BI Features of Excel 2007 - Agenda
• Role of Excel in Microsoft BI stack• New BI (and BI-related) features• Compatibility experience and issues• Missing cube / OLAP features vs. Proclarity• MOSS 2007 and Excel Services• Demos using Adventure Works OLAP cube
END USER TOOLS & PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT APPS
Excel PerformancePoint Server
BI PLATFORMSQL Server
Reporting ServicesSQL Server
Analysis Services
SQL Server DBMS
SQL Server Integration Services
SharePoint Server
DELIVERY
Reports Dashboards Excel Workbooks
AnalyticViews Scorecards Plans
End To End BI OfferingData Warehouse Infrastructure
Reporting and Analysis
Performance Management
Easily find trends in data Excel Conditional Formatting
Knowledge, Discovery & Insight Excel 2007 offers complete support for SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
Excel 2007Worlds most popular BI front end client just got better
Strong SQL Server 2005 Integration
Excel 2007 was redesigned to boost individual productivity, calculation performance, business insight and server integration
SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Support
Data Visualization
Work with Larger
Spreadsheets
Excel 2007 Big BI Bets
BI-related benefits of Excel 2007
• Much larger data sets: 1 million rows, 16K columns• Dynamic preview of format and style changes• Redesigned charting engine, used throughout Office• More powerful and flexible conditional formatting• MOSS and Excel Services provide browser access• Support for most Analysis Services 2005 features• Can convert cube pivot tables into cell-based reports
New features to support AS 2005 OLAP cubes
• Redesigned Pivot Table field list - easier navigation• Data Connection properties editing (for maintenance)• Can apply server-defined formatting rules to cells• Conditional formatting adapts to pivot table changes• Supports AS 2005 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)• Compact Pivot Table Layout for nested hierarchies• Support for drill through and other cube actions• Label and Value pivot filters work with cube data• Show member properties in tooltip text or as column
Pivot table demos with AS 2005 OLAP cube
• Pivot Table field list – display folders, KPI’s, sets …• Data Connection properties editing (for maintenance)• Server-defined formatting rules: format, color ..• AS 2005 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): icons• Pivot Table Layout: compact for nested hierarchies• Double-click to drill through; cube report action• Label and Value pivot filters: names, Top 10 products• Member properties: Adventure Works Customers
Convert cube pivot table to cell-based report
• Some scenarios not suited to Pivot Tables• "Asymmetric reports” - rows or columns don’t follow fixed pattern• Reports that mix data from multiple data sources• Reports with custom spacing, precise grouping and ordering
• Convert PivotTable cells to worksheet formulas• 7 new “cube” functions available
• Places OLAP cube data directly into specific spreadsheet cells• Power of multi-dimensional data store with Excel formula engine• CUBEMEMBER (connection, member_expression,[caption])• CUBEVALUE (connection, [member_expression_1], ..• CUBESET (connection, set_expression, [caption], ..• CUBESETCOUNT (set)• CUBERANKEDMEMBER (connection, set_expression, ..• CUBEMEMBERPROPERTY (connection, member_expression, ..• CUBEKPIMEMBER (connection, kpi_name, kpi_property, ..
Demos of OLAP cube cell formulas
• Convert pivot table with filters to cell formulas• Inspect and explain the different cell functions used• Examples of asymmetric sets
Excel 2007 versus Proclarity - feature gap
• No UI to create MDX Named Sets, Calc. Members• Can’t edit MDX query submitted to OLAP cube server• No equivalent for Proclarity “decomposition tree”• Other visualizations like “heat map” aren’t supported
Excel 2007 compatibility considerations
• Read / write Excel 2003 (.XLS) files, less functionality• Support for older versions of Pivot Table (vs. file)• Pivot table data refresh could affect multiple tabs• Calculated member in page filter can cause problems• Visual Totals can’t be disabled (due to subquery) • Whitepaper – “Migrating to Excel 2007”• Excel Team Blog – Backwards Compatibility topics
View and Interact
Programmatic Access
Export/Snapshot into Excel
Save Spreadsheets
Extending Excel with Excel ServicesExcel 2007
Design and author
Save to SharePoint
Spreadsheets stored in document libraries
Spreadsheet calculation & rendering
External data retrieval and caching
100% calculation fidelity
Office SharePoint Server 2007
Browser
High quality Web rendering
Zero-footprint
Interactive: Set parameters, sort, filter, explore
Excel 2007
Open in Excel for rich exploration and analysis
Open snapshots
Custom applications
Set values, perform calculations, get updated values via Web services
Retrieve full workbook file
Key usage scenarios for Excel Services
• Sharing spreadsheets through a browser• Author saves spreadsheet to a SharePoint document library• Pure DHTML viewer – no ActiveX, no client copy of Excel 2007• Author can limit access to specific sheets or even cell ranges
• Building business intelligence (BI) dashboards• Build dashboard and reporting portals quickly and without code• Ability to re-use Excel spreadsheets in dashboards• Use Parameters and SharePoint Filters to centralize “slicing”• Can add non-Excel SharePoint Web Parts like KPI List
• Reuse spreadsheet business logic in custom apps• Provides a web-service-based interface to custom apps• Calling app can change values, recalculate the spreadsheet ..
Dashboard page based on Excel 2007 (from Excel Team Blog)
Key to areas of sample Dashboard page
1. Built on SharePoint – consistent look and feel• Standard portal functionality such as search, personalization ..• Web Parts added as needed to customize functionality of page
2. Excel Services Web Parts - 1 Table and 1 Chart• Configure Excel Services to show only portions of a workbook
3. SharePoint Key Performance Indicator (KPI) List• Visualization of key status and trends (sourced from OLAP cube)
4. SharePoint SQL Server Filters• Sourced from dimension data in OLAP cube• Connected to other parts on the page, so users can “slice” data
Demos of Excel Services used in MOSS pages
• Publish Excel pivot table which uses cube data• Configure parameters and visible part of worksheet• Drop Excel Services Web Parts on dashboard page• Add SQL Filter and KPI List to page, and connect
Summary
Office Excel 2007 and Analysis Services 2005 create exciting new user experiences with dataInteractive: lightning fast performance on business queriesFriendly: business names, folders, hierarchies, formattingPersonalized: perspectives, translationsRich: calculations, named sets, exception highlighting, actions, KPIsPowerful: KPIs, OLAP formulas, visuals, interactive charts
Excel 2007 ResourcesMicrosoft archived webcasts on Excel 2007 BI
Building Business Intelligence Solutions Using Office Excel 2007 and SQL Server 2005 Analysis ServicesMicrosoft Office Excel 2007 and SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Integration ExplainedCreating Effective Conditional Formats Using Excel 2007
Microsoft Office links of interest:What's new in Microsoft Office Excel 2007Introduction to Excel Services and Excel Web Access
Excel 2007-related blog:Excel and Excel Services Team BlogBlog entry: CUBE Functions Part 1
