See and understand your data in a new way! Scout's Custom Data Connector allows you to pull your Scout data directly into Power BI. Scout returns all of your data, and lets you choose what you want to load into Power BI.

 Step 1: Download the Custom Connector File

Download Workday Strategic Sourcing Custom Connector (.mez) file to your desktop. You can download this file at the bottom of this page. (file last updated on 7/08/2021)

• What is a .mez File? This file allows Scout users to create and share queries, data models, and visualization settings to allow for external data to be added to a Power BI Report.

Step 2: Move Connector File to Specified Folder

After downloading the file onto your computer, create a folder following the exact organization flow shown below. Don't forget to ensure spelling and punctuation is accurate!

Documents/Power BI Desktop/Custom Connectors

Note: Our Power BI integration is not accessible through a virtual desktop application, since the process requires file storage on a local drive.

Step 3: Manage your Security Settings in Power BI

Before setting up the Custom Connector, we'll need to change the default data extension security settings in Power BI. To change your data extension security settings, open Power BI and select File -> Options and Settings -> Options -> Security:

Under Data Extensions you can select from two levels of security:

• (Recommended) which only allows certified extensions to load.
• (Not Recommended) which allows any extension to load without warning.

In order to open access to Scout's Custom Connector, you must change the security setting to (Not Recommended). Click on OK to save your change.

Step 4: Generate your API Token in your User Profile.

This allows Scout to verify the Power BI connection linked with your Company. The Power BI/Tableau Token can be generated in your User Profile in the Personal API Token section. Make sure to record this Token in a safe place:

If you need additional assistance on how to generate your Personal API Token, click here.

Step 5: Launch the Custom Connector in Power BI

Open Power BI, then click on Get Data -> More from the toolbar above:

Search through the list of available Custom Connectors and locate Scout (Beta):

Step 6: Enter Token

Enter the Token you generated and saved in Step 4 of this guide. This action will authenticate Scout and Power BI to interact and share data within systems:

Step 7: Select Your Data to Report

Entering your Token will bring in all of the data you have available to you in your Company in Scout. However, you can choose which datasets you would like to import into Power BI. Select from our available datasets such as Contracts, Events, Projects, Savings, Suppliers, and Action Items:

Selecting a dataset in this window will generate a small preview of the data within it. You may choose one or multiple datasets at a time. When you are ready, click on the yellow Load button and watch the magic happen!

Step 9: Your Data is now loaded in Power BI!

Now that we've successfully loaded up your data in Power BI, we can choose how we want to manipulate and view our data to create some exciting visuals and data tables.

Once your data loads, you will be brought to your Reports view, which will appear as a white canvas since we don't have any data fields selected. This view will allow you to choose your Filters and Data Fields to create your visualizations:

As an example, here are four Visualizations that have been created using Scout data:

If you would like to see a Table View of your data (similar to Excel), click on the Data View button:

Step 10: Updating Your Token in Power BI

If you need to enter or change your Token, you may do so by clicking on Edit Queries -> Data Source Settings:

In the next window, ensure Scout is selected, and then click on Edit Permissions -> Edit (Feed Key):

Enter your new Token, then click Save:

Your work is done! You can start digging deep into your Scout data in Power BI. Since your Custom Connector is now set up, you can automatically refresh your data in Power BI.

Important note:

We currently only support Desktop PowerBI and we do not support Power BI Gateway scheduled refresh. Our connectors are not designed or tested to work with PowerBI Gateway. Some functionality may work with PowerBI Gateway, but it is not generally supported.

Click here to learn more about Reporting