Power BI for Salesforce: Visualize CRM Data Effectively

Data integration plays a major role in business analytics. In this guide, you’ll discover a seamless way of integrating Microsoft Power BI and Salesforce.

You’ll also be introduced to Salesforce, the relationship between Power BI and Salesforce, how to connect Power BI with Salesforce, and how to access data with Power BI for Salesforce.

Table of Contents:

1. An Introduction to Power BI
2. An Introduction to Salesforce
3. What is the Relationship between Power BI and Salesforce?
4. How to Connect Power BI with Salesforce (Stepwise)?
5. How to Access Data with Power BI for Salesforce?
6. How to Create Power BI Salesforce Reports?
7. What are the Benefits of Power BI in Salesforce?
8. What are the Tips for Power BI integration with Salesforce?
9. What are the Limitations of Power BI Salesforce Integration?
10. Wrap Up

First…

An Introduction to Power BI

Power BI is a business analytics tool that offers comprehensive solutions ranging from software services to connectors, and applications. All these are designed to empower organizations with insightful data analysis.

An Introduction to Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that enhances business interactions. It offers a comprehensive suite of features for sales and marketing. It’s scalable, flexible, and has a user-friendly design.

What is the Relationship between Power BI and Salesforce?

How to Connect Power BI with Salesforce (Stepwise)?

In this section, you’ll discover how to connect Salesforce to Power BI using the Salesforce report.

Step 1: Click “Get Data.” From the drop-down menu, select “More,” to open the data dialogue box.

Step 2: On the “Get Data” dialogue box, select online services. Navigate to the left pane and click on “Salesforce Reports.” Next, click on the connect button. A Salesforce Reports dialogue box will appear.

Step 3: Select “Production” under URL or choose “Custom” if there’s a need to connect to a custom domain or sandbox. Next, click “OK.”

Step 4: On the Access Salesforce dialogue box, click the “Sign in” box to sign into the Salesforce account, and click Connect.

Step 5: Once connected, a Navigator window will appear. Look out for the options under “Display Options” and choose one or multiple reports to load. Click “Load” to load the data or click “Transform Data” to apply data transformation before loading.

How to Access Data with Power BI for Salesforce?

To access Salesforce data with Power BI, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Power BI Desktop

Launch Power BI Desktop on your computer. You should have the latest version installed on your device.

Step 2: Connect to Salesforce

Click the Home tab in the Power BI Desktop, select Get Data, and choose More. In the “Get Data” window, search for Salesforce. You’ll see options like Salesforce Objects or Salesforce Reports. Choose your desired option and click “Connect.”

Step 3: Sign In

To sign into the Salesforce account, enter your credentials and grant the necessary permissions to Power BI.

Step 4: Select Data

You’ll see a navigator window showing available Salesforce objects or reports. Select the data tables you want to import and click “Load.”

Step 5: Transform Data (Optional)

The Power Query can be used to clean and transform your data before loading it into the Power BI model.

Step 6: Create Visualizations

After loading the data, create interactive reports and dashboards by dragging fields onto the report canvas and using various visualization options.

How to Create Power BI Salesforce Reports?

Stage 1: Logging in to Power BI

• Log in to Power BI.
• Enter your email address and click the “Submit” button.

• You are redirected to your Microsoft account.
• Enter your password and click “Sign in“.

• You can choose whether to stay signed in.

• Once done, the Power BI home screen will open.

Stage 2: Creating a Data Set and Selecting the Data Set to Use in Your Chart

• Go to the left-side menu and click the “Create” button.
• Select “Paste or manually enter data“.

• We’ll use the sample data below for this example.

• Paste the data table above into the “Power Query” window. Next, select the “Create a blank report” option.

• Navigate to the left-side menu, and click on the “Data Hub” option. Power BI will populate the data set list. You’ll get an error message if no data set has been created.

• Click on the “Create Report” dropdown.
• To add the Power BI Sankey Diagram Extension by ChartExpo, you’ll need to use an add-in or Power BI visual from AppSource. Navigate to the right side of the Power BI dashboard, and open the Power BI Visualizations panel.
• Next, click the ellipsis symbol (…) to import the Power BI Sankey Diagram extension by ChartExpo. In the menu that opens, select the “Get more visuals” option.

