Open Letter to My Friends at Microsoft: The Power of Excel’s Internal Network Effect

May 21, 2013

 
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Excel on the Left.  Other Data Tools on the Right.

Today I’m going to “get my nerd on” in a big way.  Buckle up.

The genesis of this post is an email I’ve been meaning to send to my contacts at Microsoft – one I’ve been thinking about writing for at least a year.  But I also figure it’s the sort of thing you folks might find interesting, and I really don’t have time these days to write the same “opus” twice, so here goes – two birds with one stone.  And it’s a friendly stone.

Has there ever been a tool as flexible as Excel?

Let’s take a moment and just marvel at Excel’s “range.”  (VBA macro programmers – yes the joke is intentional).

You can do damn near anything in Excel.  Calendar chart visualizations.  Music videos.  Beautiful art.  More music videos.  Respiration wavelengths.  Chess games.  Word clouds.

But those are just the outliers really – the novelties.  The truly valuable examples are much less dramatic and happen hundreds of thousands of times every day.  I’ll give some examples in the next section.

Feature A Was NEVER “Intended” to Be Used With Feature B!

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“Hey You Got Your Slicer in My Conditional Formatting!”
(And then the whole jar fell into a bucket of DAX)

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8 Comments | GeoFlow, Observations, Trends, and Wild Speculation, Power View, Real Microsoft Stories | Permalink
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What Self-Service BI means to our world (with Excel)

May 7, 2013

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Guest Post From Miguel Escobar!

Today we’re blessed with another guest post from Miguel Escobar.  I love the style of this one, and the movie industry tie ins of course.  I also really like that Miguel “detected” the similarity between Hans Rosling’s TED talk and the Power View demos that first emerged in 2011 – the first time I saw Power View, my immediate thought was “Amir is riffing on Hans Rosling” and I wondered how many other people were thinking the same thing.

But above all I love to hear people’s stories.  How they came to “get involved” in this stuff.  I would say Miguel falls somewhere on the more advanced end of the spectrum – even using the term “Self-Service BI” kinda gives that away – but the fact is that the worlds of BI and Excel are indeed converging.  So let’s hear Miguel’s story shall we?

-Rob

What has been the impact of Self-Service BI in our modern world?

Its self-service BI a good thing? heck yeah it is. You can bet on that BUT…is that such a good thing that would drive engagement of the users into actually transforming data into information and information into insights? and even further…decisions based on those insights?

3 years ago I couldn’t even think of having a great reporting and visualization tool at my reach because I couldn’t afford that and college tuition at the same time and then Powerpivot became available…how did it impact me and some of my friends?

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Posted by Miguel Escobar

BI, Excel, or Dark? Pilot Flying J Scam Shows Bob Marley was Right: We Need to Light up the Darkness

May 2, 2013

 
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This Highly Scientific Chart Reflects My Experiences of the Past Four Years

So Many Things to Write About!

There are many things competing for my digital ink today.  Microsoft has released a workbook size optimizer and I owe someone named “Doody” a post on that.  I have more to add to the last two posts.  I have a “tournament rules versus prison rules” post that is dying to get onto the page, inspired by Jeremy Bartz.  My wife and I spent yesterday with Chandoo and his family.

But something in the news recently brought another long-simmering topic to the foreground…

“We Steal Millions From Our Customers, and They Have No Idea”

http://pfj.workoasis.net/images/pilot-home.jpg

Pilot Flying J Allegedly Underpaid Fuel Rebates to Multiple Trucking Firms –
a Practice That Only One Such Firm Detected!

An absolutely fascinating story is taking place in Tennessee.  The FBI has raided the headquarters of Pilot Flying J (a huge chain of gas stations and truck stops across the US), and even seized the computers of top execs, in connection with a scam.

The alleged scam goes like this:

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Excel in the Crossfire, CNN-Style

April 23, 2013

 
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This Summarizes Why Excel is Getting a Spike of Bad Press
(Also:  Guys, your barrels are a bit…  droopy.  I suggest NOT pulling those triggers.)

Why the negativity?  It comes down to “Austerity.”

The “London Whale” story that I talked about last week is small potatoes.  The big reason that Excel is catching heat these days is because it is caught up in a political fight, over something called “austerity.”  It hit the New York Times this week too – more on that later.

Austerity is defined as reductions in government budget deficits – either by cutting expenditures or raising taxes (or both).

Right wing politics tell us that austerity is a Good Thing.  Left wing politics tell us that austerity is a Bad Thing.  Got that?  Those are the teams – if you vote Republican, you are supposed to think “austerity good,” and if you vote Democrat, you are supposed to think “austerity bad.”  Please do not diverge from the playbook.

