Connecting data between ServiceNow and PowerBI

[KL008]

Hey community,

I'm looking to connect my data from ServiceNow to PowerBI for creating metrics and reports. I haven't got the data yet, but it's organisation wide, so I can assume that it's a large amount of records. I want to create a table in PowerBI with the data from tables in ServiceNow. I've done a bit of research but I'm a layman when it comes to this. So I'd like some advice. We haven't got a database warehouse so what is the best option?

1. Can I use a REST API to directly connect the data between SN and PBI? (such as the following: Solved: Create API connection for integrate Power BI - ServiceNow Community)

2. Is it worth using a connector like How to Set Power BI ServiceNow Integration: Comple... - ServiceNow Community
3. Any other ideas? (i.e. Sharepoint, CSV, etc.)

I'd appreciate any help,

Regards,

Kylan

[GilbertHall]

If you have lots of data and no warehouse, using the REST API directly can work but might get slow and complex.

A dedicated connector or tool usually makes things easier. Platforms like Skyvia can pull ServiceNow data and load it where Power BI can read it - no warehouse or complex setup needed.

Exporting to CSV or SharePoint is possible but requires manual updates or extra automation.

For a low-code, scalable option, integration platforms are your best bet.

[ray_aramburo · Accepted solution]

The connector is expensive but if you have the budget go for it. API is usually the solution but you'll still need to implement some workarounds as the API has a record limit (and it's also slow). The third option is to generate reports from ServiceNow, e-mail them and set up an automation with Power Automate to pick up those files, upload them into a cloud folder and then importing them into Power BI. 

What's the best solution? It depends on the technical knowledge your development team has and the time and cost you want to spend on it. 

[KL008]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for getting back to me! So with regards to the API work arounds, it is possible to go over the 50k record limit (Even if it does make it slow)? 

Furthermore, with the email option is there a limit to the file sizes in the emails? Or can I simply manually upload the first report, then only use incremental updates for the remainder?

Regards,

Kylan

[ray_aramburo]

Hi, from what I can recall yes you can bring everything but you need to split the API calls with a function to delimit the number of records thus allowing you to bring everything but in pieces.

For the email option, more than the size of the email is that ServiceNow can't export more than x records for a single file, so you still need to split the reports into multiple files. So getting once the historical records and then using the incremental for the remaining is a good approach.