Gartner - What Is SQL Server PowerPivot?

On 12 May 2010 Microsoft introduced SQL Server PowerPivot, an Excel-based data discovery tool giving business users the ability to combine and analyze large amounts of diverse data. While this offering does not solve all the problems inherent in Excel, it improves Microsoft's ad hoc analysis capabilities and strengthens its position against innovative data discovery vendors.

• SQL Server PowerPivot is a budding data discovery tool, including end-user data mashup capabilities, an in-memory repository and basic visualization tools, that gives business users the ability to combine and analyze large amounts of diverse data. PowerPivot workbooks can be shared with other users and managed by IT through SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2.
• PowerPivot's most differentiating feature, compared with other data discovery tools (such as QlikView, Tibco Spotfire and Tableau), is its end-user data mashup capability. However, PowerPivot lacks those products' range of visualizations and interactivity. Microsoft included just enough data slicers and filtering functionality in the initial release to qualify as a limited interactive visualization tool.
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