Just in time for Christmas the Microsoft product teams responsible for Power BI have a slew of amazing updates.  The list of updates can be found here but for my notes specifically on Power Query updates continue reading!

Power Query

Power Query now has 3 new data sources that you… Read more

A little gem was included with the latest Office 365 update.  After downloading and installing this update you will now find that a feature called Synonyms is available inside Power Pivot. 

Synonyms are a piece of the puzzle that make the Power BI feature Q&A work.  If you haven’t seen Q&A… Read more

I’m very excited to announce that you can now purchase my latest book: Building Performance Dashboards and Balanced Scorecards with SQL Server Reporting Services . This booked, offered by Wiley, takes you through designing effective balanced scorecards using Reporting Services. You can get your copy of my new book here Read more

Upgrading from Power Pivot workbooks to SSAS Tabular models is usually a pretty seamless process.  This is part of the beauty of the relationship between Tabular and Power Pivot.  This allows an Analyst to get started on a project using Power Pivot and when new requirements like row level security… Read more

I love reading the many blogs posts that pour in following a PASS Summit.  I think it is fun to read everyone’s experience.  There’s not really a wrong way to attend the conference unless you just hide our in your hotel the whole week.  Here’s how my week went.

Sunday Read more

Today I’m extremely excited, honored and humbled to announce that I have been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for first time.  Becoming an MVP has been an informal goal for me for quite sometime now.  I’ve always kept this as more of an informal goal because I’ve always thought of… Read more

I hope you were able to attend my free webinar on Understanding Microsoft Self-Service BI on September 26, 2013.  If you weren’t you can now download the recording here.

Because I covered new material all the way to the end of the webinar i thought I’d also answer some… Read more

Power Map for Excel 2013 has had some recent enhancements that are worth noting.  You can download the latest Power Map install file here.  This update includes some really nice features that are helping make Power Map consumable to a larger audience.  Here’s a quick list of some of… Read more

Thanks everyone for attending my free webinar on Introduction to Power Query on August, 27, 2013.  If you were not able join for the live event you can now watch the recording here. This was part of an ongoing webinar series by Pragmatic Works offers every Tuesday and Thursday… Read more

Through Self-Service BI, business units can personalize Business Intelligence to their needs and solve problems at a much faster rate than any traditional BI solution. This is why businesses are looking to Self-Service BI to solve the smaller, but no less significant, problems that individual departments need addressed. The goal… Read more

In this post I’d like to demonstrate another way Power Query can solve simple data extraction problems without much time or effort.  If you’re still learning the basics of Power Query please refer back to an earlier post here.

This demonstration will show you how to use Power Query… Read more

Introduction

By now you have likely heard a little about Power Query (formally known as Data Explorer). While you may have heard of the tool many still have not gotten their hands on it and started experiencing the potential it has. In case you’re new to Power Query here’s a… Read more

Next month Mike Davis and myself will be making a epic road trip.  We will be flying into Columbus, OH to deliver a two day (7/16 – 7/17) workshop on advanced Reporting Services techniques.  We will then pack up and drive to Cleveland, OH for another two day (7/18-7/19) workshop… Read more

Thanks everyone for attending my free webinar on Creating Real World PowerPivot Models on June, 18, 2013.  If you were not able join for the live event you can now watch the recording here.

In this webinar we built out a live solution with the Pragmatic Works Marketing Director,… Read more

I’m a little late to the celebration but on Friday some there was some exciting news regarding Power View was announced. You can read about the details of it at the Analysis Services and PowerPivot team blog for Microsoft here. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/analysisservices/archive/2013/05/31/power-view-connectivity-for-multidimensional-models-released.aspx

This is part of a SQL Server Cumulative update… Read more

I hope you were able to attend my free webinar on Ad-hoc Reporting with SharePoint on May 21, 2013.  If you weren’t you can now watch the recording here.

As usual there were many great questions that I wasn’t able to answer and I thought I’d follow up on… Read more

I hope you were able to attend my free webinar on Introduction to Analysis Services on April 2, 2013.  If you weren’t you can now download the recording here. 

Because I covered new material all the way to the end of the webinar i thought I'd also answer some… Read more

Join me tomorrow, April 2. 2013, at 11:00 PM EST for a free webinar which is part of an entire month of Back to Basics themed free training.  This webinar is for anyone trying to understand the basics behind Analysis Services and how to get started design a cube.  With… Read more

These days the fastest way, not always the most accurate, to get news is through social media.  Technology, sports, politics, and breaking news will always be found first on social media outlets like Twitter. 

For example, I’m a huge fan of American Football or most known as the NFL.  Every… Read more

What is Data Explorer

Data Explorer simplifies the data discovery phase for Excel users that are creating self-service Business Intelligence solutions.  It does this by provided straightforward methods for connecting to data previously unheard of, without a developer, in Excel.  It also provides a basic ETL tool for those involved… Read more