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

About the Author

Barry Ralston is the chief architect for business intelligence with Birmingham-based ComFrame Software. Barry is also Microsoft’s Virtual Technical Specialist (VTS) for business intelligence, responsible for assisting in Alabama, Mississippi, and northwest Florida in sales efforts including customer meetings, software demonstrations and proof-of-concept efforts. Barry’s client successes include: American Cast Iron Pipe Company, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Bank of Hawaii, Honda Manufacturing of Alabama and Aflac.