I just read what I think is the best analogy for PowerPivot so far – these are the words of Amir Netz in a discussion:
A good analogy is the relationship between mainsteam media (newspapers and TV) and internet blogs.
In the old days (7 years back…), all of the information was provided exclusively by the mainstream media. The rise of the blogs is the rise of “Self Service Journalism”. The blogs are all over the place, have huge audiances and serve a critical role in providing information to the masses.
Still, the blogs are no replacement for mainstream media (MSM). They are no as credible, the don’t have the resources to do in-depth expose, and they cannot provide the professional production value of the MSM.
Both have a place. Both feed from each other. Both make people know more and be better informed.
Replace blogs with PowerPivot and MSM with “Corporate BI” and you have a good picture of how things will play out.
Now I feel myself like those journalists who also have a private blog, that apparently are undermining their core business but that instead, in the long term (they hope) are going to support it.
Today, PowerPivot lacks of many features just to be able to compete with existing technologies for corporate BI. However, even in a version X where these gaps will be filled, the missing piece will always be the lack of data validation. At least, this is the theory. In fact, there is always someone who gives more credibility to an anonymous blogger than to mainstream media… but, you know, censorship would be way worse… :-)