A PowerPivot Conversion Success

I have just completed a major conversion of one of my „traditional“ spreadsheet reporting solutions to PowerPivot for a major coal mining company.  It has been one of the most satisfying solutions I have ever done and convinces me even more than before of the importance of PowerPivot to all Excel users.

The Problem

While the older solution relied on data gleaned from SQL Server, the presentation layer relied on standard Excel formulas.  This meant that if there was ever a change, deletion or addition to the levels of the model (i.e. new mine, closed mine, reorganization, etc.) I personally had to make a detailed and frightening change to the core report that impacted levels up and down, right and left throughout the model (new Sub-Sub-Totals, Sub-Totals, Totals and Grand Totals – new variance analyses up and down through the model).  This was a tedious and painful job and one…