Key Considerations The following table provides guidance on some of the trade-offs in using each of the technologies for this style. Excel Services / PerformancePoint Reporting Services PowerPivot for Services How important is Requires Pivot Tables Highly customizable. Can lay out components look-and-feel … or CubeCell functions Can create complex as desired, but very little to get data from reports. control over look of versus … cubes. Full power of PerformancePoint Excel for formatting. components. — How important is PivotTable Not very interactive Extensive interactivity interactivity? interactivity for typically more of a with dashboard type dashboard. linked together, access to Decomposition Tree, slice-and-dice, change displays. Is highly formatted Printing is possible Reports can be Printing and exporting to printing needed? but may require configured for easy different file types is some work to setup printing. Reports can limited and can be print areas that are also be exported to difficult. Primarily functional during drill different file (Excel, designed for on-line down scenarios. PDF, PowerPoint). viewing and interactivity. Do I need to Easily integrate Limited ability for Possible to integrate both integrate corporate and sourcing external data. on same Dashboard, and sourced data on can integrate data from data on the same dashboard. / PowerPivot and dashboard? Reporting Services.
Key Considerations The following table provides guidance on some of the trade-offs in using each of the technologies for this style. Excel Services / PowerPivot for Reporting Services PerformancePoint Services How important is look-and-feel … versus … Requires Pivot Tables or CubeCell functions to get data from cubes. Full power of Excel for formatting. Highly customizable. Can create complex reports. Can lay out components as desired, but very little control over look of PerformancePoint components. How important is interactivity? PivotTable interactivity for Not very interactive — typically more of a type dashboard. Extensive interactivity with dashboard linked together, access to Decomposition Tree, slice-and-dice, change displays. Is highly formatted printing needed? Printing is possible but may require some work to setup print areas that are functional during drill down scenarios. Reports can be configured for easy printing. Reports can also be exported to different file (Excel, PDF, PowerPoint). Printing and exporting to different file types is limited and can be difficult. Primarily designed for on-line viewing and interactivity. Do I need to integrate sourced data on the dashboard? Easily integrate corporate and data on same dashboard. Limited ability for sourcing external data. Possible to integrate both on same Dashboard, and can integrate data from / PowerPivot and Reporting Services.
Microsoft_BI_Tool_Choices.docx