UG Summit Question: What’s next for Power BI and Microsoft Dynamics CRM?

CRMUG Summit 2014 is nearly upon us, and with so much already known about the upcoming release wave, spanning Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Dynamics Marketing, and Social Listening, it seemed like a good time to think about what else the Dynamics CRM community should be looking for this week.

There was a lot for Dynamics CRM experts to sink their teeth into in the last few weeks with the announcement of the upcoming CRM 2015 release. But one topic that that was nearly absent in the CRM 2015 release preview guide was Power BI, or advanced business intelligence capabilities in general.

It's no secret that Microsoft wants customers to bundle Power BI with CRM Online. Microsoft has made no secret of the fact that they want to aggressively pursue customers who can use these products together  But the Power BI story for Dynamics CRM Online still appears to be incomplete at best. The crux of the issue seems to be that these two stars of Microsoft's cloud first world still don't work together in a harmonious way. As experts explain it to us, CRM Online is still not an ideal data source for Power BI.

For example, look at the release preview guide for Dynamics CRM 2015. It mentions Power BI in the context of Microsoft Dynamics Marketing for "leveraging the power of Excel and Power BI to measure campaigns across channels from start to finish." But there is no mention of using any Power BI tools to drive analytics in core Dynamics CRM, or CRM Online specifically, which we know is going to be the strategic focus going forward.