Applied Microsoft Business Intelligence

Chapter 13Exploring Geographic and Temporal Data with Power Map

Many organizations perform huge amount of analyses in geographical or temporal contexts. Analyzing sales is a very typical example. Business analysts frequently request sales comparisons in different regions and over time. Most of the international statistical information, like income per capita, birth and death rates, and similar categories, include statistics over countries or over time. Showing such data on map might be much more informational than showing it in a tabular format. Microsoft Power Map is an add-in for Excel that enables you to plot geographic data on three- or two-dimensional (3-D or 2-D) maps. In addition, you can show temporal data dynamically in a tour that shows a time-lapsed animation of the data.

This chapter describes Power Map and teaches you how to create dynamic tours. You learn how Power Map reports fit into your enterprise and personal reporting solution. Power Map is not the only tool in Microsoft BI suite that can show geographic and temporal data. A feature comparison of Power Map with Power View and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) helps you decide which tool to use for different needs and scenarios. Through examples you learn in detail how to prepare the data and create Power Map reports.

How Power Map Fits into Reporting Solutions

The number of different analysis and reporting tools in Microsoft BI suite is simply overwhelming. One of the most important decisions you have ...