Distribute PoverPivot workbooks to non-PP users

[domtrump]

I'm just getting started with PowerPivot. Before I get in too deep, I'm wondering how I'm going to implement this in my environment. Right now, only a couple of us have the PowerPivot add-in installed (Excel 2010). We would be the only group connecting to the data source, joining tables and creating the pivot tables. We are not using SharePoint or Analysis Services - just standalone Office 2010.

Question #1: From what I've read, another user of Excel 2010 without the add-in would be able to open the file, but functionality would be lost. Is this correct (that they could still open it)? What would they NOT be able to do (i.e. would the PivotTables still be PivotTables or just static data in regular cells; what happens to the slicers and such).

Question #2: If I did install the add-in to select members of management so that they could manipulate and pivot the data, would they still be able to do so without having access to the source data? I'm under the impression that the data is actually saved along with the workbook. The original source connection would be to an IMB iSeries via ODBC. Only the power users would have this ODBC connection on their machines. If one of the managers (without ODBC connection, but with the add-in) opened the workbook, would they still be able to manipulate, but not update, all of the data? Would they get any error messages initially?

Thank you for the help getting me started with this project.

 

[scottsen]

#2 is the easier one. Yes, they can absolutely use the workbook without access to the underlying data sources. PowerPivot stores a "cube" right in the workbook. No issue there.

For #1, they can certainly open the workbook, and see all the current data in the pivot tables and such. After that, my memory is failing a bit. I am pretty sure I have seen slicers work... but I remember being surprised by that So... you should definitely test that and report back...