Detailed project case study
Dynamics 365 & Dataverse Embedded Reporting Platform
A dedicated reporting environment and embedded application designed to improve insight without compromising production systems.
Designed a dedicated Dynamics 365 and Dataverse reporting environment for safer, scalable access to operational insight, with governed connectivity and a route to self-service analytics.
Context
The business needed better reporting from Dynamics 365 and Dataverse, but production security, performance and stability could not be compromised. Users needed trusted insight rather than another unmanaged report collection.
My mandate
Create a governed reporting environment and product route that improved access to Dynamics 365 insight without exposing production operations to unmanaged reporting risk.
Scope
- Enterprise Dynamics 365 and Dataverse data
- Identity, application and release controls
- Embedded analytics product
- Business users and reporting developers
Selected technologies
Key decisions
- Separate reporting development from production operations.
- Validate identity, roles, data copy and connectivity before scaling self-service access.
- Treat embedded reporting as an owned application product with release governance.
What the team delivered
- Provisioned a dedicated Dynamics 365 and Dataverse reporting environment.
- Validated security roles, data-copy options, SQL/TDS access and Power BI connectivity.
- Designed an embedded React and Power BI application with Entra ID, Azure App Service and release governance.
Trade-offs
Users needed faster access to insight, but not at the cost of production performance, security or a new collection of unmanaged reports.
Outcome
- Created a governed self-service reporting foundation.
- Reduced production risk by separating reporting development from live operations.
- Established a reusable platform for embedded analytics and future data products.
Evidence
Environment validation, UAT, security testing, runbooks and release records provide the delivery evidence for the programme.
What this demonstrates
Data product leadership, security-aware architecture and controlled application lifecycle management.