For your PowerPivot Best Practices, Lessons Learned, and random thoughts!
June 18, 2010 by dennyglee
Working with my compatriots Ayad Shammout (@aashammout) and Peter Myers, we had found out that PowerPivot at times can be really insensitive…in terms of case that is. That is by default, the collation for PowerPivot is case-insensitive.
For example, if you import the table below:
Continue reading: PowerPivot, you are so insensitive! (case that is)
PowerPivotGeek has been doing a lot of GREAT posts the last week and its getting harder and harder to keep up with greatness! Saying this, here are some great tips, how-to, and A Peek Inside!
Enjoy!
As per many blog postings, press releases, tweets, messages, and streams – PowerPivot went RTM on the 5/12. So what can or should we do now? Here’s some quick great blog postings to get yourself up and running on PowerPivot ASAP:
Enjoy!!
For a listing of PowerPivotGeek’s PowerPivot sessions at TechEd North America 2010 (also known as the BI Conference 2010), check out:
TechEd NorthAmerica 2010 Sessions.
One thing that is missing from this list is also the joint session between Rob Collie (@PowerPivotPro) and Dave Wickert whom will do a PowerPivot power chalk talk. If you’re in New Orleans for the BI Conf / TechEd NA and into PowerPivot – these are your sessions!
Because PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint involve many components from SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services, Office 2010, and SharePoint 2010, this poster contains all of the key components that make up PowerPivot in one view. This view includes nearly all of the logical architecture components and illustrates how these componets work together.
Included in this diagram are the components for:
For more information, please go to the reference sqlcat.com site: PowerPivot Technical Diagram: PowerPivot Client/Server Architecture
By powerpivotgeek (dwickert@microsoft.com), on February 3rd, 2010
In scanning through some recent discussions on the PowerPivot forums, I noticed this very nice posting by Marco Russo (http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2010/01/26/memory-considerations-about-powerpivot-for-excel.aspx) . I strongly recommend it.
The only additional point I would like to make is that the RTM version of PowerPivot has an additional check on the in-memory database when saving to disk.
By powerpivotgeek (dwickert@hotmail.com), on February 2nd, 2010
The Excel 2010 blog just posted an interesting article on the management aspects of PowerPivot – more of a “Why should I care?” kind of article, see (http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2010/02/01/management-features-of-powerpivot-for-sharepoint.aspx). It shows how PowerPivot helps IT answer:
For those of you who want to know the timeline of the commentary by @PowerPivotPro and @dennylee on cube formulas and named sets. Rob started the process with his excellent introductions:
Then @dennylee innocently created a three-part posting on how to create filtered by Top 10 reports:
which was quickly responded to and openly challenged by @PowerPivotPro
Solid punches were given and mayhem ensued, but @dennylee got his footing back and wreaked havoc via pile driver!
Perhaps more mayhem will ensue – perhaps not. And in fact – it did with a great entry from Rob:
So the feud is over…we think! Either way, you have to admit its sort of dorky, eh?! 
Just in case you’re not already aware of this, some of great contributors to the PowerPivot community are now adding and moderating to the Great PowerPivot FAQ. Please check it out and email us your questions as well!
Enjoy!
By powerpivotgeek (dwickert@microsoft.com), on December 2nd, 2009
From time to time I hear questions and comments from folks questioning why they should purchase the server-side component for PowerPivot. After all, the client software is free (with a Office 2010 Professional license). Why spend the money to invest in the server pieces . . . And because it requires a SQL Server Enterprise Edition license, it can get costly.
Having spent 3+ years of my life developing this product, naturally I have a fair amount of passion around this topic. The following is my own personal reasons; my own personal goals for the software and why I believe PowerPivot is such a pivotal (pun intended) component in a company’s BI strategy. This is not marketing and I apologize up front for it. So here goes:
What is the value-add for PowerPivot for SharePoint?
