PowerPivot for Business Intelligence Using Excel and SharePoint

PowerPivot comprises a set of technologies for easy access to data mining and business intelligence analysis from Microsoft Excel and SharePoint. Power users and developers alike can create sophisticated, online analytic processing (OLAP) solutions using PowerPivot for Excel, and then share those solutions with other users via PowerPivot for SharePoint. Data can be pulled in from any of the leading database platforms, as well as from spreadsheets and flat files.

PowerPivot for Business Intelligence Using Excel and SharePoint is your key to mastering PowerPivot. The book takes a scenario-based approach to showing you how to collect data, to mine that data through insightful analysis, and to draw conclusions that drive business performance. Each chapter in the book is focused on a specific challenge that you’ll encounter when using PowerPivot. Each chapter takes you through a solution technique that’s been proven in the real world.

• Covers the leading technology for bringing data analytics to the desktop
• Presents real-world solutions to real-world scenarios
• Written by a Microsoft Virtual Technical Specialist (VTS) for business intelligence

What you’ll learn

• Install and verify the PowerPivot software
• Integrated existing, available data to deliver business intelligence
• Leverage Time Intelligence to report change over time
• Write Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) to create custom measures
• Identify and implement solutions for role-playing dimensions
• Recognize and work-around PowerPivot’s missing features

Who this book is for

PowerPivot Solutions for Excel and SharePoint is aimed at information workers and data analysts who typically use Excel to drive business decisions. The book shows how you can apply PowerPivot to problems typically addressed through complicated and arcane spreadsheet techniques. Business people without the time and interest in learning Excel arcane will especially appreciate how PowerPivot enables them to easily create models and perform analysis far in advance of anything they could do using Excel alone.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with PowerPivot for Excel
2. Hello World, PowerPivot Style
3. Combining Data Sources
4. Data Analysis Expressions
5. A Method to the Madness
6. Installing PowerPivot for SharePoint
7. Collaboration, Version Control, and Management
8. PowerPivot As a Data Source
9. PowerPivot and SQL Server Reporting Services
10. PowerPivot and Predictive Analytics
11. Tips, Tricks, and Traps