Power Pivot

Power Pivot is an add-in to the spreadsheet application Microsoft Excel. It extends the capabilities of the pivot table data summarization and cross-tabulation feature with new features such as expanded data capacity, advanced calculations, ability to import data from multiple sources, and the ability to publish the workbooks as interactive web applications. As such, Power Pivot falls under Microsoft's Business Intelligence offering, complementing it with its self-service, in-memory capabilities.

Prior to the release of Power Pivot, Microsoft relied heavily on SQL Server Analysis Services as the engine for its Business Intelligence suite. PowerPivot complements the SQL Server core BI components under the vision of one Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM), which aims to integrate on-disk multidimensional analytics previously known as Unified Dimensional Model (UDM), with a more flexible, in-memory "tabular" model.

As a self-service BI product, Power Pivot is intended to allow users with no specialized BI or analytics training to develop data models and calculations, sharing them either directly or through SharePoint document libraries.