I received this request in many courses, messages and also forum discussions: having an Analysis Services Tabular model, it would be nice being able to extract a correspondent PowerPivot data model. In order of priority, here are the specific feature people (including me) would like to see: Create an empty PowerPivot workbook with the same ...

If you think PowerPivot and Tabular are good tools but sometime the design tools are not fast/complete/flexible enough, please consider voting this suggestion on Connect to request a textual representation Tabular or PowerPivot Data Models. This is the simplest way to improve the Productivity of PowerPivot and Tabular ...

One month ago I wrote about my sessions at PASS Business Analytics Conference 2013, in Chicago, IL on April 10-12, 2013. If you still have not registered, you can save $200 by using the code BAC228BL and you should hurry up, because there is another discount if you register within March 15, 2013. If you are too lazy to click on the previous post, ...

There is a new whitepaper from Microsoft, Microsoft BI Authentication and Identity Delegation, which describes all the authentication and delegation scenarios with Microsoft BI technologies: Personal BI Scenarios (Excel) Team BI Scenarios (SharePoint) Corporate BI Scenarios (Reporting Services, Analysis Services) Federated BI ...

DAX offers a set of Time Intelligence functions that simplify writing DAX expressions such as YTD, YOY and other time-related calculations. However, these functions only works when some assumptions are valid: your periods should be “natural” months and quarter. Some industries, such as retail and manufacturing, are used to accounting periods that ...

Spring is coming and we published many dates of SSAS Tabular Workshops around Europe and online. Alberto Ferrari is coming to Aarhus, Denmark, for a 2-day SSAS Tabular Workshop on March 12-13, 2013 (you can see more info and register here). And Alberto will also deliver a free session in a community event on March 12 evening: the session is ...

Short update about community events in Europe where I will speak. On October 11 I will present DAX in Action in Köln - all details in the PASS local chapter here: http://www.sqlpass.de/Regionen/Deutschland/K%C3%B6lnBonnD%C3%BCsseldorf.aspx I will be speaking at a community event in Copenhagen on November 21, 2012. The session will be Excel 2013 ...

Boyan Penev announced the availability of DateStream project on CodePlex: it is a data feed that can be consumed by PowerPivot but also to generate a calendar table for any type of usage. Yes, Analysis Services has a wizard, but when you are in a hurry why not simply consume a ready to go data source? In fact, this data feed is published for free ...

I've written here before about Data Education, the training company I recently launched, building off my previous company Boston SQL Training. Things have moved along quickly, and I and the rest of the Data Education staff are very happy to announce a jam-packed fall and winter course roster. We'll be announcing even more classes later in the ...

Microsoft released the CTP3 of Microsoft SQL Server Code Name “Denali”, as you can see in the SSAS product group blog post. This is the first public release of Denali and after many months of forced silence (I was under NDA) I can finally write my first hand experience with this new version! In the next months I will write on the blog more ...