Use Power BI data in Excel Pivot table, like an SSAS datasource?

[EricMamet]

We have many users currently using data from an on premise SSAS model into Excel spreadsheet through Pivot tables.

We would like to "gently" move them towards Power BI rather than pure Excel.

Having said that, we must continue providing them the ability to use Excel if they wish (with linked rather than exported data).

Is it possible to use Power BI Report Server models as an Excel datasource the same way we can do with an Analysis Services datasource? 

[EricMamet]

Thanks

[josef78]

Hi,

as d_gosbell wrote, is not possible direct connect to PBI model stored in Excel file, but you can use SSAS Tablar to host this models.

Additional important information, you can easy migrate Excel Power BI model to SSAS, using migration wizard project in Vistual Studio SSDT.

[EricMamet]

Thank You.

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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@EricMamet wrote:

Is it possible to use Power BI Report Server models as an Excel datasource the same way we can do with an Analysis Services datasource? 

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No it's not. Report Server does not expose any way to connect to the data model in a pbix report. But what you can do is continue to use SSAS to host the data models and create PBIX reports that are live connected to SSAS. Then you can use a mix of both Excel and Power BI reports.