Self-Service BI: BI to Excel or Excel to BI?

re: Self-Service BI: BI to Excel or Excel to BI?

Bob Phillips — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:15:07 GMT

Hi Alberto,

As one who commented on both of those posts, it seems appropriate to comment on this one as well.

I think you are right, as I said in that last post, people moveing to PowerPivot from 'traditional' BI will need to sharpen up their Excel skills. But to put it bluntly, I think you should have done it before PowerPivot. In reality, Excel is not 'simply a BI client' for many users, Excel is their BI. Even pulling data from SQL Server tables, I know far more companies that will create pivots, tables, dashboards in Excel than I do that use SSAS and SSRS or SharePoint (indeed, many will not have licenses for SSAS or SharePoint).

But PowerPivot does give those Excel users an exciting new opportunity. Unortunately,it is not as easy as MS like to make out (it neveer is). These Excel power users will need to learn some of the fundamentals (I was very pleased to see Marco and yourself giving data modelling a big push in your book, this is a key concept IMO), and move towards the BI development paradigm.

The one thing that we do need, and need desperately, is VBA access to the PP OM. We need to be able to refresh it from the workbook, we need to be able to build PP models, and so on.

re: Self-Service BI: BI to Excel or Excel to BI?

AlbertoFerrari — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:32:57 GMT

@Bob,

I got used to think at Excel as the "final stage" of a BI solution. In that sense, I never had the real need to create a very complex Excel workbook, since my task is that of providing data to Excel users, who then report on it with the PivotTable or any other means.

The users you speak about, who leverage Excel to solve all of their problems, are the ones I don't know (if they don't have an SSAS license, why should they know about my very existence?).

Now, in the Self Service world, Excel has become one of the building blocks of the BI solution. It is not only at the end, it can be the first step, in the middle or just at the end, probably being everywhere at the same time :).

PowerPivot seems to be the first place where Excel and the BI really marry and I am eager to see how Excel users will leverage PowerPivot. That said... I promise I'll refresh my Excel skills; since then... I trust careful readers like you to correct my mistakes. :)

re: Self-Service BI: BI to Excel or Excel to BI?

Bob Phillips — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:02:47 GMT

Hi Alberto,

I can assure that Excel and BI married long, long before PowerPivot. I heard a quote recently, where someone said something along the lines of, '... I have had self-service BI for years, grab the data, put it into Excel ...'

I have been delivering BI via Excel for 15 years now. Indeed, it is only in the past 3 years or so where I thought SQL was really good enough to think of something other than Excel for BI.

Anyway, I will do my best to help you develop your Excel skills. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I am enjoying learning the SQL products :-).

re: Self-Service BI: BI to Excel or Excel to BI?

greg kramer — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:36:38 GMT

In the 1970s and 1980s, a series of commercials was run for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups featuring situations in which two people, one eating peanut butter and one eating chocolate, collided. One person would exclaim, "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!" and the other would exclaim, "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!".[6] They would then sample the mixture and remark on the great taste, tying in with the slogan "Two great tastes that taste great together."

re: Self-Service BI: BI to Excel or Excel to BI?

Wojciech G. — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:02:06 GMT

Why "BI to Excel or Excel to BI"?

Excel is the only BI