Excel Opens Up Limitless Possibilities for BI

PowerPivot is an amazing self-service business intelligence tool - it can handle massive amounts of data and perform complex calculations at lightning speeds - but its true killer feature is the fact that it integrates so well with Excel. Not only is Excel the tool of choice for the vast majority of people who work with and analyze data as part of their jobs, which means that anyone that knows Excel automatically feels at home with PowerPivot, but Excel's ubiquity means there is a vast array of other tools available that integrate with Excel and which therefore can be used for self-service BI alongside PowerPivot. In this post we'll look at some free tools that can be used for BI purposes and see how Excel opens up limitless possibilities for BI.