• In the window that opens, enter “ChartExpo” in the highlighted search box. You’ll see the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” as shown below.

• Click on the Sankey Diagram. Also, click on the highlighted “Add” button.

• Power BI will add the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” icon in the visualization panel.

• To draw a Sankey Diagram with ChartExpo’s Power BI extension, you’ll have to select the “Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo” icon in the visualization panel. A window will open in the report section of the dashboard.

• You’ll have to select the fields to use in the Sankey chart. The sequence below should be followed when selecting the fields.
  • Tickets
  • Channel
  • Status
  • Happiness Rating
  • Numbers
• You’ll have to provide your email address or the ChartExpo license key. The key should be added under the Visual section.

• After adding the key, you’ll see the Sankey Chart to your data.

• You can add the top header text in the chart under the General section.

• There’s the option of changing the Node’s color of status.

• Here’s how to change the Nodes color of the Happiness Rating.

• Here’s what the Sankey Chart looks like.

Insights

From the data, you’ll notice that the most open tickets are in Telephony and Web Form. Social media and Email have significant overdue rates. Unassigned tickets are minimal but notable in Telephony. Closed tickets with positive ratings dominate, but Live Chat has the highest negative feedback, and that signals a need for improvement.

What are the Benefits of Power BI in Salesforce?

Power BI offers several benefits when integrated with Salesforce, enhancing the data analysis and visualization capabilities for Salesforce users. Here are the key benefits:

• Enhanced Data Visualization: Power BI offers advanced visualization tools. Users can create interactive dashboards that present Salesforce data.
• Comprehensive Analysis: Power BI for Salesforce offers a holistic view of business performance, and that facilitates deeper insights and informed decision-making.
• Real-Time Data Access: Power BI pulls data from Salesforce in real-time. This will help users have up-to-date information for monitoring customer engagement and sales performance.
• User-Friendly Interface: Power BI’s intuitive interface simplifies data exploration, and makes it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise.

What are the Tips for Power BI integration with Salesforce?

Here are some key tips for a smooth and efficient Power BI integration with Salesforce:

• Define Objectives: You should outline the insights you want to gain from the integration. This will guide you during your data selection and visualization.
• Use the Right Connection: Your choice of connection should be based on your analysis needs.
• Optimize Data Model: If you’re looking to enhance performance and simplify relationships, you should opt for the star schema for your data model in Power BI.
• Schedule Data Refresh: Set up scheduled data refreshes in Power BI to ensure you’re always working with the latest Salesforce data.

What are the Limitations of Power BI Salesforce Integration?

Here are some common limitations of Power BI’s integration with Salesforce:

• Data Size Constraints: Power BI datasets have size limits. It’s 1 GB for Pro users, and 400 GB for premium users). All these restrict the volume of Salesforce data that can be analyzed.
• Complex Data Models: Power BI supports complex models. However, intricate relationships between Salesforce objects can lead to performance issues or confusion in reporting.
• Refresh Limitations: The frequency of data refreshes in Power BI is limited, and that impacts the availability of real-time data for analysis.
• Learning Curve: Users may have issues when it comes to mastering DAX for advanced calculations and building complex visualizations.

FAQs

Is Salesforce compatible with Power BI?

Yes, Salesforce is compatible with Power BI. Power BI’s Salesforce connector can be used to import and visualize Salesforce data. This will help in comprehensive reporting and analysis within Power BI.

Can Power BI connect directly to Salesforce?

Yes, Power BI can connect directly to Salesforce using its built-in Salesforce connector.

Is Power BI similar to Salesforce?

Power BI and Salesforce serve different purposes. Power BI focuses on business intelligence and data visualization, while Salesforce is a CRM platform for managing customer relationships and sales processes.

Wrap Up

Power BI is a business analytics tool for data visualization, while Salesforce is a CRM platform for customer relationship management. Integrating Power BI with Salesforce enhances data analysis and reporting.

If you’re looking to integrate Power BI with Salesforce, consider involving stakeholders in the reporting process. This will help you ascertain that the dashboards meet their expectations and needs.

Furthermore, you should use DAX formulas to create calculated fields. DAX formulas help in enhancing analysis, and they also provide deeper insights.

You can create a dashboard for CRM in Power BI. After that, you should consider using visualizations like the Sankey chart to represent the evolving total over time. All of these aid in effective data visualization.