I’d like to use Power BI to generate some graphs. Do I need to request access from Cetec if I’m the admin on our business account?
Hi @Mahdi.Kashani - thanks for your question. There are a few ways you could go about doing this.
First, if your ERP instance is installed on a local server where you have access to it, and assuming you are an SQL admin with permissions there, you could read from the database directly if you’d like.
I think however, if I’m not mistaken your company runs as an instance on the multi-tenant setup with Google Cloud, so you won’t have direct access to the database like that.
So, alternatively, you could download the previous night’s backup at any time (just head to Admin >> Maintenance >> Download Backup). That’s a complete copy of the SQL database you could use to feed into any external reporting source you’d like (including Power BI).
Additionally, we have a REST based JSON API you can explore by adding “apioverview” to the end of your instance’s URL (e.g. _____.cetecerp.com/apioverview)
Finally, I might ask which version of Power BI you are using. There is a version for $10 per month but it is very limited. Their other version, which actually allows users to customize their own reports, is $4,995/month.
Note that Cetec ERP has its own custom reporting engine (comparable to Power BI) called “Cetec ERP BI” (powered by “Metabase”). This has the nightly ETL built in, so you don’t have to do any data work to get the data moved to the custom reporting engine, it is plug and play. It is also vastly cheaper than power BI. It is included in the Cetec ERP Enterprise plan ($3,200/month). It is also available a la carte at $2,000/month (so, ~$3k/month cheaper than power BI).
Hope this helps! Thanks!
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Thank you very much for the thorough response.
I just downloaded a backup to give it a shot. What is the backup file type?