THE BRAINTREE APPROACH
Map, Evaluate, Deploy, Build.
The starting point is the decision the business cannot make confidently today. Braintree maps the data and reporting behind it, then tests the cost and value of the proposed platform before migration or automation work begins.
01
Map
Identify the source systems, decision workflows and competing reports. Find where a shared data model would remove reconciliation work and give teams a consistent basis for planning.
02
Evaluate
Compare the proposed Fabric approach with the existing environment or an alternative platform. Include capacity, integration, migration and ongoing operations in the cost model presented to management.
03
Deploy
Implement the agreed data and Power BI workloads with governance and ownership. Test the figures and the user experience against the business scenarios that justified the work.
04
Build
Assess a custom agent where a specific decision or workflow needs more than standard capability. Braintree’s AI Value Framework requires the business case, controls and responsible owner to be clear.
MICROSOFT PRODUCT CAPABILITIES
The Microsoft products behind better decisions.
Microsoft Fabric connects data workloads around OneLake. Power BI turns governed data into reports people can use. Power Platform adds business applications, workflows, websites, and agents around the processes that need to act on that information.
Microsoft Fabric
Bring data integration, engineering, warehousing, data science, and real-time intelligence into a connected platform, with OneLake as its shared data foundation.
Power BI
Create semantic models, reports, and dashboards that give people consistent measures and controlled access to the information relevant to them.
Power Apps and Power Automate
Build business applications and automate workflows across supported systems. Use Dataverse where structured business data, security, and application processes require it.
Power Pages and Copilot Studio
Create externally facing business websites with Power Pages and design agents with Copilot Studio, connected to the approved data and actions.
Plan the workload and the audience
Fabric capacity and Power BI user access depend on how the data is processed and shared. Power Platform applications, premium connectors, automation, and agent usage have their own licensing and capacity requirements.
Put it to work with Braintree.
Braintree defines the measures with business owners, connects and models the data, and builds the reporting or applications around the decision. We configure access, refresh, and ownership so the result can be maintained.
Microsoft product guidance
A data assessment starts with a decision.
Choose a report, operational question or analytical use case that matters to the business. Work backwards to the definitions, sources and controls required to support it, rather than starting with a dashboard design.
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Priority decisions, measures and accountable business owners.
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Source-system, integration and data-quality findings.
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A semantic model and platform-fit recommendation.
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Governance requirements and a delivery backlog.
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Capacity, licensing and ongoing operating assumptions.
Prepare the data before extending it with AI.
AI assistants and agents need accessible, meaningful data and appropriate permissions. An existing data estate may suit incremental integration; fragmented definitions or unreliable sources may require foundational work first. Fabric, Dynamics 365 and Power BI have different roles, and the architecture should make their boundaries clear.
01
Resolve the disagreement behind the dashboard
If finance and operations report different revenue, margin or stock figures, the first task is to understand definitions, timing and source ownership. A new visual layer can make the disagreement easier to see without correcting it. Choose a decision whose data can be traced back to the operational record.
Microsoft Fabric brings several analytical workloads together with OneLake, while Power BI provides reporting and semantic-model capabilities. These are platform options, not a requirement to move every source system. Braintree’s assessment should identify the data path, transformation logic and governance needed for the chosen question before committing to a broad platform replacement.
02
Build a lineage and reconciliation record
Bring sample reports, source schemas, refresh schedules, transformation rules and the owners of important measures. Include manual spreadsheet adjustments and reconciliation steps; these often contain business rules missing from the formal system documentation. Establish the freshness, completeness and access requirements for each intended audience.
The scoped delivery should identify ingestion, modelling, report creation, access controls and operating handover. Customers provide authoritative definitions and approve reconciled outputs. Record how failed refreshes are detected, who corrects source errors and who can change a shared measure. Microsoft Purview and Fabric governance capabilities can support visibility and control, but the people responsible for classification, access and quality still need to be named.
03
Architecture choices to test against the use case
Decision
Evidence to examine
What to agree
Move, connect or retain data
Existing platforms, source constraints and the required refresh pattern.
The integration route and ownership of each copy or reference.
Shared measures
Conflicting definitions, reconciliation rules and report audiences.
A governed definition and approval process for changes.
Capacity and operation
Data volume, refresh work, concurrency and service requirements.
A workload-based capacity assumption and a way to observe usage.
EVIDENCE & DOCUMENTATION
See the work in context.
BEFORE YOU DECIDE
Practical questions.
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Does Fabric replace every existing data platform?
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Can every workload run in the same region?
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How is success measured?
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Must an operational system be replaced before reporting improves?
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What is a semantic model for?
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Can different users see different data?
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Who owns a failed refresh or an incorrect result?
BUILD YOUR BUSINESS CASE
Make the reporting problem specific enough to solve.
The problem to solve.
When departments debate whose numbers are right, adding another dashboard can preserve the disagreement in a more attractive format.
What success should look like.
Agree the business definitions, data owners and decision that each report must support, then choose the governed data and reporting architecture.
Bring these into the discussion.
A useful starting point for your team and the people approving the investment.
Useful reading for your proposal.
Evidence, examples and questions to take into the decision.
Customer story
18 August 2026
Related customer experience
Eduvos: replacing arguments over the numbers
A connected Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 and Azure example; useful for the data-ownership discussion.
Read the customer story
Insight
13 April 2026
Data readiness
Deal with the data before scaling AI
Identify the quality, ownership and access issues that reporting will expose.
Read the insight
Insight
19 August 2026
Decision design
Choose the exceptions management should see
Connect reporting thresholds to exposure, ownership and timely action.
Read the insight
LET’S GROW.
Work through the next step with Braintree.
Bring the report or decision that causes the most friction. We will work backwards to the data and responsibilities it needs.
