Understanding the Benefits of Telemetry in Business Central
Telemetry in Business Central helps you watch your system live. You can see what users do and find mistakes fast. You also check if things work well. If you link telemetry data to Power BI, your team gets more help and experiences the benefits of telemetry:
You get easy-to-understand facts about user actions and how the system works.
You find problems quickly and keep work going without trouble.
These tools help you choose what to do before problems get big. The benefits of telemetry help your business keep growing.
Key Takeaways
Telemetry gives you live updates about your Business Central system. You can watch what users do and how the system works all the time.
Telemetry alerts help you find and fix problems fast. This stops small issues from turning into big ones.
You can connect telemetry data with Power BI. This lets you see how healthy your system is and what users are doing. You can also spot trends in how the system works. This makes running your business easier.
Telemetry helps admins, developers, and experts work together better. This means they can make smarter choices.
Follow best ways to handle telemetry data. This keeps your system safe, works well, and is easy to watch.
Telemetry Overview
What Is Telemetry
Telemetry in Business Central lets you collect and send data. It shows what happens inside your system. You can see what users do and what changes. This means you do not have to check everything yourself.
Here is what telemetry collects for you:
Events from apps and extensions
User onboarding and permission changes
Database deadlocks and lock time-outs
Sign-in attempts and their results
Query wait times
Configuration changes
Page views and report usage
Email sending failures
Job queue creation and execution
Table indices added or removed
Cloud migration setup and replication runs
Data upgrade events
You get a clear view of your system’s activity. This helps you find problems faster. You also learn how your business works. Telemetry lets you see real-time data. You can make better choices with this information.
How It Works
Telemetry collects data by itself as you use Business Central. When you update, start, stop, or copy an environment, telemetry saves these actions. It also tracks when you move environments, cancel sessions, export databases, or change settings.
You do not need to check things by hand. Telemetry uses Application Insights Logs to watch what happens inside. It checks job queues, page views, and report usage.
Here is a simple look at how telemetry data moves:
Telemetry gives you live updates. You see what is happening right now. This helps you watch your system and act fast.
Benefits of Telemetry
System Monitoring
You want to know what is happening in your Business Central system all the time. Telemetry lets you see your system live. It collects data every few seconds, so you notice changes right away. This is much faster than checking things yourself or waiting for reports.
Here’s a simple table that shows how telemetry and manual monitoring are different:
Telemetry gives you a clear and current view of your system’s health. You can find problems before they get worse. This is a big benefit of telemetry. You also get detailed logs of what happens in your system. This helps you follow rules and keep records for audits.
Tip: Telemetry data helps you follow rules and keeps audit trails. Microsoft Purview can help with IT, legal, and compliance checks.
Error Tracking
Mistakes and errors can slow down your business. Telemetry helps you find these problems quickly. It tracks job queue failures and tells you when something needs your attention.
You can set up alerts for job queue entries that fail.
You see which entries need help after they fail.
You get information about errors that happen again and again.
Telemetry also helps you find strange system behavior early. It uses machine learning to spot odd patterns and shows error trends over time. Here are some things you can catch:
Telemetry helps you catch errors before they hurt your users. You can fix problems fast and keep your system working well.
Performance Insights
You want your system to be fast and reliable. Telemetry gives you the data you need to make this happen. It tracks performance data, usage numbers, error logs, and changes in your environment.
You can see what each user is doing and how much they use the system. You can spot database locks that slow things down. You can look at event logs to find hidden problems.
“Telemetry is not just for fixing problems,” says Ricardo Moinhos, Senior Onboarding Specialist at LS Retail, “it gives you a full view of your SaaS environment.”
“Telemetry is not only for finding problems, but also for stopping them before they get worse,” says Bjarni Asmundsson, Regional Director of Consulting APAC at LS Retail.
Telemetry helps you do more than just fix issues. You can use the data to help your team work better. For example, during user testing, you can watch how users work and see if they need more training. If your system feels slow, telemetry helps you find out why, whether it’s in SQL or AL code. Teams can talk better and make smarter choices using real data.
