How Microsoft Technologies Help Support Your Goal Setting and KPI Management

By Erin Kelley | January 23, 2025

Setting goals and tracking performance are key to improving processes and meeting overall business objectives. But what tools tools should you use to measure your progress?

When tracking goal progress and key performance indicators (KPIs), it's also important to consider which software you want to use to establish and track KPIs to ensure maximum efficiency. With Microsoft technologies, creating, nurturing, and tracking goals and KPIs is made easy so you can use them to achieve your overall company objectives.

In part one of this series, Measuring Change: Why Managing Key Performance Indicators and Business Goals Matters, we provide an overview of KPIs examples and why it’s important to align and track them. In this installment, we will dive in to Microsoft technologies that help streamline these processes, provide visibility and help you track your progress.

Which Microsoft Tools Can Help with KPI Management?

Microsoft offers tools designed specifically for goal setting and KPI tracking. Let’s analyze the key features and functionalities within these tools that empower your organization to stay on track and drive positive results.

Power BI vs Microsoft Excel: Two Great Options for Tracking Progress and Visualizing Success Metrics

Power BI KPI dashboard

Power BI – part of the Power Platform – is an effective analytics and visualization tool that provides businesses like yours with insights into your data so you can make informed decisions. Similarly, Microsoft Excel is another great choice, and while it might lack some of the abilities that make Power BI an ideal option, it is still a very reliable option for smaller-scale, highly customizable KPI tracking.

Feature Power BI Excel
Primary Use Advanced data analysis, real-time KPI monitoring, and visualization. Included in Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans or with standalone licenses.
Data integration Seamlessly connects to multiple live data sources and integrates with other systems. Integrates with Power Query for importing data from external sources.
Ease of use Requires some training for advanced analytics and visualization. User-friendly for basic tracking. Advanced functions may require additional expertise.
Visualization capabilities Superior visuals with interactive dashboards and actionable AI-driven insights. Offers static charts, graphs, and pivot tables. You can access interactive pages but that might require more expertise.
Real-time updates Provides live data updates and real-time tracking. Requires manual or scheduled data refresh.
Scalability Ideal for large-scale data analysis, automated reports, and trend analysis. Best suited for smaller datasets and individualized tracking.
Automation and AI Features AI-Driven insights, automated reports, trend analysis. Can be integrated with Microsoft Copilot. Macros and scripts can automate some tasks. Comes with Copilot if you have the proper license.
Cost Included in Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans or with standalone licenses. Part of Microsoft 365 and accessible in most standard plans.

Some additional capabilities in Power BI include:

  • Pre-built or custom dashboards: You can create intuitive and evolving KPI tracking dashboards either from scratch or using out-of-the-box templates.
  • Automatic goal tracking: The built-in “Goals” feature lets you define objectives, set KPIs, and visualize progress.
  • Data integrations: Power BI can connect to many different data sources to give you a holistic view of organizational performance.

For Microsoft Excel, there are some other versatile tools to help you:

  • KPI templates: Excel comes with prebuilt templates for tracking budgets, sales, and other key metrics.
  • Custom calculations: Advanced customizations allow you to set up unique KPI formulas and conditional formatting to track trends.

KPIs and Dashboards in Dynamics 365 for Metrics Visibility

Here are some ways that Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions help you align your goals and KPIs:

Dynamics 365: Features in Your ERP and CRM Software

An advantage of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite is it has features and functionalities baked in to provide actionable insights for goal management and performance measurement. If you currently use any of these solutions, review the list of features and functionalities to ensure you are getting the most out of your cloud investment.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Finance and Supply Chain Management KPI data dashboards

While you might know that Dynamics 365 Business Central is a comprehensive solution that integrates financials, operations, and supply chain processes to help businesses set and achieve goals. Are you taking advantage of these features?

  • Business Performance Insights: Built-in dashboards and reports provide real-time visibility into financial and operational performance, ensuring alignment with business goals.
  • Budgeting and Forecasting Tools: These help businesses set financial goals and monitor performance against them.
  • Role-Specific Workspaces: Personalized workspaces offer tailored insights for team members, helping them focus on KPIs relevant to their roles.

Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management

The Dynamics 365 F&SCM solution helps optimize financial and operational processes. Are you using these capabilities?

  • Financial Reporting and Analytics: Advanced financial reporting features enable tracking of revenue, expenses, and profitability in real-time KPIs.
  • Supply Chain Optimization Tools: Demand forecasting and inventory management ensure alignment with operational efficiency goals.
  • Embedded AI Insights: Predictive analytics provide insights into trends, helping businesses proactively adjust strategies to meet targets.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Project Operations integrates project management, accounting, and resource management, making it an essential tool for service-based organizations. Key features include:

  • Project Tracking Dashboards: Real-time dashboards allow businesses to track project milestones, budgets, and resource utilization KPIs.
  • Resource Optimization Tools: You can use tools for resource planning and scheduling to ensure efficient allocation, directly impacting project delivery goals.
  • Profitability Analysis: Features like margin tracking and project profitability reports provide actionable insights to achieve financial goals.