Here’s a visual primer on the latest tug of war:

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Will Excel Destroy the World?

April 18, 2013

 
London Whale, Austerity, and Excel Errors. Oh My.

Excel in the News for the Wrong Reasons

A number of friends and readers have been sending me links lately about some high-profile mistakes made with Excel.  I particularly like the one above where Excel is shown as a massive meteorite smashing into the Earth.

Since I am sure some of you are getting sent the same links, and sometimes in a not-so-subtle, snarky way, I thought it would be good to provide my opinion – maybe it will give you something constructive to say in response to them.

1) There’s a BIG Difference Between Analysis/Reporting vs. Simulation

Excel Simulations: Heavy on Formulas. Light on Data.

Simulation-Style Workbooks Operate Like This: Small Amount of Data, Lots of Formulas

 

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PowerPivot Entering “Hockey Stick” Phase

April 2, 2013

 
PowerPivotPro Website Stats Since Inception: Global PowerPivot Adoption Curve Probably Has Similar Shape, Just Bigger Numbers

Views per Month:  Grew by 10k in 20 Months, then by 20k in 10 Months,
then by 30k in 9 Months.  This is classic exponential growth.

Addicted to Numbers:  An Old Theme Returns!

imageBrace yourself for a shocker: I’m a bit obsessive about numbers. I’m actually addicted to monitoring MY numbers, and I have many to monitor: website stats, book sales, etc. I probably check each of my stats three times a day. At least.

Funny thing is, these stats don’t directly translate into much. The book sales are a nice little bonus, and they help for sure while I’m working (without pay) on my startup, but it’s not like they pay the mortgage.

imageAs I said in an older post that I like to think of as a “classic,” the addiction to stats is not driven by money, but by the human desire to make numbers go UP.

For instance, a friend of mine recently started playing an iPhone game called Puzzle Craft. I looked over his shoulder and saw that it was a mindless “draw a line with your finger on the screen and match jewels” game, which in itself is ok, but nothing addictive. 

However, I detected a hint of “progression” in the game, which means I eventually had to try it.

Two weeks later I did, and immediately, the “executive” centers in my brain regretted the decision.  “Numbers going up” are, sometimes, a completely meaningless reward – in fact, one game designer believes that this kind of game actually reflects a LACK OF ETHICS by the game designers, because the rewards are unearned.

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PowerPivot on Airplanes and NBC

March 12, 2013

 

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First paragraph of Chapter 1 of the book.
But my regular airline experience took a new turn yesterday.

Tables Turned:  Someone “PowerPivot Ambushes” ME!

(I’m traveling this week so today’s post will be short, but covers two very cool stories from the past two days.)

I’ve long had a habit of ambushing people in coffee shops and on airplanes (particularly on airplanes) when I see them using Excel, or when they say they use Excel a lot.  They’re just minding their own business and…  WHAM!  PowerPivot demo!  After they finish recoiling in terror from the freak show sitting next to them breaking out the laptop, they start seeing what it can do, and they start getting very, very excited.

In January of last year, for the first time, I ambushed an Excel person and they already knew about PowerPivot.  That was a big inflection point in my experience.

But yesterday, on a plane, something very different happened.

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Friday Bonus: PowerPivot Discovers a New Form of Communication in the Animal World, Makes Headlines in Science!

March 8, 2013

 
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A Sampling of Headlines From the Past 24 Hours Smile

Remember the Sniffing Project?

If you were reading this blog a year ago, you may remember the “peak detection,” “fuzzy overlapping timeframes,” and “converting from peaks to frequencies” posts.

Among other things, that series gave us one of my favorite pivots of all time:

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Those posts stemmed from my work with my neighbor, Dr. Daniel Wesson (I like to call us “Datasmith and Wesson” when we collaborate, btw).

He was hot on the trail of something AMAZING, but I wasn’t able to share the results until now:

He’s discovered a new form of communication between animals.  (Well, the communication method isn’t new to the animals themselves, but science wasn’t aware of it.)  And the world’s news and science sites are abuzz with it.  You could say they are….  hyperventilating?  (Said in best Dr. Evil voice, with pinky finger raised).

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Guest Post from Ken Puls: How to buy PowerPivot 2013, and the $30 Volume Licensing Workaround

February 26, 2013

An Amusing Solution!

In the long-running comment thread on the Who Moved My PowerPivot Cheese post, one of the recurring themes is “hey, just let me pay a small amount extra for PowerPivot in 2013, but give me a way to buy it ok?”

