By Linda Rosencrance
Dynamic Communities Inc. has formed the Power BI User Group (PBIUG), specifically for Microsoft Dynamics customers who use Microsoft’s suite of business analytics tools to analyze data and share insights.
“For our Dynamics user groups, business intelligence is critical,” says Andy Hafer, Dynamic Communities CEO. Dynamic Communities is the umbrella organization for the independent CRMUG, AXUG, NAVUG and GPUG, each dedicated to Microsoft ERP or CRM solutions.
Hafer explains that “Microsoft has tried to fill some space and some void in their offerings by creating Power BI, which is meant to provide business intelligence tool sets across not only the Dynamics data sets but any data source you would want to report on. But it is definitely not inside Dynamics.”
For DCI, many members of the different user groups focus on business intelligence and reporting – and a lot of Power BI-specific discussion topics are happening in each of the user groups. But because a user of one group may not necessarily belong to another group, program planners found themselves replicating Power BI content multiple times, he says.
“Power BI has gotten so popular that some of the members thought it might make sense to pull this one out as its own group,” Hafer says. “So we’ve created the Power BI User Group to allow exclusive Power BI user topics and discussions to be at the same level as people are discussing Dynamics NAV, Dynamics AX, Dynamics GP and so forth.”
As a result, there will be an inaugural Power BI Focus event in Schaumburg, Illinois on June 7 and 8. “It will be two days of deep learning and very specific knowledge on Power BI,” he says. Registration will open soon for PBIUG Focus 2016, which will run concurrently with AXUG Focus 2016 and NAVUG Focus 2016. This smaller-scale event will have just one learning track, which will be delivered by Ted Pattison, a Microsoft MVP.
About Linda Rosencrance
Linda Rosencrance is a freelance writer/editor in Massachusetts. She has written about information technology for 10 years. She has been a journalist since the late 1980s. She wrote for numerous community newspapers in the Boston area, where she covered politics and was a high-profile investigative reporter. She has freelanced for the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. She is the published author of four true crime books “Murder at Morses Pond,” “An Act of Murder,” “Ripper”, and “Bone Crusher” for Kensington Publishing Corp. (Pinnacle imprint). She has just started her fifth true crime book for Kensington.