I think everyone can agree that pivot tables are great excel tools which make analyzing and sorting massive amounts of data a life saver. However, over the course of the past couple years I have been introduced to Power Pivot. Yes, Power Pivot. Pivot tables on steroids. At first, I was pretty intimidated because of the sheer size and complexity on the surface. But after spending some time learning and taking “lunch n’ learn” course at work, Power Pivots and I are becoming friends. My favorite part is being able to run pivot tables essentially off other pivot tables. At work, we’ve also created many tools that allow our leaders to simply and easily run their own reports for specific requests, which saves everyone time. (The analyst teams refresh the data regularly as needed).

I’ve included a couple links below about Power Pivot, and would encourage all to consider using the valuable tool the next time you are looking to crush some colossal data. It’s available as a free add-on for Excel 2010 and now comes standard on Excel 2013.

Happy Pivot Tabling!

WJEM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URy_uQYS49s

http://info.110consulting.com/blog/bid/374825/Top-10-Benefits-of-Using-Excel-PowerPivot

http://blogs.office.com/2010/10/01/top-5-ways-powerpivot-helps-excel-pros/