Power BI Integration
Telemetry Dashboards
You want to know what is happening in Business Central. Power BI dashboards help you see this. They show system health, user actions, and how things work. You can look at both the whole system and single apps. These dashboards help you find patterns and watch important numbers. This makes it easier to manage your system and help users.
To start using BC Telemetry in Power BI, you need some things:
You must have a Business Central account with the right permissions.
You need a Power BI account. The free version has basic tools, but Power BI Pro lets you share and work with others.
You should install Power BI Desktop on your computer.
You need data from Business Central APIs or OData web services.
You must have a Business Central environment. Online works right away, but on-premises needs more steps.
Users must have a paid Business Central license.
Power BI dashboards let you see many things at once. You can check usage, errors, speed, and admin actions together. This helps you act before problems get worse. That is a big reason why telemetry is helpful.
Data Visualization
Power BI uses smart ways to show telemetry data. You can see live updates, heat maps, and color trends. Here is what you get:
You can change dashboards for different jobs. For example:
Share reports in the Business Central workspace.
Turn on the Power BI FactBox in your Role Center.
Admins, experts, and developers get dashboards that match their work. You can set up permission sets for each job, hide private data, and change visuals if needed. Dashboards for each role help leaders focus on what matters most.
Implementation Steps
Getting Started
You want to use telemetry in Business Central. Here is how you start:
You need a Microsoft Azure subscription. Get one if you do not have it.
Sign in to the Azure portal with your account.
Make an Azure Application Insights resource. Follow the steps in the Azure guide.
Go to the Overview page in Azure. Find your Connection String or Instrumentation Key. The Business Central version you use tells you which one you need.
After you have these, connect Business Central to Application Insights. You can pick how much data you want to collect. You can set a daily limit or only collect some of the data. You can also set alerts if your costs get too high. Data Collection Rules (DCRs) help you choose what data to collect, how to change it, and where to send it.
You can use a custom endpoint if you want to send data to another place.
Best Practices
You want your telemetry data to be helpful and safe. Here are some best ways to do this:
Look at the most important data first. This helps you see what matters for your business.
Use tiered storage. This keeps your data neat and easy to find.
Set up dashboards to watch your system live. Power BI dashboards show you speed, errors, and how people use the system.
Use Application Insights to send alerts when something is wrong. This helps you fix problems before they get worse.
Turn on extra logging from the Help page if you need more details to solve problems.
Keep your data safe. Only users with the right permissions can see the data. All data moves over safe, encrypted connections. Business Central does not keep your business data after it is checked.
With these steps and tips, you can set up telemetry in Business Central and keep your system working well.
Telemetry in Business Central helps you see your system clearly. You can find problems early and keep things working well. You can also make smart choices. Power BI dashboards show your data in ways that are easy to understand. Here is what you get when you use them:
You get updates right away so you can act fast
You see pictures and charts that show trends
Dashboards put all your data in one place
AI gives you tips to help you decide better
If you want to know more, look at Azure Application Insights or Business Central guides. Try telemetry now and see how it helps your business do well! 🚀
FAQ
What data does telemetry collect in Business Central?
Telemetry gathers system events, user actions, errors, performance stats, and changes. You see updates, job queue runs, page views, and more. This helps you track what happens inside your system.
What do you need to start using telemetry?
You need a Business Central account, an Azure subscription, and Application Insights set up. You also need Power BI if you want dashboards. Make sure you have the right permissions.
What can you see on a Power BI telemetry dashboard?
You see charts, tables, and maps showing system health, user activity, errors, and trends. Dashboards help you spot patterns and watch important numbers in real time.
What roles benefit most from telemetry data?
Admins, implementation specialists, and developers get the most value. You can monitor system health, track user actions, and find errors quickly. Each role uses dashboards in different ways.
What happens if you find an error with telemetry?
You get alerts or see error logs. You can check details, fix problems fast, and keep your system running smoothly. Telemetry helps you act before issues grow.