#SPC12 Sharepoint Conference 2012–Advanced Dashboards

Great presentation Kevin Donovan (Program Manager Office BI)!

The BI team at IBIS has been preaching the benefits of SQL, Excel, Sharepoint and PPS for years.  Kevin started out his presentation with a simple statement:  BI is SQL, Excel and Sharepoint.

Damn, are we good or what?

In 2013, Office and Sharepoint get some really nice enhancements without truly breaking any new ground.  That’s good for a lot of reasons.  The primary one is that what was working before is TONS better and they haven’t wasted a lot of time on new flash but, instead, really hit hard on good things.

Here’s my top list of what I liked:

1. Effective Username in PPS and Excel Services:  Kerberos is dead!  You can now pass through the user name from the client WITHOUT having to deploy kerberos provide you only need access the SSAS cube. 
2. Server Side Migration for PPS:  You can now migrated ANY part or all of a PPS dashboard server side without using Dashboard Designer.  It automatically detects dependencies AND, on the new server, allows mapping to new datasources before you migrate in the new objects.  Very slick.
3. BI Server:  In SP2013, you can designate a BI Target Server for BISM model calculations rather than having them done in the SP instance of Excel Services.  Much faster response time.
4. Named Object View: In Excel Services, you could always import just a named object (like a chart) rather than a whole workbook.  The object appeared in a sparse looking drop down list.  Now you get a cool visual graphic nav panel on the right side of the page.
5. Field Well and List Exposed in Excel Services:  By doing so, you can add and remove fields and columns from pivot tables allowing almost full interaction inside the embedded object rather than opening it from the client.

There’s tons of stuff more, like cooler PowerView functionality (including embedded maps) and better user experience in the interface.  The only shortcoming, as noted in a previous post, is lack of true mobile.  However, that’s why ISVs exist.