We're in the process of developing a SQL Server reporting model that integrates with the new Excel 2010.
Questions:
Thanks
I just installed PowerPivot to test it with my intalled Excel 2010. I think it's a really good thing that you can connect Excel to SQL Server 2008 R2.PowerPivot for Excel 2010 is a data analysis tool that delivers unmatched computational power directly within the application users already know and love—Microsoft Excel. You can transform enormous quantities of data with incredible speed into meaningful information to get the answers you need in seconds. You can effortlessly share your findings with others. PowerPivot can even help your IT department improve operational efficiencies through SharePoint-based management tools. We have done nothing additional.
So you have always been able to hook excel into sql server. In the past the excel user would royally annoy the IT groups (and or the DBA groups) by connecting to sql server tables, querying massive amounts of data, process this with excel to produce a report that a DBA could have done with 3 lines of sql code and not pummel the sql server into the ground with horrible queries. Powerpivot solves all those problems and still allows the excel users to create rich full dataset reports. Powerpivot also works on sharepoint server so you can promote someone's excel report into an actual server based solution (rather than 50 people running the same queries against the database). Powerpivot is both user and admin friendly. There should not be any additional support requirements by default. In many cases it's advantageous to publish a schema for common data sources so users know which sources contian the right data. A hands on lab is available here
