Review of Data Modeling Studio for D365: Features, Benefits, and More!
Eric Van Hofwegen
Table of contents
If you are reading this blog, you are probably aware of our Data Modeling Studio or came in search of a data preparation and extraction software for Dynamics 365. Although you can find more information about us and other similar products in the market online, we wanted to make it easier for you to evaluate our solution and decide whether it is the right fit for you.
It is a proven fact that data preparation and extraction in Dynamics 365 can be time-consuming and challenging. Nonetheless, they are equally essential whether you are trying to realize analytics or want to extract/export data for other purposes.
Our blog will help you get a 360-degree view of our solution, and showcase not only the benefits and our top features but also the limitations, costs, and factors that will help you consider whether it is suitable for you or not. We hope it gives you adequate information to make an informed decision regarding Data Modeling Studio.
This review will cover the following:
Before we cover all the review aspects, let’s first understand what Data Modeling Studio is. You can alternately watch this product video for an overview of the solution.
What is Data Modeling Studio?
Data Modeling Studio, a part of of our Data Integration Solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (D365 F&SCM), is a no-code data preparation and extraction solution that offers users a zero-code data management experience without investing much time and effort. It has been thoughtfully developed to optimize and accelerate your journey toward achieving end-to-end analytics. Embedded inside D365 F&SCM, the solution offers a wide range of capabilities, including cleaning, transforming, modeling, exporting, and combining your data – all in one.
Working seamlessly with standard Microsoft capabilities, Data Modeling Studio ensures your data is high quality to yield meaningful, action-oriented insights. This, in turn, helps you make more informed business decisions, taking you a step further on your path to success.
Features of Data Modeling Studio for full and incremental extracts
Data exports and extraction in Dynamics 365
If you are looking to export or extract data in the Dynamics 365 space, our Data Modeling Studio provides a user-friendly way. Depending on your specific business needs and the size and type of your data, the solution allows you to schedule and track your exports all along. With the point-and-click capability, you can export data out of Dynamics 365 in a more structured manner.
Easy portability and migration
While working with our Data Modeling Studio, your data preparation and extraction setup can be easily migrated from one system to another with the help of templates, eliminating the need for any rework.
Works with or without data entities
Data entities are not new to the Microsoft ecosystem; they are used to extract and export data. But, managing them is not easy – they are complex to create and modify, and require developers. Our Data Modeling Studio eliminates the need for data entities by extracting directly from the tables to support seamless, self-configurable extraction. On the flip side, if you are already using data entities, our solution will complement it.
End-to-end monitoring capabilities
The solution offers complete visibility into how data flows across various applications via inbuilt scheduling and monitoring abilities. It allows you to keep tabs on logs, errors, and any metrics in a detailed, simple, easily comprehensible view.
Benefits of Data Modeling Studio
As a self-configurable solution, our Data Modeling Studio offers a range of benefits, some of which are:
- High-speed exports with superior data extraction capabilities to accelerate your data-to-value chain
- Exporting essential analytics information, such as metadata, enumerations, and more is just a click away with the product
- Robust and reliable for high-volume data preparation and extraction. Seamlessly manages large data volumes with ease. For example, it can handle data extraction with tables containing 170 million records in no time and with minimal effort
- Reduces the dependency on specialized resources and developers, as it is easy to use and can be used by business users with less technical expertise
- Better equipped to have access to a high-quality database to generate insightful reports, reducing maintenance and improving the efficiency of the process
Limitations of Data Modeling Studio
Data Modeling Studio is mainly designed for data extraction/export with Dynamics 365 F&SCM, which limits its usage for other ERPs. For instance, you cannot use it for Dynamics 365 Sales or CE. Hence, this might not work as expected if you are using any other ERP platform apart from Dynamics 365 F&SCM. Also, imports are not a function of Data Modeling Studio. However, our Data Integration Solution for Dynamics 365 F&SCM can support you with data imports, data integration, and integration monitoring.
In addition, you require some knowledge of stored procedures and how to create them so that you can make relations between various entities in SQL Server once the raw data has been exported. This requires little bits of code, which needs to be executed to create an aggregation table or a view that makes the data workable.
Cost of Data Modeling Studio
Most often, companies end up paying more for similar tools and do not understand what’s at stake. Some factors that typically influence the cost of a data preparation and extraction software like Data Modeling Studio are:
- On-premises or on-cloud
- Services and support
- Number of companies/legal entities in your system
- The complexity of the requirements
- Additional/indirect costs – for instance: use of standard Microsoft tools or outsourcing to a partner
How do organizations pay for Data Modeling Studio? Our Data Modeling Studio uses a tiered, license-based subscription pricing model. So, users pay per license and company/legal entity, and it’s billed on a monthly basis. As the number of companies/legal entities using the solution within Dynamics 365 F&SCM increases, the cost to the organization, on average, decreases. Moreover, there is no minimum licenses or order value, and the price is typically calculated for the number of companies/legal entities using the solution actively.
Read our entire blog on the cost of Data Modeling Studio here.
Is Data Modeling Studio the correct choice for you?
Data is no less than a treasure in today’s times, and companies worldwide are looking to tap into its potential to drive better business performance and outcomes. This is where having access to the right solution can prove to be an asset, and Data Modeling Studio does the same for data preparation and extraction in Dynamics 365 F&SCM. You not only get to see faster results but also simplify the entire process.
No matter the size of the company, the solution can be used conveniently without depending on programmers. Additionally, as the solution matures, we are looking to enable Data Modeling Studio to support data lakes so you can have the best of both worlds.
That being said, if you are using an ERP other than Microsoft Dynamics 365, the solution might not be apt for your organization. However, if you are moving to the Dynamics cloud, then you would want to leverage the capabilities of Data Modeling Studio.
The next steps
After going through the review, you must have some questions regarding the solution or how it can add value to your business when trying to export/extract data or prepare data for analytics in D365 F&SCM and other purposes.
To support you with precisely this, our analytics and BI experts are always ready to connect and guide you further with all the information required to help you make the right decision. Please get in touch with our experts through the link shared below.
