In the fast-paced world of modern business, disparate data sources and disconnected systems hinder efficiency, agility, and informed decision-making. Your organisation may possess a wealth of valuable data, yet it resides in silos – customer interactions in your CRM, sales figures in spreadsheets, inventory in legacy systems, and critical updates lost in email chains. This fragmentation undermines your competitive edge.
That’s where Microsoft Dataverse steps in. It’s a cloud-based, low-code data platform that provides a secure and centralised hub for all your business data. Dataverse is even more powerful through its deep integration with Microsoft Fabric and OneLake, enabling organisations to unify structured, semi-structured, and real-time data streams in a single trusted environment.
This enhanced connectivity allows Dataverse to act not only as your app data backbone but also as a key participant in enterprise-wide analytics and automation.
Why Dataverse is a Powerful Solution
- Data Integration & Modeling: Seamlessly pull data from Dynamics 365, legacy systems, third-party applications, Excel files, and now directly from Microsoft Fabric’s OneLake through OneLake Shortcuts. These shortcuts allow you to reference large-scale data from Fabric or Azure Data Lake without duplication, improving performance and reducing storage costs.
- Rich Data Support: Handle various data types (text, numbers, images, locations, and more) along with descriptive metadata for enhanced organisation and context.
- Embedded Business Logic: Ensure data consistency and automate workflows directly within Dataverse. Define rules, calculations, and multi-step processes to streamline operations and minimize manual errors.
- AI and Copilot Integration: With Copilot for Power Apps and Dataverse, users can now describe data models or relationships in natural language (“Create a table for project budgets linked to departments”), and Dataverse will automatically generate schema and logic suggestions, accelerating low-code development.
- Enterprise-Grade Security: Leverage Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure with role-based permissions, auditing, data encryption, and compliance with industry regulations to safeguard the integrity of your data.
Microsoft-Level Security
When it comes to your sensitive financial data, security is non-negotiable. Dataverse leverages Microsoft’s enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure, providing a robust foundation for data protection. It offers fine-grained role-based access controls to ensure only authorised individuals can view or modify data.
Detailed auditing allows you to track changes for accountability or if troubleshooting becomes necessary. Plus, with data encryption both in transit and at rest, you can have peace of mind knowing your information is protected. And importantly, Dataverse aligns with industry-standard security and privacy regulations.
In addition, Dataverse aligns with Microsoft’s Zero Trust security framework and supports compliance with major standards, including Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 27001, GDPR, and SOC 2. This ensures your sensitive data is protected under the same security umbrella as Microsoft 365 and Azure.
Accessing the Power of Dataverse
Dataverse is primarily designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft’s suite of business tools. It is designed to integrate seamlessly not only with Microsoft tools but also with a vast range of third-party services.
With over 1,100 certified connectors now available through the Power Platform, integration is easier than ever, whether you’re connecting Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP, or custom APIs. For highly specialised integrations, consultants can still assist in developing custom connectors to ensure smooth interoperability.
Power Platform: Dataverse is the backbone of the Microsoft Power Platform. This means you can effortlessly utilize Dataverse data to build custom applications (Power Apps), automate workflows (Power Automate), and gain actionable insights (Power BI), all with a low-code approach.
Dynamics 365: For companies already leveraging Dynamics 365 applications (Sales, Customer Service, Finance, etc.), Dataverse acts as the central data hub. This ensures consistency of information across your core business systems, eliminating error-prone manual data transfers.
Beyond Microsoft: Leveraging Your Existing Systems: While Dataverse shines within the Microsoft ecosystem, it can connect to a wide range of external systems. Popular examples include:
- Legacy Databases and ERPs: Use Fabric Mirroring to connect Dataverse with external databases like SQL Server or Snowflake in near real time. This allows you to centralise analytics and reporting without complex ETL pipelines or data duplication.
- Third-Party Data Providers: Incorporate external data sources to enrich your Dataverse environment. This could include industry-specific data feeds, market trends, news feeds relevant to your business, or even social media sentiment analysis.
- Cloud Storage: Integrate seamlessly with OneLake, SharePoint, and Azure Blob Storage, enabling a single view across structured Dataverse data and unstructured files.
Let’s Talk Transformation
Is your organisation struggling with scattered or disconnected data? Contact us to explore how Dataverse and Microsoft Fabric can transform your data strategy – unifying systems, automating insights, and empowering AI-driven decision-making. Our consultants can help you build a secure, intelligent data foundation that fuels innovation across your entire business ecosystem.
