My favorite PowerPivot feature isn’t a feature of PowerPivot at all. I love the [...]]]> Ok. Now is is time for you guys to speak up! Here is a little informal poll. What is your favorite PowerPivot feature? I’ll tell you mine and then I’ll let everyone chime in via the post comments. Join in the fun!

My favorite PowerPivot feature isn’t a feature of PowerPivot at all. I love the fact that since we have this ‘document-centric’ view of the data – all of the PowerPivot data is embedded in the workbook itself. This means that all of the build-in SharePoint features automatically apply to PowerPivot as well. Here is a quick list of what comes to mind to me:

1. Check in/out. Users can have an collaborative interaction with the data by using check in/out on the embedded workbook file itself.
2. An approval workflow. After a check in, or a new posting of the workbook, you can kick off an approval workflow – i.e. you can route the approval around a series of users until the data shows up in the document library.
3. Document library custom modifications. With SharePoint you can add your own properties to the file and include that in the document library along with everything else. SharePoint becomes a development platform with the PowerPivot workbooks as the basis for the custom changes. All of this is created and managed by end-users themselves.
4. Automatic retention policies. Since the data is just part of the document, you can have business rules that automatically delete the data. For example, you might have a rule like: “items in this document library are automatically deleted after 180 days” (very appropriate for financial data).
5. Many of the “data management” activities are not part of the PowerPivot application – but rather end-users do it themselves. If they want to reorganize how the data is stored on their site, then they just copy PowerPivot workbooks to a new place. They don’t have to call up IT – they just do it! If the data no longer applies to their system, they just delete it. The data is the file – the file is the data.
6. Wastebasket. SharePoint has a built-in wastebasket feature. If you do delete a file, it isn’t really gone. Until the administrator empties the wastebasket, the data still lives on – and the user can copy it back to their document libraries themselves. Again, since the data is the file – you don’t need any special PowerPivot capabilities to do this.
7. Security is all end-user driven. There is no special security settings for PowerPivot. Since the data is the file, we just use a user’s access rights to the file to determine their access rights to the embedded data. If an end-user drops a user’s read permissions, then they cannot access the embedded data. It is that simple. There are no special utilities or settings to configure. Users just use their regular SharePoint capabilities on the PowerPivot workbook.

I could go on and on – but you get the idea. SharePoint adds tremendous value in the PowerPivot world.

So that is my favorite feature, what’s yours? Add a comment and join in!