Converting Text to Dates in PowerPivot
One of the most valuable dimensions to report on in any business intelligence context is date/time. In this example, I have the data feed that … Read More
Using PowerPivot and PowerView: 311 Requests
The City of Toronto has a 311 service for anyone requiring information or service. As part of their open data initiative, the City of Toronto … Read More
Comparing Different Methods for Importing Text Files into PowerPivot
One of the simple challenges in managing large files is importing text files into Excel. I found some CSV files from the City of Toronto’s … Read More
Power Query Now Provides Support for Azure Table Storage
Storing data in SQL Server either locally or on Azure is expensive, especially for large datasets. Microsoft provides a few noSQL alternatives – Table Storage, … Read More
Cloud Pricing is a Race to the Bottom – How You Can Benefit…
Traditionally, hosting and managed services has been sold on fixed price contracts with steep discounts for those organizations who committed for multiple years. This is … Read More
Content Search Web Part is now available in Office 365
When Office 365 was first released, one of the key missing items was the Content Search Web Part – it was only available for on-premise … Read More
Getting Started with Power BI
Microsoft Power BI for Office 365 is the upcoming release of Microsoft’s new BI toolset. Built on the existing Excel, SharePoint, Power View and Power … Read More
Office 365 Changes Maximum File Upload Limit from 250 Megabytes to 2 Gigabytes
Microsoft has been increasing its storage and file limits for most of its cloud based offerings. This is value added service that users receive automatically … Read More
Microsoft is now Cloud First
Microsoft has moved its focus to the cloud and is actively promoting its cloud based services over its on premise software. Microsoft’s “Cloud First” approach … Read More
Creating a Web Site on Azure
In supporting the Microsoft cloud vision, I decided to create this blog using Microsoft’s Azure platform. It was surprisingly easy. Here are the key steps … Read More