At the MVP Summit last week, Ken Puls mentioned that he has a way to do precisely that.  You pay about $30 for the right to buy a Volume License copy of Office 2013 Pro Plus.

I haven’t tried this myself but Ken certainly has.  Consider this a viable workaround until further notice.  Take it away Ken…

The Official Purchasing Channels

Rob recently put up a post on the availability of PowerPivot in Office 2013, and how it wouldn’t ship in all Excel SKU’s. This is a huge issue, to be sure, so I thought I’d quickly summarize the software distribution channels so you can see where you will/won’t get PowerPivot if you buy into the 2013 package.

You’ve got two ways to buy a copy of Office 2013 Pro Plus (the version that includes PowerPivot):  Volume Licensing or an Office 365 Business subscription (the Home subscriptions do NOT include PowerPivot). 

Each can be further broken down (see Chris Webb’s blog on Office 365 options here), but to keep this easy to follow, I’ve kept it to key comparable SKU’s:

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The $30 Volume Licensing Workaround!

Now, here’s the really funny part about the above though… everything you’ve read so far would give you the impression that getting a volume license is going to be tough and expensive. It’s actually not.

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13 Comments | Excel 2013, Observations, Trends, and Wild Speculation | Permalink
Posted by Ken Puls

Revolutionaries in Redmond! PowerPivotPro Readers Quoted in ZDNet!

February 19, 2013

 
Excel MVP's Protesting PowerPivot's Removal

Excel MVP’s in Pivot Protest Shirts – We Pity the MS Employees About to Address Us!
(OK Actually We Really Like the Folks Talking to Us Today –
”ProPlus Voldemoort” Remains Cloaked in Shadow)

Today (Monday) was the first day of the MVP Summit at Microsoft HQ in Redmond WA.  This whole “PowerPivot is missing from retail SKU’s in 2013” issue is of course top of mind for many of us. 

Bill Jelen hit the Microsoft Company Store first thing this morning to score some swag.  What did he find?

imageHe found a shirt, in the Microsoft store, with the simple caption “Pivot.”  You can see me wearing one here at right.

And the shirts, these beautiful, BEAUTIFUL shirts, WERE MARKED DOWN.  Half price.  As if they’d been tossed aside, unwanted.

Bill bought them all.  And brought them back to the Summit to hand them out to the other MVP’s.

The Excel MVP’s were more than happy to wear them.  Solidarity!  Give us back PowerPivot!

I love these people.

 

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“Hey, Who Moved My (PowerPivot 2013) Cheese?”

February 14, 2013

 
PowerPivot and Power View Not Available in Excel 2013?

Are These Missing for You in Excel 2013?
The Short Answer is That You Need “Pro Plus” – “Professional” is NOT Enough

Overdue Post in Response to a Popular Question

I’ve been getting tons of questions about this – in email, twitter, on forums, etc.

The questions all go something like this:  “Hey Rob I just bought Office 2013, went to enable PowerPivot, and it’s not there!  It was supposed to be included in 2013 right?”

It’s a fair question of course.  And yes, my original expectation was precisely that – it would be in 2013 for everyone.

Well the short version is that Microsoft took PowerPivot and Power View OUT of most versions of Office 2013.

We will now pause for a moment of disappointed silence Sad smile

If you want to know how to “fix” this problem, skip to the end of the post.  First, I want to tell a story, because the innards of MS are often something that interests people.

“Why Would They Do Such a Thing??”

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207 Comments | Excel 2013, Observations, Trends, and Wild Speculation | Permalink
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Mini Post #1 of 3: Interview at SoftwareAdvice.com

January 29, 2013

 
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I Personally Think It’s ALREADY the Greatest BI Tool, But Otherwise the Answer is YES
(Click Image to Read the Interview)

Three Mini-Posts Today.  First Up:  Interview with Yours Truly.

Today I’m going to do two mini-posts rather than one long one.  First up is this interview I did with Software Advice.  In it, I am asked the following questions:

  1. What’s your vision for Excel users in 5 or 10 years?
  2. What’s the most important BI functionality upgrade in Microsoft Excel 2013?
  3. What does the inclusion of features like PowerPivot and Power View say about Microsoft’s vision of self-service business intelligence? Is this a move to turn every Office user into a data analyst?
  4. Why should users upgrade to Office 2013?
  5. What has been the impact of the Office Apps store so far?

I always enjoy this sort of thingSmile

It’s a quick read so I encourage you to give it a skim.

Click here to read the interview

Leave a Comment » | Career, Observations, Trends, and Wild Speculation | Permalink
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