Excel 2013 BI versus SSRS 2012

1) Excel 2013 has PowerPivot 2012 integrated / inbuilt into it. This means access to vertipaq engine, data processing, and dashboard related benefits. Powerpivot 2012 is able to harness the power of Windows Azure Data Market too. More on the same can be read from here.

2) Excel 2013 had PowerView integrated / inbuilt into it. This means all the reporting related benefits, visualizations like charts - graphs - bing maps, KPIs and dashboarding and other dashboard related components like hierarchies etc. PowerView is designed to interpret DAX queries on BISM model, and integration with Excel means that now Excel is even more capable of reporting BISM data models than PowerView itself. More on the same can be read from here.

3) Excel 2013 can connect to Hadoop on Azure using Hive ODBC Driver. This means excel can exploit data from cloud from related data stored in Azure databases as well as big data stores like Hadoop. More on the same can be read from here.

4) Excel 2013 facilitates sourcing media and other rich content from the web using it's newly introduced Content app and Task pane app. This means very rich integration using a relatively least complex tool compared to other self service tools available in the industry. More on this can be read from here.

5) Excel 2013 ships with some great advancements in visualizations. Users are not expected to be very deeply insighted into reports development, and components that can even make suggestions on the kind of reports suited for the kind of data they are available. More on this can be read from here.

6) Most of the applications provide features to export data into excel, which means any kind of data can be easily imported into excel. Also most of the applications provide plug-in for Excel to provide deeper integration with excel to make the data exchange process easier.

7) Excel 2013 now supports decoupled PivotTable and PivotCharts, that means better representation of trend analysis. And even Excel Services supports this feature. More on this can be read from here.

This list is not an exhaustive list of features, and I am sure there are many more features worth listing. Above listed are just those that I could remember quickly. I am not saying SSRS is a weak tool by any means and on top of that its a server line of technology and integrated with SQL Server. It has great visualizations and available in the form of service which is suitable from a scalability and architecture standpoint.

But clients with

• lots of data stored in variety of data stores
• limited funds and even limited time and patience to wait for IT to facilitate their analytical needs
• totally resistant to learn another tool claiming to be their analytics angel
• and seeking to retain the power of determining the landscape of analytics in their own hands

would definitely find Excel 2013 as their BI magnet.

If you have more Excel 2013 BI features worth listing, feel free to comment the same on this post.

How to install PowerView ? Why Data Alerts and Powerview are not available in native mode SSRS ?

This blog has been silent for quite some time. I am recovering from an accident, a few turbulence in personal life including laptop crash. I am also busy these days in my new book authoring assignment. I would like to keep the details of the book under the covers, till the time gets mature to announce it. SQL Server MVP Deep Dives Volume 2 got released last month, and I have authored a chapter on this book titled "BI solution development - Design considerations". Coming back to business, this is my blog post after a long break from blogging.

SQL Server 2012 RC 0 got released by Microsoft 2 weeks back, with a deadly bug on Distributed Replay Controller in the setup. Due to this bug I had to skip installation of the component itself. SSRS enhancements is sharepoint integrated mode are shipping two new kids - Data Alerts and PowerView which was formerly known as Project Crescent.

1) I have been receiving queries from many developers on how to install PowerView and how to verify whether PowerView is installed. The answer to this question is, if you have installed SSRS Add-in for Sharepoint products on your Sharepoint farm, consider it granted that PowerView has been installed. This component is the one responsible for installing Data Alerts, PowerView as well as the entire user interface related to SSRS in sharepoint. Keep in view, PowerView and DataAlerts are silverlight based applications and can be operated only in a browser. Simplest way to verify whether powerview is installed, is by deploying a shared dataset on a sharepoint document / reports library. Select the drop-down options for this shared dataset, and you should find an option named "Create PowerView report".

2) Why PowerView and SSRS are not available in native mode SSRS ? Question is very valid, as Reports manager is also a web based application that queries SSRS web service. If these silverlight based enhancements are intended to be made available in native mode, I don't see a technical challenge to it. But these enhancements are packed only with the add-in, which means they are strategically intended to be made available only in sharepoint. So to me it seems more of a business decision than a technical decision. Affording Sharepoint just for a client tool is too heavy, is the reaction that I have been observing from the community. Let's see how community reacts to it in the long term.

I promise my blog readers that I would try to come up to speed on blogging as soon as possible. Keep writing to me.