Using Excel Power Pivot add in with SIMS database

[KeyData]

Does anyone know if schools are allowed to use Excel 2010's free Power Pivot add in to extract data directly from their SIMS SQL 2012 database? I have read on the internet (somewhere) that this kind of direct access of the SIMS database may invalidate a school's SIMS database warranty and I know I definitely want to avoid doing that. I am looking at this as an option as we run a report on lesson monitor marks for a period of a term together with other context and assessment data and find that this report can take in excess of an hour to run or time out.

 

Thanks for any light anyone can shed on this.

 

Cheers

Mark

[matt40k]

Short answer no. You'd need to do exports using the SIMS built in reporting engine. Using a different tool would still timeout \ slow the server down. I did think about putting together something that basically builds a data warehouse, so you don't impact the day-to-day transactional work by sync the data into a report optimized database, then create a Analysis service cube which you can connect Excel directly up to and do cool things like data mining, trending analysis and pivot tables all out of the box. This is all using the features that are included in SQL standard edition and Excel. It just...

[vikpaw]

I would restore a backup to a test server then play all you like.

Technically there is nothing to stop you doing it, but JUST DON'T, it leads to more risk. It's safer to say you never even looked at the live system.

[vikpaw]

I'd like to use the BI tools.

[matt40k]

You tried PowerBI yet? I'm liking the price tag - £0.

[vikpaw]

You tried PowerBI yet? I'm liking the price tag - £0.

No, but if you have any blog posts with step by step instructions for when i get around to it, I would be most appointed and delighted

[CAM]

You tried PowerBI yet? I'm liking the price tag - £0.

 

Free? MS want me to buy it!

[matt40k]

Not to argue with you, but....

[CAM]

I get shunted to the Office365 page because it moans about my live address.

[vikpaw]

Free? MS want me to buy it!

Not everyone that rings up and says they are from Microsoft is really from Microsoft

We had them call up 3 / 4 times in the last couple of days.

[matt40k]

I know some of those VOIP calls are poor quality, but no reason to say it was 3/4 of a call @vikpaw, that's just mean!!

[CAM]

Aaaand I just somehow created my personal domain as a "company" on Microsoft's site. I have no idea what I have just done.

[vikpaw]

I know some of those VOIP calls are poor quality, but no reason to say it was 3/4 of a call @vikpaw, that's just mean!!

Based on my distance to the call centre it was more like 1/4 of a call that you'd get

 

Back to topic : i've just posted on MAcc but thought i'd get your views here - i don't think it is so simple to just connect to the SQL database. In all examples i've seen of BI tools, the examples are quite simple, or use access or excel as a source, for an SQL source i'm pretty sure you need to have some idea of how the data schema works.