Power View Delivers Self-Service Data Visualizations

SQL Server 2012 includes a new feature to enable self-service analysis and reporting using data in PowerPivot for Excel workbooks. The feature, named Power View (previously code-named Project Crescent), is a Web-based report designer intended to make the information within PowerPivot workbooks more approachable to less technical users. Using multiple types of charts and timed animations, the tool facilitates ad hoc reporting, which can provide more thorough data analysis and discovery of trends or anomalies.

Web-Based Report Design for PowerPivot

PowerPivot is a database engine that enables users to create and process large analytic databases (called models) embedded in Excel workbooks. PowerPivot can be used to assemble a large model from a variety of data sources, add charts and reports, and distribute the workbook to other Excel users who have PowerPivot, or publish the workbook to a SharePoint 2010 Server where other users can explore the data in a browser. For example, an analyst might build a workbook to break down several years of transactions by region and customer to identify cross-selling patterns, or examine service records by product category, customer, and time period to optimize product maintenance schedules. Data is manipulated in PowerPivot using an Excel-like formula language, Data Analysis Expressions, which requires extensive knowledge of the language and the data in order to create PowerPivot workbooks.