Isn't an Excel Pivot Table really commercial intelligence?

Source: Internet
Author: User
Isn't an Excel Pivot Table really commercial intelligence?

The answer to the question raised by the title is: No, but it does play a very important role.

In general, a PivotTable is a data collection tool; you will find many spreadsheet applicationsProgramThis function is available in the same way as dedicated Bi tools. Microsoft Excel has its own Pivot table function, which is conveniently called a pivot table. In addition, a new enhancement feature called "workbook" is part of the SQL Server 2008 R2 Technology set and is compatible with Excel 2010. Even Google Docs provides a basic pivot table feature. "

Essentially, a pivot table sorts, counts, and summarizes the data stored in a database table or workbook, and generates the second table. The idea is that you can drag and drop to quickly change the statistics.

It is important to understand that a pivot table is just a data visualization and statistical tool; its only advantage is that it can be used for reference like materials. Therefore, an Excel Pivot table can be part of a business intelligence solution, but it is not all about business intelligence.

Generally, you can use a PivotTable to extract information from a data warehouse of a Business Intelligence solution, this allows them to explore their ideas through data interaction and self-service Business Intelligence. In fact, Microsoft's business intelligence "solution stack" puts Excel and its pivot table functions at the top of the solution, as a fat client product that uses the data of the business intelligence system.

However, no matter how good a workbook is, a PivotTable is not all about business intelligence. A good business intelligence solution can present data to users in Excel, and Excel is very effective for users who are very skilled in Excel.

One of the main goals of business intelligence solutions is to deliver materials to everyone and train people to use the pivot table feature of Excel. However, this is time-consuming. This is why most business intelligence solutions also provide other forms of visualization, such as dashboards, reports, and scorecards. For example, in a pure Microsoft Business Intelligence solution, these functions are provided by Sharepoint Server and SQL Server Report service.

The best business intelligence solutions also need to provide interactive analysis capabilities, usually through a web-based interface. This interface may allow you to start a chart showing sales performance. For example, you can click this chart to query sales data by region or product. You can click to view more and more detailed data. For example, clicking a product may reveal the top sellers of the product. clicking a product may display a detailed breakdown of the product cost and management cost. In this way, users can explore the relationship between data in the Business Intelligence System in an interactive way and drill into the root cause of any problem they are studying.

Therefore, although the pivot table function of Excel is not a function of business intelligence itself, it can be a very useful component of a well-developed business intelligence system.

Isn't an Excel Pivot Table really commercial intelligence?

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