Tips and Tricks: Mapping Data to the World in a PowerPivot Workbook

Last week I came across a stunning PowerPivot solution that visualizes research data on top of a world map, as illustrated in the following screenshot. What's particularly stunning about this solution is that it works even in the browser despite the fact that Excel Services doesn't support custom shapes or background images for country objects or maps. How did these guys manage to get the data onto this map? Out of sheer curiosity, I asked the creators and was happy to learn that it isn't too complicated. The trick is to use a semi-transparent image in the foreground. All you need is Excel 2010 with PowerPivot and Excel Services with PowerPivot for SharePoint-and a Portable Network Graphics (PNG) file of a world map with perhaps 75% transparency.