Case study · SaaS

Analytics your customers see inside your product

SaaS customers increasingly expect reporting inside the product, not exports to Excel. This is how we embedded Power BI in a SaaS application with strict tenant isolation, a design that matches the product and capacity sized to real usage.

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Project overview

Customer-facing analytics with Power BI Embedded.

Industry: SaaS
Client: Confidential
Solution: Embedded analytics
Platform: Power BI Embedded
Timeline: 8–14 weeks
Team: 4 people
Isolation: Row-level security per tenant
Auth: App-owns-data tokens
Capacity: Sized to concurrency

Expected business outcomes

What the client set out to gain

Fewer custom report requests and a stronger product are the benefits.

30–60% Fewer custom report requests
Customers answer their own questions inside the product.

Target range; depends on report coverage
Isolated Tenant data
Every embed token carries the tenant's identity; security is tested for leaks.

Verified with automated isolation tests
Sized Capacity cost
Capacity chosen from measured concurrency, not guesses.

Reviewed after launch

Business challenges

How SaaS reporting worked before

Customers export data and build their own reports, or ask support.

Exports

CSV exports are the only reporting option.

Requests

Support handles a steady stream of custom report requests.

Engineering

Developers build one-off charts that are hard to maintain.

Competition

Competitors advertise built-in analytics.

Risk

Ad hoc reporting queries slow the production database.

Proposed solution

What the embedded build covers

Power BI embedded in the product with security and cost designed in.

Analytics data model

A reporting store separate from production, refreshed on a schedule.
Tenant isolation

Row-level security applied through embed tokens for every tenant.
Embedded experience

Reports embedded in the app, themed to match the product.
Standard reports

The reports most customers need, designed with product and support.
Capacity planning

Capacity sized and autoscaled from measured usage.
Isolation testing

Automated tests that no tenant can see another's data.

Project requirements

What the client asked us for

The request was 'dashboards in the app'. The priority is tenant isolation: a data leak between customers is the worst outcome, so it is designed and tested first.

A separate analytics store protects production performance.

What the project had to deliver

01Analytics inside the product
02Guaranteed tenant isolation
03A look that matches the app
04Predictable capacity costs

Key challenges & considerations

What made it harder, and what we did

Multi-tenant database designs

What we did

Tenant isolation was designed and tested before any report was built.
Peak usage at month-end

What we did

Analytics ran on a separate store, and capacity was sized from measured concurrency.
Customers wanting custom reports

What we did

Customers could filter and personalise the standard reports, without one-off builds.
Performance of large tenants

What we did

Performance was tested against the largest tenants' data.

What we watched for

Design isolation before reports
Keep analytics off production
Test with the largest tenants
Measure concurrency before sizing capacity

Development process

Isolation first, then experience

Security design is complete before any report is built.

Stage 1
Architecture

Reporting store, isolation model and token flow designed.
Stage 2
Data model

Analytics model and refresh built.
Stage 3
Embedding

Reports embedded and themed in the product.
Stage 4
Testing

Isolation, performance and capacity tests.
Stage 5
Launch

Release to a customer group, then all tenants.

Technology stack

Power BI Embedded on Azure

Microsoft's embedded analytics with the product's own auth.

Analytics

Power BI Embedded
Row-level security

Data

Azure SQL or Fabric
Scheduled refresh

App

JavaScript embedding SDK
Embed token service

Quality

Isolation tests
Load tests

Quality assurance & deployment

Every figure reconciled before anyone relied on it

A dashboard is only useful if its numbers are believed. Each measure was reconciled to its source, and to finance where money was involved, before the report was released.

Each measure reconciled to its source system
Financial figures signed off by finance
Data quality checks on every refresh: completeness and freshness
Row-level security tested with real user accounts
Report performance tested at full data volume

Deployment

01TestingIsolation, performance and capacity tests.
02LaunchRelease to a customer group, then all tenants.
03Deployment pipelinesReports moved from development to test to production through controlled pipelines.
04Adoption and warrantyTraining for report users and builders, usage reviewed, and six months of free bug fixing.

Final deliverables

Reporting as a product feature

Customers explore their own data inside the product, support receives fewer report requests and engineering stops building one-off charts.

Tenant isolation is enforced and tested automatically on every release.

Embedded dashboards
Tested tenant isolation
Product-matched design
Right-sized capacity

Talk about a project like this

Handed over to the client

01Data model and pipelinesDocumented and scheduled
02Reports and dashboardsPublished with security roles
03Measure definitionsEvery figure documented
04TrainingFor report users and report builders
05Six-month warrantyFree bug fixing after delivery

Success metrics

How success is measured

Measure	Outcome	How it is measured
Fewer custom report requests	30–60%	Target range; depends on report coverage
Tenant data	Isolated	Verified with automated isolation tests
Capacity cost	Sized	Reviewed after launch

Verified reviews

What clients say about our custom software work

Verified reviews from our clients on the same kind of work, published on Clutch.

5.0 27 verified reviews

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The work produced by the team was of exceptional quality.

Jon Thies CTO, Model Rocket Feb 2022 – Mar 2023
Verified review on Clutch (Jon Thies, opens in a new tab)
5.0 Custom Software Development

Mobile & Web Platform Development & Design

Silver Scintilla was responsive, respectful, and enjoyable to work with, quickly addressing any questions or requests.

DeShawn Brown CEO & Founder, Lithios Jun 2021 – Nov 2022
Verified review on Clutch (DeShawn Brown, opens in a new tab)
5.0 Custom Software Development

Web-Based HRM System Development

Silver Scintilla provided the best solution with scalable functionality, personalized features, and robust security.

Suheb Khan Director, Collaborative Insight Technologies Jul 2020 – Jun 2022
Verified review on Clutch (Suheb Khan, opens in a new tab)

See All Testimonials Read All Reviews on Clutch

Analytics your customers see inside your product

What the client set out to gain

How SaaS reporting worked before

What the embedded build covers

Analytics data model

Tenant isolation

Embedded experience

Standard reports

Capacity planning

Isolation testing

What the client asked us for

What made it harder, and what we did

Multi-tenant database designs

Peak usage at month-end

Customers wanting custom reports

Performance of large tenants

Isolation first, then experience

Architecture

Data model

Embedding

Testing

Launch

Power BI Embedded on Azure

Analytics

Data

App

Quality

Every figure reconciled before anyone relied on it

Reporting as a product feature

How success is measured

What clients say about our custom software work

Services we used on this project

Power Platform & Power BI

Data engineering

SaaS development

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