Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Earn the coveted Fabric Analytics Engineer certification. 100% off your exam for a limited time only!

Reply
ammartino44
Helper III
Helper III

How to optimize data retrieval with power pivot and power bi

Hello.

I'm loving power pivot. I'm trying to see where IT fits in this world. A couple questions:

1) IT currently is a bottleneck in the sense that they are creating a bunch of SQL and crystal reports. How does this change with Power Pivot? I'm trying to figure out what to ask them for in terms of SQL queries and how that whole process works.

2) Can a data warehouse tool eventually offer the same thing as power pivot in terms of granular access that allows for the building of metrics and "angles" on the fly?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Greg_Deckler
Super User
Super User

This is a very good question. Generally the way that I see this get rolled out into an organization at a more "enterprise" level is through Organizational Content Packs. Essentially, IT takes the time up front to connect to different data sources and build out models, metrics, etc. This content pack is then published to the organization. End users can then use this content pack to create their own reports, dashboards etc. In this way the data lineage is preserved for the parts of the original data model. In other words, everyone is using the same metrics calculated the same way for example. This puts reporting more into the realm of a self-service model in that places IT more into the data modeling area and business into the reporting area.

 

I have also started seeing people use Azure Data Catalog to publish out data sources and then just allow users to connect with Power BI and create reports, but that is a steeper learning curve because now the business is responsible for both data modeling and reporting. 

 

I would assume that a data warehouse tool could eventually offer similar functionality, or you could just connect Power BI to your data warehouse and use Power BI for that.

 

I think that this is an interesting discussion and would like to hear other people's thoughts on this.


@ me in replies or I'll lose your thread!!!
Instead of a Kudo, please vote for this idea
Become an expert!: Enterprise DNA
External Tools: MSHGQM
YouTube Channel!: Microsoft Hates Greg
Latest book!:
Mastering Power BI 2nd Edition

DAX is easy, CALCULATE makes DAX hard...

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1
Greg_Deckler
Super User
Super User

This is a very good question. Generally the way that I see this get rolled out into an organization at a more "enterprise" level is through Organizational Content Packs. Essentially, IT takes the time up front to connect to different data sources and build out models, metrics, etc. This content pack is then published to the organization. End users can then use this content pack to create their own reports, dashboards etc. In this way the data lineage is preserved for the parts of the original data model. In other words, everyone is using the same metrics calculated the same way for example. This puts reporting more into the realm of a self-service model in that places IT more into the data modeling area and business into the reporting area.

 

I have also started seeing people use Azure Data Catalog to publish out data sources and then just allow users to connect with Power BI and create reports, but that is a steeper learning curve because now the business is responsible for both data modeling and reporting. 

 

I would assume that a data warehouse tool could eventually offer similar functionality, or you could just connect Power BI to your data warehouse and use Power BI for that.

 

I think that this is an interesting discussion and would like to hear other people's thoughts on this.


@ me in replies or I'll lose your thread!!!
Instead of a Kudo, please vote for this idea
Become an expert!: Enterprise DNA
External Tools: MSHGQM
YouTube Channel!: Microsoft Hates Greg
Latest book!:
Mastering Power BI 2nd Edition

DAX is easy, CALCULATE makes DAX hard...

Helpful resources

Announcements
April AMA free

Microsoft Fabric AMA Livestream

Join us Tuesday, April 09, 9:00 – 10:00 AM PST for a live, expert-led Q&A session on all things Microsoft Fabric!

March Fabric Community Update

Fabric Community Update - March 2024

Find out what's new and trending in the Fabric Community.

Top Solution Authors
Top Kudoed Authors