com