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Custom Business Intelligence Solutions

EPC GROUP’S BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE CAPABILITIES

With the new technology releases from Microsoft, Business Intelligence can come in the form of a combination of SQL Server and non-SQL Server data sources and the delivery intelligence through SharePoint 2019, Office 365, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Office.

EPC Group has deep expertise in accessing external line-of-business (LOB) systems with Power BI as well as working with the BCS via APIs as well as OData both on-premise, cloud-based or via a Hybrid Business Intelligence architecture to ensure your BI effort is scalable and forward-compatible to meet your business and technology roadmap requirements.

To learn more about EPC Group’s Office 365 Power BI Consulting Services and Solutions, visit EPC Group’s Office 365 Power BI Consulting page.

SHAREPOINT 2019 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: BCS & LOB SYSTEMS

EPC Group’s Business Intelligence consultants and developers utilize SharePoint 2019’s Business Connectivity Services (BCS) that provides for the ability to integrate with data that is stored outside of SharePoint in to SharePoint 2019 as well as Office 365 and other Microsoft solutions.

We utilize the BCS to “surface” the data as it enables the data to be integrated into SharePoint, Office 365, SharePoint Online and other Microsoft solutions in reports or lists for BI initiatives or into SharePoint 2019’s search to be able to provide your users with search results from data across the enterprise using native elements such as the SharePoint 2019 search connector framework.

EPC Group’s consulting and development teams can work with you to integrate your external line-of-business (LOB) systems using tailored custom solutions to securely interact with multiple data sources regardless of their location or underlying platform using not only the BCS but also using the REST API, OData sources, OAuth sources, WCF data and the numerous APIs available via SharePoint 2019’s updated app model and the new Office 365 API Tools.

EPC GROUP’S POWER BI SERVICES & SOLUTIONS

EPC Group’s deep expertise in designing and implementing hybrid cloud architectures, enables seamless connectivity for on-premises data to be securely accessed in the cloud. Power BI works seamlessly with Excel to create content, data models and visualizations which also provides the capability to share, collaborate and extend those insights.

EPC Group will work with you to review your organization’s licensing model to ensure you procure the capabilities required to meet your exact needs.

Power BI’s features and functionality are robust and are as follows:

  • Power Query allows users to easily discover and connect to data from public and corporate data sources
  • Power Pivot allows users the ability to create a sophisticated Data Model directly in Excel
  • Power View creates reports and analytical views with interactive data visualizations and search capabilities for your organization’s users
  • Power Map provides for users to explore and navigate geospatial data on a 3D map experience in Excel

Power BI sites in Office 365 and SharePoint Online allow users to share, view, and interact with reports in a collaborative manner. EPC Group provides expertise in Power BI’s Q&A feature that uses natural language queries to find, explore and report your data in the format and to the device you desire.

Power BI’s Query and Data Management features allow your users to share and manage queries and data sources, and view query usage analytics. EPC Group will design and implement a business intelligence solution for your organization’s Office 365 platform with Power BI site for users to share, view, and interact with the available reports.

OVERVIEW OF THE MICROSOFT BI STACK

With the latest releases of Microsoft SharePoint 2019, SQL Server 2016, Office 365 and Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft has released a number of powerful tools that comprise the overall Microsoft Business Intelligence stack. EPC Group has been involved in hundreds of successful initiatives to implement, configure and develop BI solutions around the latest Microsoft BI Stack the components of which are as follows:

  • The SQL Server 2016 Business Intelligence stack has five key underlying BI capabilities: OLTP (Online Transaction Processing), SQL Server Integration Service, Data Warehouse capabilities, Reporting Services (SSRS), and Analysis Services
  • SharePoint 2019’s Business Intelligence Center site is a SharePoint site that enables organizations to centrally store and manage data connections, reports, score cards, dashboards and web part pages.
  •  PerformancePoint Services is utilized to create and share centrally managed dashboards that include various up-to-date reports and score cards.
  • The cloud-related business intelligence stack offerings include BI capabilities within SQL Azure, SQL Azure Reporting Service, OData capabilities and Microsoft Office 365’s Power BI.
  • Visio Services is utilized to publish visual diagrams to SharePoint 2019 sites and is a scalable enterprise-class service that provides feature and rendering fidelity with Visio, as well as rich browsing and navigation capabilities that are supported in a zero-footprint Web client
  • Excel 2016 is utilized to create a wide range of powerful reports, score cards and dashboards. Microsoft Excel has several components that your organization’s BI effort may utilize, such as PowerPivot and Power View and within SharePoint Server 2013 there is the related Excel Services feature
  • Excel Services This is a SharePoint Server 2013 service application that enables the loading, calculation, and browser-based rendering of Excel workbooks in SharePoint Server 2013. Excel Services is designed to be a scalable, robust, enterprise-class service that provides feature and calculation fidelity with Excel.
  • PowerPivot is an add-in for Excel to create powerful data models that can include calculated fields, reports, and score cards. PowerPivot’s deep integration with Excel Services enables users to create relationships between data from different sources and to view complex data in a more refined, normalized form.
  • Power View is utilized to create various interactive reports that include charts, tables, maps, bubble charts, and other views. Excel Services 2013 takes advantage of the new Microsoft data modeling and visualization engine that sits atop the SQL Server Reporting Services add-in to SharePoint 2019.