With power BI is Power Pivot as a standalone power tool now necessary?

[Ed Kelly]

Not in anyway trying to sound philosophical however....

Is power pivot needed as a stand alone power tool when you have Dax and Modelling in Power BI

which is a better approach do analysis in power pivot and import to power BI or perform all analysis in power BI

[Bob Phillips]

You could saythe same about Power Query. I don't understand the question, DAX and data modelling in Power BI IS Power Pivot, Power BI is just Power Query, Power Pivot and Power View wrapped into a package and rebranded. There are still some advantages to being in Excel, being in Excel for instance.

[JeffreyWeir]

Bob: Love that last line. I think the point the Op is making is that PowerPivot requires a premium SKU, whereas the PowerBI client (i.e. desktop version) that includes the PowerPivot functionality is free.

[Bob Phillips]

For now!

[Ed Kelly]

Jeffery/Bob,

Thanks for the replies and Jeffrey indeed that was my point (is there any point upgrading to an SKU that includes powerpivot, at an additional cost, when indeed the free desktop version or the paid premium version of power BI both have it).

To my 2nd question above, my feeling is that using PP from within the Power BI desktop/paid version appears to be a more fluid less clunky process than doing the analysis within PP and then importing that into power BI or am I missing something?

[Bob Phillips]

Personally I have both, 2016 professional, and Power BI Desktop. If it is something that doesn't need Excel at all, I might do it in Power BI (but then again I just might still do it in Excel). But sometimes I need Excel, if I want to use VBA for instance, then 2016 Professional is great.

Personally, I still find Excel simpler and more friendly to use than Power Bi.

[Ed Kelly]

Nice one Bob, appreciate the your perspective. And on the simpler note, I am in the same camp however my gut tells me I have to get all over this power BI Desktop stuff, it feels like wifi at 100mb per sec versus Excels 30MB per Sec. Back to being a new student again, probably a few hundred hours, worth it though as this puppy is a game changer!

[Bob Phillips]

The learning curve is the Power Query GUI and M, and DAX (M and DAX are powerful but also not simple) and that is much the same in Excel. Mastering the Power BI GUI is trivial in comparison.