Microsoft Power Platform · BI & reporting
As a Microsoft Power BI partner, we build data models you can follow and dashboards that hold up in the quarterly meeting. Power BI is good at producing colorful dashboards — and equally easy to fall into the trap where the pretty UI hides faulty DAX logic.
Functional scope
Power BI isn't one tool, it's a stack. Anyone who only sees the last layer (dashboards) misses the more important layers underneath — dataflow, model, measures.
Reusable ETL logic directly in Power BI Service. Data from sources (SQL, Dynamics, SharePoint, REST APIs) is loaded, transformed, stored in a common-data layer — and multiple datasets draw from it. Saves duplicate logic in 12 different reports.
The star schema beneath your report. Fact tables (sales, tickets, bookings) at the center, dimension tables (customer, product, time) around them. Cleanly modeled, half the work is done — poorly modeled, DAX becomes torture and the report slow.
The visible layer: charts, tables, maps, slicers. With bookmarks, drill-through, cross-filtering, custom visuals from the marketplace. We design so the dashboard message is readable in the first 3 seconds — and drill-down works for detail questions.
In Power BI Service, a curated collection of reports, pinned tiles, dataflows. Distributable as an app to end users — with versioning, release workflow, audit log. That way, 50 salespeople get the same view without anyone individually emailing Excel files.
Embed Power BI in your own web apps — either "embed for organization" (Microsoft login of end users) or "embed for customers" (app-owns-data, external users without a Microsoft license). The latter requires Premium or Embedded capacity, runs via embed tokens. We deploy this regularly in custom portals.
Natural-language Q&A, auto-insights, anomaly detection, decomposition tree. With Copilot in Power BI: generate reports by prompt, get DAX-measure suggestions. We like using it as an accelerator — not as a replacement for clean data-model design.
Use cases
What we build most often — sorted by functional area, each with the pitfalls accumulated over the years.
Pipeline forecast, win rate, sales velocity, account performance. Source: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales with Dataverse. Pitfall: correct time intelligence over fiscal years that don't start in January — DAX needs a clean date-dimension-table design here. Cross-link: D365 Sales.
First-response time, SLA fulfillment, backlog evolution, CSAT. Source: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service. Pitfall: time zones — tickets from DACH, USA, and APAC have different business hours, which must be accounted for in the model. Cross-link: D365 Customer Service.
Liquidity, accounts-receivable aging, margin trends, cost-center comparisons. Source: Business Central or external ERP. Pitfall: foreign-currency conversion with historical rates — we design this as a calculation group, not as hard-coded measures. Cross-link: Business Central.
Campaign ROI, lead-source attribution, engagement funnel. Source: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Journeys plus external tools (LinkedIn, Google Ads). Pitfall: lead attribution across multiple touchpoints — we solve this with configurable attribution (first-touch, last-touch, linear, time-decay). Cross-link: Customer Insights Journeys.
What we deliver
Star schema with fact tables and dimensions, clearly separated layers (bronze/silver/gold), date dimension with fiscal-year logic, clean relationships with correct cardinality. Performance tuning via aggregation tables, composite models, incremental refresh — where needed.
Clean measures with consistent naming, with thorough comments, with test cases as separate test measures. We avoid the typical DAX traps — context-transition bugs, wrong CALCULATE filter order, measures that compute differently in visuals than in tables.
Layout that shows the most important message in the first 3 seconds. Drill-through for detail analysis. Bookmarks for storytelling. Consistent color and typography language, aligned to your corporate design. Mobile layout for consumers on phones.
Workspace setup, app publishing, permissions with row-level security, sharing strategy. Embed setup if reports should appear in custom applications — with app registration, embed-token generation, service-principal auth. Refresh schedule and monitoring alerts.
