Excel Services and Business Intelligence Features
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 helps organizations provide business intelligence (BI) capabilities to every employee, for sharing, control, and reuse of business information to make better business decisions. The BI features in Office SharePoint Server 2007 provide the following:
Web and programmatic access to Office Excel workbooks through Excel Services
Programmatic reuse of critical line-of-business (LOB) data through the Business Data Catalog
Easy development of Web-based BI dashboards that can incorporate rich, data-bound key performance indicators (KPIs), Web Parts, and workbooks that can be hosted within the new Report Center site template.
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The following table describes the business intelligence and Excel Services features.
| New or Enhanced Feature | Description |
|---|---|
Web Access to Workbooks (new) |
Excel Services can refresh external data, recalculate a workbook, and display it with a Web-based user interface in a SharePoint Web Part called Excel Web Access. Based on publishing parameters, it can display a complete Excel 2007 workbook, selected worksheets, or specific regions within a worksheet. Excel Services provides live, interactive access to workbooks on SharePoint sites, including workbooks that incorporate powerful new client capabilities such as data visualization and richer PivotTable views and PivotChart views. Users require no additional software to access interactive workbooks in a Web browser, and all calculations are performed on the server. |
Integrated, Flexible Publishing (new) |
Microsoft Office Excel 2007 provides an integrated publishing experience that helps information workers easily choose what they want to display when viewing workbooks in a browser. |
Programmatic Access to Workbooks (new) |
Excel Services provides a Web services-based API for programmatically accessing workbooks. Developers can use Excel Web Services to calculate a model built in Excel 2007 and display the results to users working on a Web-based user interface or custom desktop application without exposing the workbook’s business logic. Excel Services supports the execution of server-side user-defined functions, which can be used to extend the capabilities of Excel Services—for example, to implement custom calculation libraries or to read data from Web services and data sources that are not natively supported by Excel Services. |
Data Connection Libraries (new) |
Organizations can centrally publish connection files in SharePoint document libraries to make it easy for users to find and use the data sources they need. Data connection files are easy to create and update. Solution designers can reuse them in the 2007 Microsoft Office system client applications, for example, in forms in Office InfoPath 2007 and workbooks in Excel 2007. Office SharePoint Server 2007 can also take advantage of Data Connection Libraries to connect to live data from the server. |
Business Data Catalog (new) |
Present LOB data within SharePoint Server 2007. For example, you can search an Office SharePoint Server 2007 site and retrieve information from back-end systems, such as customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning applications. |
Business Data SharePoint Lists and Web Parts (new) |
Store, analyze, and display LOB application data retrieved through Business Data Catalog. |
Business Data Actions (new) |
Use links that appear beside business objects from Business Data Catalog to open Web pages, display the user interfaces of LOB applications, launch Office InfoPath 2007 forms, and more, without any custom code. Business Data Actions menus also appear in SharePoint lists and search results. |
Data Connection Libraries (new) |
Centralize storage of Business Data Catalog connections to external data. |
Dashboards (new) |
With Office SharePoint Server 2007, create rich BI dashboards that incorporate dynamic KPIs, Office Excel 2007 workbooks, and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services reports. |
Report Center Web Sites (new) |
Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes built-in Web sites hosted by the new Report Center that are optimized for report access and management. |
Excel Services Management (new) |
Centralized management service for configuring and managing Excel Services settings using SharePoint administration |