SaaS and Multi-Tenancy (Using the same report for multiple clients)

[iDataDrew]

Hi,

I do freelance work for a SaaS company that provides project management services.  Basically, they gather data from clients' Project Online and Project Server DB and import it into Power BI.  I then create reports from this data.  Right now this is a start-up, so I'm working with a lot of sample data.  But one lingering question runs through my mind..."How will I be able to reuse these reports I created for all our clients?"

I tried a little test in the past where I simply changed the data source (in Desktop) and the new data fed into the report just fine, assuming the data structure, fields, and types are the same.  I'm wondering if there is another way of performing this multi-tenancy in Power BI and how this would be managed in the Power BI Service?

Thank you for your insights!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@iDataDrew The only way you can change a data source for a data set is via the Power BI Desktop. It's also the only place you could make the slight adjustments that are most likely inherent in every implementation. So, for now, it sounds like your on the only path possible. You could extend things by creating a Template, but it sounds like you could just do a save as for each new client if the data sources are the same or similiar.

[iDataDrew]

Thank you @Anonymous. I will have to spend more time looking into the template concept.

[Anonymous]

Hi @iDataDrew，

A Power BI Report Template contains the definition of the Report , Data Model definition and Queries definition, users can use it to instantiate new Power BI Reports on their machine by providing values for parameters defined in the template.

You can get more details about how Power BI Desktop templates work in the following blog.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deep-dive-into-query-parameters-and-power-bi-templates/

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang