The Power BI Team is excited to highlight a new story blog series of notable ISVs who have integrated Power BI Embedded into their offerings to differentiate and innovate their solutions. Our immediate story post comes from Aluvii, which offers SaaS POS solution for amusement parks and leisure facilities. With Power BI Embedded, Aluvii aims to stand apart from the competition, bringing rich data visualization to life all inside their application offerings. How did they integrate Power BI Embedded into their product offering? Read more below, and stay tuned for additional story posts coming your way.
Aluvii, an all-in-one POS software platform for the amusement and leisure industries, recently released their flagship SaaS product and are experiencing a very positive response in the marketplace. The cloud-based software includes a comprehensive set of modules needed to efficiently run an entire business including ticketing, point of sale, e-commerce, memberships, events & reservations, inventory, HR, scheduling & timekeeping, sales & marketing, member portal, online waivers, and much more. Because Aluvii is cloud based, it’s accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any device. In addition, all registers, customer data, and reports are always available, safe, and up to date.
We at Aluvii recognize automated business intelligence and reporting are critical to customers. As such, we selected and utilize Microsoft Power BI Embedded as our cutting edge reporting and dashboard technology solution.
The primary reason for our selection of Microsoft Power BI Embedded was the need for a single reporting platform that could be deployed across multiple operating systems, web portals, and applications. Microsoft’s Power BI is an excellent platform for the deployment of dashboards and reports, but it lacked the flexibility of embedded application inclusion. With the release of the Power BI Embedded solution, we were able to leverage everything we loved in the standard Power BI framework into an integrated product. We researched other solutions but each did not truly allow for embedded application deployment. And many required convoluted integration architectures that had greater possibility of breakage. Since Aluvii is built on top of Azure, the Power BI Embedded solution was seamless, and drove down the total cost of ownership.
The same architecture that allows for rapid deployment of reporting is also being managed through the Azure API Management services. This allows our more advanced clients to build their own custom Power BI Desktop reports and dashboards. With the API Gateway created by the Azure API Management, API Management, Aluvii is able to setup subscription models that provide access to data and other features. Billing clients is also streamlined through this process.
Our development team has leveraged Microsoft Azure as its PaaS, the core API architecture used by the company which has allowed for increased flexibility in development and deployment. And by kick starting the business using the Microsoft BizSpark program, we were able to test and utilize the best of Microsoft’s product line, ensuring a state-of-the-art solution at affordable prices.
The Azure SQL Database product, which is used as the backbone of the Aluvii Software Suite, allows for quick integration within Power BI Embedded. The write-once-deploy-everywhere software process ensures that our reports can be integrated within our web portals, desktop applications, and mobile platforms with minimal development and cost. Microsoft Power BI’s flexible visualizations offers our Aluvii product the ability to develop truly unique reporting solutions across allof our various feature sets and using multiple data sources. At this time, Aluvii is unique in providing dynamic, multi-tenant reporting services built into the core application among all of its other software features.
Overall, Aluvii credits their growing success to its diverse product offerings, the scalability of the Microsoft Cloud Azure Platform, and innovative development teams. Since the initial release of their flagship SaaS offering, Aluvii has received tremendous interest from customers across the globe. The Power BI Embedded reporting feature allows Aluvii to differentiate itself from its competitors, granting deep insights into its customers’ operations.
Improve care team productivity and expertise, reduce medical errors, and increase real-time care team communications with Skype for Business. Promote provider education to stay current with advancements in medicine and meet continuing medical education requirements. Microsoft has developed solutions to eliminate communication silos to accelerate decision-making.
Microsoft's Skype for Business can improve team communication and performance by extending access and reach of services to more patients across all demographics and geographies. With Skype for Business, Healthcare Facilities can improve population health by virtually caring for and engaging patients in the context of their digital lifestyles and work styles, reduce travel time and distance between affiliated organizations, manage aging population and complex case-mix patients plus much more.
Benefits of using Skype for Business
Enterprise-Class meeting recording. Scalable to meet your growing organization’s capacity needs while being highly redundant, secure and economical.
Scheduled or on demand. Recording can be initiated both as part of the meeting scheduling process or on demand with simple controls easily accessible within the Skype for Business, Lync or other virtual meeting vendors’ interfaces.
Managed content. Users have access to manage their recordings, allowing them to trim, edit thumbnails, and share them easily right from within the communications tool.
Integrated with your corporate security framework. This minimizes administration and provides the flexibility to meet your multi-level access control needs.
Automatic metadata capture. Highly customizable metadata capture for enhanced search/retrieval as well as audit/compliance of meeting recordings.
Automated workflows. Can be created for specific types of meeting recordings with automated disclaimers, mandatory approvals, and security.
Easily share meeting content. Can be shared via collaboration platforms, email, websites and social tools while maintaining security.
Think of your favorite pieces of technology. These are the things that you use every day for work and play, and pretty much can’t live without.
Chances are, at least one of them is a gadget – your phone, maybe, or your gaming console.
But if you really think about it, chances also are good that many of your most beloved technologies are no longer made of plastic, metal and glass.
Maybe it’s a streaming video service you use to binge watch “Game of Thrones” on or an app that lets you track your steps and calories so you can fit into those jeans you wore back in high school. Maybe it’s a virtual assistant that helps you remember where your meetings are and when you need to take your medicine, or an e-reader that lets you get lost in your favorite book via your phone, tablet or even car speakers.
Perhaps, quietly and without even realizing it, your most beloved technologies have gone from being things you hold to services you rely on, and that exist everywhere and nowhere. Instead of the gadgets themselves, they are tools that you expect to be able to use on any type of gadget: Your phone, your PC, maybe even your TV.
They are part of what Harry Shum, executive vice president in charge of Microsoft’s Technology and Research division, refers to as an “invisible revolution.”
“We are on the cusp of creating a world in which technology is increasingly pervasive but is also increasingly invisible,” Shum said.
The small IT staff divided its limited time between maintenance of the company’s forty applications and making sure the outdated email systems were operational–leaving it little time to focus on higher value initiatives. To revitalize its IT capabilities, Helly Hansen adopted Microsoft Office 365. Helly Hansen improved communications, accelerated business processes, and transformed its travel culture, resulting in reduced travel costs by 10 to 15 percent.
As a global brand, Helly Hansen operates 39 retail outlets in Europe and North America and works with retailers and suppliers from around the world. It does so with just 350 full-time employees who work out of the headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and from offices in Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States. The teams typically communicated by email and phone, but the phone systems were outdated and unreliable and sending large files with marketing plans and detailed display photographs over email was not an ideal solution.
Soon after the move to Office 365, Helly Hansen started a pilot program to encourage employees to replace business travel with Skype for Business meetings. “We ran this pilot and, in a very short time, were able to avoid 15 trips and save more than US$20,000. Skype for Business quickly made a real improvement in how we do business,” says Abrahams.
Helly Hansen expects travel costs will be reduced by 10 to 15 percent in 2013, “For the IT team, which is spread over five countries, being able to have all of our meetings via Skype has been an amazing transformation,” says Abrahams. “Now that we can see each other and share our desktops, we can lead more productive meetings and benefit from closer relationships.”
Another way that Helly Hansen will benefit from Skype for Business videoconferencing is by reviewing clothing samples with its manufacturers in Hong Kong. “Our suppliers can use Logitech HD cameras to show samples to the developers in Oslo. We previously had to send an entourage of people to Asia to check samples every year. Now, only half of the team will need to go,” says Abrahams. “Everybody is excited about this; especially the people who are tired of so much traveling and the managers who want to save money.”
“We have one employee who frequently travels between Munich and Oslo. He saw a reduction in his mobile phone bill of more than US$260 a month after adopting Skype for Business,” says Abrahams. “That is the savings from just one person.” Overall, Helly Hansen has reduced the budget for mobile phone costs by 10 percent.
You’ve got big plans for the business, but do you have the technology in place that can support that growth? Your outdated accounting system can’t provide the data insight and efficient processes that propel business forward. Maybe that’s why 80% of midsize businesses are expected to use some form of cloud computing by the end of 2014, according to IDC.
As more businesses look to cloud technology to achieve their growth ambitions, many are choosing Microsoft as their cloud provider. The Microsoft Cloud provides a connected business platform that helps automate core processes, transforms data into insight for better business decisions, and allows you to scale up or down to respond to changing market conditions.
With Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Office 365, you get the power of fully integrated cloud-based business management systems plus the flexibility to adjust to change quickly. Modernize your business with tools that are affordable and familiar to your people. Join us for the “Why are so many businesses moving to the cloud?” webcast to find out if you should be in the 80%.
Speaker: Craig Crescas, Microsoft Partner Technology Strategist
Featured Products: Dynamics
Recommended Audiences: C-Level, Business Decision Makers
The Game Changer: Cloud Computing, Hosting and Cloud Services - A Hybrid Cloud Infographic
Managed Solution employs cloud technology subject matter experts to assist our clients through their cloud migration. We provide innovative cloud strategy design, consultation, migration and implementation of cloud environments. Whether your organization needs a public, private, or hybrid cloud solution, we will build you a custom cloud solution to best fit the needs of your business. For more information contact Managed Solution at 800-550-3795 or fill out the contact form.
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