Please allow me to see if I'm able to encounter the Delay/Duplicate posting with quotation from SQL Server 2012 White Pages:
With SQL server 2012, Microsoft has enhanced the data analysis capabilities of PowerPivot for both the client-side component (PowerPivot for Excel) and the server-side component (PowerPivot for SharePoint) to provide enhanced self-service BI functionality
to all Microsoft Office users. The new enhancements in PowerPivot help users integrate data from multiple sources more easily, create reports and analytical applications faster, and share and collaborate on insights more easily using the familiar environment
of Excel<sup> </sup>and SharePoint.
PowerPivot for Excel: PowerPivot for Excel is an add-in to Excel 2010 that allows business users to work with data from any source and syndication, including Open Data Protocol (ODATA) feeds, to create business models and integrate large
amounts of data directly into Excel workbooks. Sophisticated workbooks can be built using Excel only, or using the PowerPivot model as the source of data by other BI tools, including third-party tools as well as the new Power View capability discussed earlier,
to generate meaningful reports. These reports can be published to SharePoint Server and then shared across the organization easily.
With PowerPivot for Excel, users have tools to analyze their data that are easier to use and more powerful. New features include:
- Diagram View: Enables tables to be viewed in a visually organized way (as shown in Figure 4), and allows users to easily change relationships and hierarchies with the Diagram View of all the involved tables.
- Hierarchies: Simplifies the selection and navigation of common data paths by allowing users to define a collection of columns as child levels, which appear separate from other columns in a reporting client tool.
- Relationships in a Diagram View: Allows users to easily create and view relationships between columns from different tables
with a simplified way of visualizing how different tables are related to each other.
- Multiple Relationships:
Defines multiple relationships for a single set of tables. The first relationship is displayed as active, and all other relationships are considered inactive (appearing as dotted lines
in Diagram View).
- Measure Grid: All the measures can be viewed in a grid pattern, which simplifies the creation, update, and management
of measures and key performance indicators (KPIs) involved in the model.
- Advanced Tab: All the advanced features—such
as creating and editing perspectives, summarizing numeric values using aggregation functions, and setting the reporting tool properties (like Power View)—are
available in a separate tab.
- Reporting Properties: All the properties of the reporting tool (such as Power View)
—including table identifiers, group values, table details, representation columns, image
URLs, and representative images—can be managed from within PowerPivot.
- New Functions for Data Analysis Expressions (DAX): More than 30 new functions, including statistical functions (such as DISTINCT COUNT and RANK), table functions (such as SUMMARIZE), search functions (such as LOOKUPVALUE), row-level security
functions, filter functions (such as ALLSELECTED), and information functions (such as parent-child relationships) have been added to the new release of PowerPivot for Excel.
- Support for Binary Large Object (BLOB) Data Types: Users can now import images and blob data types, which are automatically detected and accepted as binary data types.
- Perspectives:
Perspective, a metadata layer that tracks different sets of data or slices, can be defined for any specific user group or business scenario, which makes it easier to navigate large data sets.
- Key Performance Indicators: KPIs help organizations evaluate the current value and state of metrics against any defined
target, and thus gauge performance against base values or an absolute value.
- Date Table Settings: Users can now apply date filtering functionality to any table by marking it as a date table.
- Advanced Sorting: Users can now sort columns according to values of another column, providing ways to achieve complex business logic in simple ways.
- Persisted Formatting: The formatting applied to any column in the modeling environment can now persist when fields are added to value areas of the pivot table.
- Descriptions: Descriptions about tables, measures, and KPIs now appear as tooltips when users move the pointer over objects in the field list.
- Other Tab Changes: New Ribbon features have been added to the
Home and Design tabs based on customer feedback and usability testing.
Pan Zhang Customer Support Visual Studio Cloud Service team