Dynamics 365 Sales

Sales Forecast KPI Tracking

Dynamics 365 Sales empowers sales teams with tools to manage customer relationships, forecast revenue, and achieve sales targets. Particularly helpful features for measurement include:

  • Sales Forecasting: AI-driven forecasting tools help sales teams predict outcomes and set realistic revenue goals.
  • Pipeline Management: Visual dashboards for tracking leads, opportunities, and deal progress ensure alignment with sales objectives.
  • Performance Analytics: Tools for tracking individual and team performance against sales KPIs drive accountability and improvement.

Dynamics 365 Field Service

KPI tracking for work order management

Field Service focuses on delivering exceptional onsite service experiences, with features that support goal tracking and operational efficiency. Users find these functionalities extremely useful:

  • Service Scheduling and Optimization: AI-driven scheduling ensures resource utilization aligns with operational KPIs.
  • Work Order Insights: Tracking work order completion rates and customer satisfaction helps measure service delivery goals.
  • Asset Management Tools: Tools for monitoring asset performance ensure preventive maintenance goals are met.

Dynamics 365 Customer Service

KPI Tracking customer satisfaction

This solution enables organizations to provide outstanding customer support while tracking performance metrics. Important features for analytics include:

  • Customer Satisfaction Metrics: Tools for tracking CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) and NPS (Net Promoter Score) measure support quality.
  • Case Resolution Insights: Real-time dashboards monitor case resolution times, ensuring alignment with service level agreements (SLAs).
  • Omnichannel Analytics: Analytics across communication channels provide a holistic view of customer support performance.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys (Formerly known as Dynamics 365 Marketing)

Customer Insights - Journeys focuses on personalized marketing and customer engagement. These features help with measurement:

  • Campaign Performance Tracking: Tools for monitoring email open rates, click-through rates, and conversions align marketing efforts with engagement goals.
  • Customer Segmentation: Advanced segmentation ensures targeted campaigns meet customer-specific KPIs.
  • Journey Orchestration Insights: Real-time analytics on customer journeys provide insights into engagement success and areas for improvement.

By leveraging these features, organizations can align their strategies, enhance productivity, and ensure measurable success across various departments.

AI-Driven Capabilities of Microsoft Copilot

You can embed Copilot directly into your Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM solutions with the proper licensing. AI assistance helps you streamline and automate many of these processes.

How Stoneridge Has Helped Clients Establish Goals and Track KPIs

Here are some examples of Stoneridge clients who have used Microsoft technologies to support KPI tracking to meet their business goals.

Miller Milling Revolutionizes Sales Operations with Streamlined Systems and Automated Processes

Partnered with Stoneridge on a forward thinking approach by implementing Dynamics 365 Sales set up with specific features that helped them track their progress, including:

  • Consolidated their sales platform to manage customer interactions and track sales activities without switching between multiple systems.
  • Enhanced sales visibility to gain insights into key sales metrics and monitor performance against forecasts.
  • Integrated Power BI and using its data management and visualization capabilities to centralize the key data they needed to track sales progress.

Manufacturer of Compression Equipment Overcomes Manual Work Challenges, Enhances Productivity with Dynamics 365 Field Service

Stoneridge partnered to implement Dynamics 365 Field Service and Power BI to track progress through KPIs, including:

  • Power BI dashboard that displays time and expenses for work orders.
  • Track how efficient service calls were and how much they were costing.
  • Track service agent efficiency and key financial information.

Nonprofit Association Transforms Marketing and Membership Management with Dynamics 365

Stoneridge partnered to integrate a marketing platform with Dynamics 365 to centralize data and allow it to flow seamlessly between the two applications.

Tracking marketing KPIs and consolidating their data allowed them to prepare and distribute membership scorecards more easily, allowing them to track the number of members participating in their events and activities.

Power BI was used to build smarter and more actionable reports than they had before. These live dashboards allowed the ability to track some primary KPIs, including:

  • The success of member organizations
  • The success of programming established to build the growth of membership
  • Annual revenue percentage increase
  • Membership growth, revenue and income, and success by region

Contact Stoneridge to Assist with Data Sources and Effective KPI Tracking

While Stoneridge experts have a wealth of expertise in implementing, optimizing, and supporting Microsoft solutions, they have also helped many clients manage changes organizations want to make to improve their business and meet their goals.

Get in touch with Stoneridge experts today to meet your business objectives.

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