Making/sharing a dataset for customers/clients

[christian007]

Hi!

I've been struggling with an issue and hope you have an idea or different solution.

We are using Power BI ourselves in order to embed reports within our own application. However some clients want those datasets in order to combine it with data from other sources. I've created those datasets out of an OData-feed, but this a 'raw' feed based on the internal structure of the application which has minor changes frequently, so not something that I want to bother clients with. Our idea is to help the clients in this as much as possible beforehand, since that will also limit the amount of questions/confusion. 

I've tried to share datasets or dataflows via B2B guest members, however these then exist in a different tenant environment than the client's, so using those combined with datasets/flows from the clients microsoft tenant environment won't be an option.

Manually it is possible to create a report out of that dataset, download it and then republish it in the 'own' client environment, but that's of course no real solution, especially that should be done every day to have daily updates.

Is there a way within Power BI to handle this? Or maybe an (reasonably priced) Azure application that creates an universe/translation from an OData-feed to a dataset that Power BI can handle easily.

[collinq]

Hi @christian007 ,

If I am understanding this correctly, you are really trying to give them a copy of the originating data?  I also understand that you want to "clean it up a bit" prior to them getting it.  If you are really trying to give them the underlying data AND then let them use that from their own system for their own purposes and not have permissions issues then, as much as I love Power BI, I do not think that this is the right tool.

I think that you need to create a staging database.  For example, if you are using SQL, perhaps create a view for each customer with their data.  This allows you to modify the data to make it more udnerstandable for the customer and to "stage" it for them.  Then, give them a direct access ability to hit that view.  That way, they can access it from their own systems and with their own userids and they can combine it with their own data.