Microsoft introduces an Excel add-in, Power Query that intensifies the self-service business intelligence experience by simplifying access, collaboration, and data discovery. It provides a better experience for data transformation, data discovery, and enrichment for information BI professionals, Information Workers, and other Excel users.
Identify the data from your work sources such as Excel, XML and text files, web pages, OData feeds, Hadoop HDFS, relational databases, etc. Use the search option to discover essential data from outside and inside your organization within Excel.
Disparate data sources, shape them, and combine data from multiple sources to prepare it for next step analysis in tools like Power Pivot and Excel and visualization tools like Power Map and Power View. With the help of Power BI, you can share the queries you have or created within your organization so that users can easily search them.
Power Query supports operating systems such as Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. Besides, it supports office versions like Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus with software assurance and Microsoft Office 2013. Power Query also requires Internet Explorer 9 or above and is available for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.
Power Query offers capabilities like Active Directory, Azure-based data sources, Dynamics CRM, Oracle, MySQL Exchange, Teradata, Salesforce, Business Objects, SharePoint Lists, