Preface

Creating reports is natural in any business, and there are many Microsoft products for this purpose. However, the oldest and the most popular product is SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), which is ideal for any standard type of report. With technology evolving and the benefits of self-service reporting becoming evident, a new tool was needed. Microsoft responded to this need with Power View.

This book will cover all of the features of SSRS and Power View and will provide a step-by-step lab activity for each feature so that you can develop reports very quickly. You will learn the strengths and weaknesses of each tool, and thus be able to ascertain the best one to use for various reporting scenarios that you will encounter.

We, the authors of this book, are consultants who work with companies on a daily basis to design and create reports as well as help others to do so. When looking for a book to recommend to our clients that covers both SSRS and Power View, we found that books either talk about just one of these tools or include both but with limited information because they also cover a wide range of other reporting tools. Also, we could not find books that addressed the following topics: various reporting scenarios and the best tool to use for each; Power View for Excel 2013; the differences between Power View for SharePoint and Power View for Excel; and how SSRS is used for standard reporting, while Power View is used for self-service reporting. This book is our attempt to fill all these gaps.