License models
Three license worlds — and the choice is primarily determined by number of consumers and dataset size:
For customers who want to embed Power BI in their own web apps, there's also Power BI Embedded (Azure subscription, A SKU, billed hourly) — more flexible than Premium, scalable from the console. We walk through the choice in the initial conversation and model it cleanly in the License Cost Calculator.
Detail page · all 5 license models side by side
Pro, Premium per User, Premium Capacity, Embedded, and Fabric — the five license models side by side, with calculation examples, embed scenarios, and attach strategy for Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.
Detail page: Power BI licensing & pricingFAQ
Power BI Pro is a per-user license from ~€10/month — every report consumer needs their own license. Premium is a capacity license, starting at Premium per User (PPU) ~€20/month or as a capacity license from ~€5,000/month. Premium Capacity allows embedding in your own applications, larger datasets, higher refresh frequency, and unlimited free-user consumers.
Pricing notice: Microsoft adjusts list prices regularly (currency adjustments, NCE updates, plan restructurings). Figures here are indicative values from May 2026. For current prices including arades CSP conditions, see the License Cost Calculator (licenses.arades.de) ↗ daily.
Yes, that's one of our main use cases. We build reports on Dataverse (D365 CE modules) or on the Business Central database, with embedded Power BI visualizations directly in the D365 interface or as a standalone workspace app. More under Microsoft Dynamics 365.
DAX is powerful and tricky at the same time. The standard cases (sums, filters, time intelligence) are straightforward. But as soon as context transition, CALCULATE filter arguments, or measure-vs-calculated-column decisions come into play, it quickly becomes opaque. We comment every non-trivial DAX measure so your next analyst can still understand it.
With standard Power BI Pro: up to 8 refreshes per day (every 3 hours). With Premium Capacity: up to 48 refreshes per day (every 30 minutes). For true live data: DirectQuery or Live Connection instead of import mode — with a performance trade-off. The choice depends on the use case.
Yes, with Power BI Embedded — either as embed-for-customers (app-owns-data, external users without a Power BI license) or embed-for-organization (user-owns-data, Microsoft identity required). The app-owns-data model runs via embed tokens and requires a Premium or Embedded capacity. We deploy this regularly in custom applications, often in conjunction with our Independent Engineering.
Maintenance in the Application Care model or pay-per-hour. We also take over existing Power BI landscapes from other partners — a free review in the initial conversation shows what's adoptable.
30-min initial conversation
Describe the question you can't answer from data today — we'll tell you whether Power BI is the right answer.
Accompanying services
Engineering projects rarely stand alone — license logic, architecture clarification, quality gates, knowledge transfer, and follow-on operations usually run in parallel. Below are the most common accompanying services we add via discovery spikes, fixed-price sprints, or application-care contracts.
Before · Architecture
Before implementation: tenant structure, data model, security concept, integration mapping. The result is an architecture document any engineering team can continue working with — even one other than us.
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Before · CSP
Which license bundles for which users, which add-on SKUs are necessary, where you're over- or under-licensed. Sourced as a Microsoft Licensing Partner — with the option to use CSP purely for control without margin maximization.
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During · Quality gate
Independent second opinion during an active implementation project — whether we run it or another partner does. CMMI-based quality gates, risk reviews, fixed price per gate.
During · Adoption
Not the classic 2-day workshop forgotten after a week — but a dynamic learning program over 4–6 weeks with initial training, application phases, and follow-up sessions. Training matrix for roles and topics.
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After · Operations
After go-live: a plannable application-care contract with a monthly flat rate, SLA-based. Includes releases, hotfixes, extensions, tenant hardening — and continuous accompaniment instead of mere ticket response.
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After · Knowledge
When the original developers are gone, the previous partner is no longer reachable, or the documentation is stale — reverse engineering of the existing solution with a documented result: code map, data model, customization inventory.
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Strategy background · arades topic page
Why we consistently build all our apps and recommendations on a single data foundation — and when the island solution is still the better answer. 2,500 words on architecture, migration paths, and honest boundaries.
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