Create Reports from Epicor Kinetic Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Epicor Kinetic data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for Epicor Kinetic and generating reports from Epicor Kinetic data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect Cloud offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Epicor Kinetic, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live Epicor Kinetic data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to Epicor Kinetic. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested Epicor Kinetic data.

Configure Epicor Kinetic Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to Epicor Kinetic from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Epicor Kinetic data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a Epicor Kinetic connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Epicor Kinetic" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Epicor Kinetic.

   To successfully connect to your ERP instance, you must specify the following connection properties:

   • Url:the URL of the server hosting your ERP instance. For example, https://myserver.EpicorSaaS.com
   • ERPInstance: the name of your ERP instance.
   • User: the username of your account.
   • Password: the password of your account.
   • Service: the service you want to retrieve data from. For example, BaqSvc.

   In addition, you may also set the optional connection properties:

   • ApiKey: An optional key that may be required for connection to some services depending on your account configuration.
   • ApiVersion: Defaults to v1. May be set to v2 to use the newer Epicor API.
   • Company: Required if you set the ApiVersion to v2.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Epicor Kinetic Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Epicor Kinetic data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live Epicor Kinetic Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Looker Studio to create a new Epicor Kinetic data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect Cloud Connector.
2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
4. In the CData Connect Cloud Connector in Looker Studio select a Connection (e.g. epicorKinetic1) and click Next
5. Select a Table (e.g. Customers) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
6. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
7. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
8. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to Epicor Kinetic Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Epicor Kinetic data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Epicor Kinetic data.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.