Refreshing Excel workbooks with embedded PowerPivot models from SharePoint Online

This white paper provides guidelines on how to perform scheduled refresh of workbooks with PowerPivot models published on SharePoint Online.

With the introduction of PowerPivot and Power View within Microsoft Excel, people can create powerful business intelligence content. When used for short term collaboration, an Excel workbook can be shared, and the fact that it is not continuously refreshed is not a major showstopper. However, when a report is used for longer terms, the need to perform periodic refresh is critical. When a workbook is shared using SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Server 2013, (on premises), one can configure PowerPivot Data Refresh (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=282472). However, when a workbook is shared using SharePoint Online, this functionality is not currently available.

This document outlines how you can periodically refresh an Excel workbook that contains a Data Model. This document provides the guidelines for how to automate such a refresh by using standard tools and technologies that are available as part of the operating system and Office.