Content from multiple reports

[stevejames]

How do people share content from multiple reports? eg management overview.
We've got a series of business specific reports that go into detail for that particular team.
We need to provide an overview of elements of a number of reports but the underlying report shouldn't be available to the audience of the detailed reports.

• Apps... It's such a shame that you can only create a single app per workspace (I bet that's been mentioned a thousand times).
  
  
• SharePoint .... when you embed a report in SharePoint we are left with a massive amount of white space and the report is small.
  
  
• Dashboards look messy when you link a whole page.
  
  
• Creating a workspace just for this approach seems like duplication and we'll end up with lots of workspaces
  
  
• I've even thought about embedding a Power BI report page within another report.

I really don't want to down the route of creating completely separate reports just for these overviews when each report has a sensible summary page.

[stevejames]

I don't necessarily think it's a counter argument. It's something that we need to move towards. If we were to start over then life would be much easier but we started on on premise Power BI where even the concept of separation of report and semantic models (aka datasets) weren't even a thing; let alone data flows and the loveliness that Fabric provides.
So we are left with about 4 years of on premise development that was ported into the Service and we need to move forward with dozens of other areas. I'm not saying we've got many teams working on quill and papyrus but we do have teams using Excel in the way it was back in the 90s....

We've got operational dashboards for half a dozen teams. They need that level of detail....
Then we've got management and contracts and commissioning teams (MCC) who need the summaries to build the picture. So the audience is quite different.

It's social care and there are a significant number of processes; ie we're not selling a relatively small number of products.

The operational teams get their dedicated reports as that's the key.

There's nothing wroing with a direct report url for the specialist teams and they work well with that. But our MCC end up with loads of links to different management overviews then they don't get that overall picture. For now we're going to go down the embed in SharePoint route so all the overviews are available singularly and they can build that picture... They curently get bombarded with loads of isolated emails so this will be a significant step forward..... I want to make a significant leap forward without having that resource overhead. Embedded SPOL is a good next move (it works well on standard monitors) as we can embed specific reports to specific summary pages without MCC having to wade through the noise; or mis interpret the dedicated team's information. 

Not perfect but no organisation can bin old stuff and replace with the new technology easily.

[lbendlin]

yes, when I hear "organic growth"  one more time I am going to grab my scream pillow.

My observation is that Power BI is really good at "let's answer this business question and then move on to the next question"  (bonus points for you as the developer if you anticipated that next question).  It was never positioned/designed as a company wide, well structured knowledge warehouse with strict data stewardship, clearly defined data subject ownership and certification. There has always been the cultural clash between "enabling citizen data analysts"  and the needs of a larger enterprise.  The answer to the problem is very simple. Have more resources for the maintenance and management of the enterprise features.  That answer is also useless because that is not something any company I know is willing to invest in.

[stevejames]

"organic growth"? yup...
Ever hear the "like for like"? That one makes me shudder..
Let's port a thing (doesn't matter what it is) that was less than mediocre; at best; and repeat the mistakes 🙂

This is turning into a whinge fest. We'd all love more resources and dedicated resource to make use of the new technologies and do things differently that we did (with reasonable cause) some time ago.

Then I remember I don't live in Utopia; or on the outskirts .... or even have it showing up on the horizon. That's a gravity issue from where I sit. I can try to influence and will keep doing so....

Anyway thanks for those thought provoking comments. I hear ya and agree....

[lbendlin]

On that note, and back to your original question. Do what you think is most maintainable and sustainable with the resources you have.

[stevejames]

Yup... any movement away from carrier pigeons and papyrus is a move in the right direction 🙂

[lbendlin]

Here's a counter argument. Your job as a report developer is to put as few as possible clicks between your users and the insights.  Any form of embedding runs contrary to that goal (plus it is a waste of screen real estate).

My personal opinion is that these "portals"  are resource intensive and ultimately useless gimmicks. What's wrong with a direct report URL?