So many people viewing this forum, so few Q's & A's- why?

[Matt Allington]

Every time I come here, there are 20+ viewing this Power BI forum. Given the number of questions and answers, most people are not posting anything. So at got me thinking - what are the other folk looking for?

I would like to survey people to find out why people look at is forum and what value they are looking for. Please post below to help me understand how to provide improved Power BI content on the Internet.

Matt

 

[starl]

This particular forum is very popular with spammers, so knock that number down for that. We've got measures in place that prevent some posts from ever appearing.
Then - the forum viewing report is not to the minute - it takes a while for a person to be removed (though not added) - so there's a lot of overlap.

One of the purposes of this entire forum is building a database that people can search - and not to repost the same thing a hundred times... so it may be that the people you see here are actually searching and finding the info they need. That's my hope, anyway. I think the people that know what Power BI even is, and use the tools are a rather select group.

 

[Smitty]

I think the people that know what Power BI even is, and use the tools are a rather select group.

You're not far off there at all.

 

[My Aswer Is This]

I'm one of those. I do not know what Power BI is.

 

[Vaslo]

For me Matt, I've had a really frustrating experience being constrained to 32-bit Excel. I posted an example below where I wasted a bunch of time on issues with the Data Model that had nothing to do with my original question below and had to lessen what I was planned to do via Power BI. Microsoft's response is to upgrade to 64-bit, which I just can't do at work.

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/power-...-load-worksheet-random-order.html#post4432588

 

[Matt Allington]

Vaslo, I assume you can't upgrade Excel. But can you installed Power BI Desktop 64 bit? That is stand alone (not part of office). There will be some other driver issues but I have a theory that it can be made to work. I guess if you are not allowed to upgrade, then maybe there is not a lot of sympathy to helping you get this working.

This is blog I wrote seems appropriate to share. The High Cost of Poor Equipment - PowerPivotPro

 

[Vaslo]

Matt - Funny you should post that link, look who made a comment there back on Oct 29 . I am a subscriber and avid reader of the blog, so I appreciate you putting in your opinion since I greatly respect it.

I have tried to install the Power BI Desktop 64 bit but I have a lot of problems with the drivers in trying to get data out of sources like Access 32 bit. It just doesn't work. I had to settle for Power BI Desktop 32 bit.

As I mentioned in my post, my company has really smart people, and everyone in my silo (Finance) is aligned that our systems stink. We complain but movement to improve is slow. I know I am not the only one that has a company with this issue, and in fact I was in another company more than 5 years that had the same issue. In both companies it's been related to addons that we don't want to upgrade (specifically some of the addons for Oracle software.) Everyone really wants 64 bit Excel as well as Excel 2016, which we are paying to have as part of our license but cannot install, because we just don't have the budget to pay another vendor to upgrade all their infrastructure.

I believe this will continue to slow the growth of Power BI in many organizations, especially for people unlike us who are willing to troubleshoot and work around issues. For some of the other folks in my function, if it doesn't work easily, it gets scrapped. If my boss had the same issues I've had with 32-bit Excel and Power Query, he'd demand I stop using it.

Since my post on your blog we did win the fight to upgrade a few of us to Office 2013, so I consider that the biggest win I've had to date .

 

[Matt Allington]

It's a small world (the Power Pivot world anyway). Wow, there were a lot of comments on that post so it took me time to find yours. I should have started from the top

you could be just the guy I have been looking for for. I have a theory on how to install 64 bit Power BI and use 32 bit Access drivers. I have done the reverse with SQL a Server and it works. Trouble is I do t have a 32 bit install to test it on. If you are willing, read the blog post below and reverse the polarity on the 64:32 bit versions. If you try it, please let me know how it goes.

Problems Importing Access and Excel 2010 into SQL Server

 

[cyrilbrd]

I do not know for others, but if Excel related I would definitely come here, now if PBI related I would go to either of the following:
Microsoft Power BI Community
SQLBI
Excelerator bi
PowerPivot (Pro)

Checking out the forum here would be more by curiosity and to see how some interesting queries have been solved.

 

[Vaslo]

It's a small world (the Power Pivot world anyway). Wow, there were a lot of comments on that post so it took me time to find yours. I should have started from the top

you could be just the guy I have been looking for for. I have a theory on how to install 64 bit Power BI and use 32 bit Access drivers. I have done the reverse with SQL a Server and it works. Trouble is I do t have a 32 bit install to test it on. If you are willing, read the blog post below and reverse the polarity on the 64:32 bit versions. If you try it, please let me know how it goes.

Problems Importing Access and Excel 2010 into SQL Server

I appreciate you posting this. I am unable to test because I have so many issues with installing software because of the IT lockdown that if I have any failures it's difficult to get admin access to fix it. I miss the days when IT let you install software on your PC before those old hackers and knuckleheads who installed games on their work PCs messed it up for everyone. Oh well.

I'm continuing to work with my Power Query solution for modeling volume forecasts. When it works well (updating the data each month), it works really well. However, it is SUPER touchy. For example, it's only addressing 400k of memory (looks like it can max out excel 1.4-1.5 gigs in the Task Monitor). Even at that low usage level, wonky things happen. I can NEVER have two Excel files open for too long. Occasionally it was just start to hang and I'll have to use Ctrl+S to save because Save as and other functions just don't work unless I close and open again.. I definitely see the "power" of the Power BI solution, but with many corporations stuck on older, 32-bit versions of Excel, the software will definitely take longer to mature than necessary .