Self-Service BI with PowerPivot for Excel 2010

Question

Self-Service BI with PowerPivot for Excel 2010

Thiago Zavaschi

SSC Veteran

Points: 200
More actions
January 21, 2010 at 11:47 pm

#218410

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Self-Service BI with PowerPivot for Excel 2010

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

George W (no relation) Ten Centuries Points: 1339 More actions · Answer 1

Thanks for the informative intro. It couldn't have come at a better time for me, as I'm evaluating BI analysis and reporting tools. I've looked at QlikView, Tableau, Tibco Spotfire, and MicroStrategy ReportingSuite, along with PowerPivot. I want to get a working demo environment for PowerPivot set up, and I'm wondering if you can tell me a bit more about the SQL Server 2008 R2 November Community Technical Preview (CTP) requirment, specifically, is it really necessary? If the client is in Excel, and it has the capability to connect to multiple data sources, what capability does R2 deliver/add to the app?

Thanks!

Rick Todd Hall of Fame Points: 3302 More actions · Answer 2

georgew-918505 (1/22/2010)
Thanks for the informative intro. It couldn't have come at a better time for me, as I'm evaluating BI analysis and reporting tools. I've looked at QlikView, Tableau, Tibco Spotfire, and MicroStrategy ReportingSuite, along with PowerPivot. I want to get a working demo environment for PowerPivot set up, and I'm wondering if you can tell me a bit more about the SQL Server 2008 R2 November Community Technical Preview (CTP) requirment, specifically, is it really necessary? If the client is in Excel, and it has the capability to connect to multiple data sources, what capability does R2 deliver/add to the app?
Thanks!

It's funny that the only comment (so far) is about this, as I was just coming to say "hey, I didn't have to tell it where my R2 server was anywhere". So hopefully that answers your question. I installed Office 2010 Beta, the PowerPivot add-in, and pointed it at a couple of my existing SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services cubes, and was off and running. I did get an error about one of the cubes saying that there weren't any cubes in it, in spite of the fact that I could connect to it via the normal Pivot Table interface.

I don't think anything I did was actually PowerPivot based (as in requiring the extra layer of the query results pulled from SSAS), but I'll tinker more and find out.

One thing to keep in mind: we are still in Beta, so as much as you might want to show this to your users (I know I do!), consider who might lose their enthusiasm if your workbook crashes.

George-W feel free to contact me since we're in about the same boat. Use the personal message feature or whatever.

Cheers,

Rick Todd

Thiago Zavaschi SSC Veteran Points: 200 More actions · Answer 3

George,

I think I should have better explained this point, sorry.

The prerequisites to use only the PowerPivot for Excel are:

* Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta

* PowerPivot for Excel (32-bit or 64-bit)

* Windows XP with SP3, Windows Vista with SP1 or Windows 7

* .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (Windows 7 already have this one).

But if you want to use PowerPivot for SharePoint then you'll need the SQL Server 2008 R2. I'm not a SharePoint especialist but in the oficial website we wave this as prerequisite (http://www.powerpivot.com/download.aspx), I installed SharePoint 2010 beta in a SQL Server 2008 R2 instance and went fine.

I will ask to some friends of mine that are SharePoint especialist and bring you an confirmation, ok?

Let me know if you have more questions!

You can also take a look at the http://www.powerpivotfaq.com 🙂

Thiago Zavaschi SSC Veteran Points: 200 More actions · Answer 4

Thiago Zavaschi (1/22/2010)
George,
I think I should have better explained this point, sorry.
The prerequisites to use only the PowerPivot for Excel are:
* Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta
* PowerPivot for Excel (32-bit or 64-bit)
* Windows XP with SP3, Windows Vista with SP1 or Windows 7
* .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (Windows 7 already have this one).
But if you want to use PowerPivot for SharePoint then you'll need the SQL Server 2008 R2. I'm not a SharePoint especialist but in the oficial website we wave this as prerequisite (http://www.powerpivot.com/download.aspx), I installed SharePoint 2010 beta in a SQL Server 2008 R2 instance and went fine.
I will ask to some friends of mine that are SharePoint especialist and bring you an confirmation, ok?
Let me know if you have more questions!
You can also take a look at the http://www.powerpivotfaq.com 🙂

I forgot to say that even the PowerPivot for Excel (client) has R2 components on it.

Look at this FAQ item, it's about how powerpivot stores data, it will help to show this!

http://powerpivotfaq.com/Lists/TGPPF/DispForm.aspx?ID=56

Thanks for your comment 🙂

George W (no relation) Ten Centuries Points: 1339 More actions · Answer 5

Thanks. That really clears things up. I received similar information from Donald Farmer on Friday during his Power Pivot overview webinar for SSWUG, though I didn't have the cool factoid about Power Pivot creating a local SSAS db. That makes sense, and it means that I don't need to get my IT team to set up an R2 server environment just to get a first look at Power Pivot.

George W (no relation) Ten Centuries Points: 1339 More actions · Answer 6

Thanks for the reply, Rick. Glad to know that it's that easy to get started. Point taken on the Beta warning.