Integrating Power BI Data with Cascade: Flexible Options for Strategic Alignment

Connecting your Power BI data to Cascade provides critical insights for strategic alignment and execution. Power BI provides an excellent data aggregation platform, and an integration can keep your strategy fueled with the most up-to-date data.

However, it's important to understand a key aspect of Power BI's architecture: Power BI reports are primarily visualization layers and do not store raw, queryable data directly. This means our integrations must access the underlying datasets or work with data exported to an intermediate platform before integration into Cascade.

To facilitate this, we offer a few key methods, providing flexible options to suit your technical environment and specific data flow needs.

Integration Methodologies

Here are the primary approaches for integrating your Power BI data with Cascade:

Excel-Assisted Integration

This method leverages existing native integration capabilities, combining data flow between Power BI and Excel with Cascade's native Excel integration. It offers a streamlined path for getting your Power BI insights into Cascade.

• How it Works: You integrate your desired Power BI data into an Excel file using Excel's native connection features. Cascade's native Excel integration then brings that data from your Excel file directly into your Cascade metrics.

• Ideal For: Users familiar with Excel, straightforward integrations use cases, and scenarios where data preparation in Excel is a preferred part of the workflow.

• Resources:

  • Link to Video: Power BI to Cascade Integration

  • Link to Video: Native Cascade Integration from Excel to Cascade

  • Link to Article: Native Cascade Integration from Excel to Cascade

Power Automate-Driven Data Push

This approach utilizes Microsoft Power Automate as powerful middleware to facilitate automated data flow from your Power BI datasets directly to Cascade via an API.

• How it Works: A JSON or DAX query is created and used within Power Automate to retrieve data from specific datasets. The queried data is then processed and sent to a designated Cascade API endpoint, enabling seamless integration.

• Ideal For: Automating scheduled data pushes, leveraging existing Power Automate workflows, scenarios requiring specific data transformations before ingestion, and organizations that prefer to maintain direct control over outbound data access from their environment.

• Requirements & Considerations: This typically involves setting up a Power Automate flow, defining queries for your Power BI datasets, and configuring the HTTP action to push data to Cascade's API.

• Resources:

  • Link to Video: Power Automate Flow for Power BI to Cascade

Direct Programmatic Integration

This method represents the most comprehensive integration approach, particularly suited for large-scale or highly customized data transfers between your Power BI environment and Cascade. It requires programmatic sourcing of data directly from your Power BI's underlying datasets.

How it Works:

• Client-Managed Data Push: Your team's technical resources source data directly from your Power BI environment's underlying datasets (not reports) using programmatic methods. This prepared data is then formatted as required and directly sent to a designated Cascade API endpoint to update your Cascade account. This involves your internal data team creating a query (e.g., JSON, DAX) to retrieve specific datasets from Power BI, which is then pushed to Cascade.

• Cascade-Initiated Data Pull: Alternatively, Cascade can be enabled to authenticate and directly pull data from your Power BI environment's underlying datasets. This involves establishing a secure connection from Cascade to your Power BI datasets, where specific queries are executed by Cascade to retrieve the necessary data for updating your Cascade account.

• Ideal For: Organizations with internal development teams, complex data requirements, high data volumes, or specific security/network constraints.

• Requirements & Considerations: This approach is ideal for teams with knowledge of their Power BI environment. It may involve building custom scripts or utilizing integration platforms to manage data extraction, transformation, and push to Cascade's APIs.

• Resources:

  • Link to Article: Custom Integrations with Cascade

General Requirements & Considerations (Common to All Methods)

• Data Types Supported: Integrations support a wide range of data, including KPIs/Metrics, dates, owners, current completion status, and various custom fields.

• Data Source Consistency: Reliable data synchronization requires adherence to defined structures within your Power BI datasets or intermediate files. Deviations may impact data accuracy.

• Data Security: All data transferred between Power BI, intermediate platforms, and Cascade is secured using industry-standard encryption protocols (HTTPS/TLS 1.2/1.3). 

• Synchronization Schedule: Data synchronization typically occurs once daily (e.g., 8:00 AM EST), but specific schedules can be configured based on your needs.

Next Steps

To ensure the most efficient and effective integration of your Power BI data with Cascade, we recommend reading this article and reviewing your specific requirements.

Prepare for Your Integration: Key Considerations

We encourage you to assess your internal environment and data flow preferences. Considering these points will facilitate a more focused and productive initial consultation:

• Internal Stakeholder Involvement: Identify which internal teams (e.g., IT, Security, Power BI administrators/data owners) would need to be involved from your side to provide necessary access or configure data synchronization.

• Data Flow Initiation Preference: Based on your internal policies and system capabilities, determine if a Push or Pull method would be best.

• Provide Relevant Details Based on Your Initiation Preference: Identify and prepare the corresponding authentication and access credentials for our integration team. These details will vary significantly based on the method chosen.

Initiate Your Integration Journey: Discovery & Solution Design

• Collaborative Assessment: We will conduct a detailed consultation to collaboratively evaluate your specific environment, security requirements, and data integration needs. This assessment is crucial for designing the most suitable data transfer method and overall integration strategy tailored to your exact situation.

• Scoping & Planning: Following this discovery, we will proceed with detailed scoping and planning for your custom Power BI integration.