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SusieMull's avatar
SusieMull
Regular Visitor
1 year ago
Solved

Licensing confusion: Project Online, Power BI, Dataverse

My client uses Power BI to report on a portfolio of projects in Project Online. They would like to be able to view detailed reporting over time within Power BI. They have a ton of Power BI Pro licens...
Need Help
  • v-karpurapud's avatar
    v-karpurapud
    1 year ago

    Hello SusieMull 


    Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.

     

    For effective storage and management of historical project data for Power BI reporting, Azure SQL Database is recommended.

     

    Azure SQL Database offers scalable and structured storage for Project Online data, supporting relational data and efficient querying of historical snapshots without relying on CSV files.

     

    Power BI integrates seamlessly with Azure SQL Database using DirectQuery for real-time insights or Import Mode for optimized performance, ensuring reliability and efficiency in reporting.

     

    Use Power Automate to extract data from Project Online on a weekly schedule, store it in Azure SQL Database, organize it into relational tables, and connect Power BI via DirectQuery or Import Mode for seamless reporting.

     

    Licensing Considerations:

    1. Power Automate: Requires a Premium License for API integration, estimated at $15/user/month or $150/month per cloud flow run.
    2. Azure SQL Database: Uses a pay-as-you-go model, starting at approximately $5/month.
    3. Power BI: Requires a Power BI Pro License, which is already available at no additional cost.

     

    If my response has resolved your query, please mark it as the Accepted Solution to assist others. Additionally, a 'Kudos' would be appreciated if you found my response helpful.

    Thank you!

     

GilbertQ's avatar
GilbertQ
Icon for Super User rankSuper User
1 year ago

Hi SusieMull 

 

What I would recommend doing is, rather than storing the data in dataverse, I would suggest storing that data in Sharepoint online. If you can export the data from project online to a csv file, this will make it easier than to pick this information up by power BI connecting to Sharepoint so that there will be no need for any gateways and everything can be done online.

 

SusieMull's avatar
SusieMull
Regular Visitor
1 year ago

Thank you for the suggestion. We're leery of relying on a CSV to store this data. It would take multiple CSVs to capture all the relational data, and we'd like something more robust. We're just not sure what makes sense, and the licensing maze for Dataverse, Azure SQL, etc. is very difficult to navigate. We're really looking for help on platform selection and licensing clarity. I appreciate your idea; thank you again.