Introduction

Creating a tabular model in Excel is a great way of allowing a user to combine a large amount of data, business logic (through calculations and relationships), and semantic information (column names, hierarchies, and tables) into a single, succinct model. This is beneficial to a single user. However, hosting this model in Excel limits the audience that can use the model for analysis (or the output of the model in the case of reports, charts, Pivots, and the like). True, the workbook can be shared among users (say for example, a file share); however, the workbook can only be used by one person at a time and there exists an inherent risk of workbook duplication and the associated risk of workbook proliferation, that is, Excel Hell and multiple versions of the same book with different data.

There are two methods of promoting the Excel tabular model within the organization. Firstly, publishing the workbook to the SharePoint site (commonly referred to as Team BI) or secondly, promoting...