We've all heard the promises... "BI for the Masses!" Has Microsoft truly finally delivered on its promise?
We will begin by looking at PowerPivot for Excel, a free Add in which Microsoft attempts to deliver on the Self-Serve BI promise. Perhaps, Microsoft has; it was "Voted one of the Top 10 Technologies of 2010 by eWeek" - but have you used it?
Next we will look at Team BI - bringing PowerPivot to SharePoint. Housing our PowerPivot Workbook in SharePoint allows information workers to explore the solution with Excel, Excel Services, or Power View (formerly known as Project Crescent).
Enterprise BI can either be thought of as our traditional Multi-Dimensional OLAP structures or the new Tabular Models offered in Analysis Services. This new SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Tabular Model leverages xVelocity, the rebranded Vertipaq technology, that fires up PowerPivot and the new column store indexes featured in the SQL Server 2012 relational engine.
Any way you slice it, Microsoft putting a lot of energy in PowerPivot & Tabular's xVelocity and Power View to deliver Business Insight.
So... Has Microsoft truly finally delivered on its promise?
Come see and decide for yourself!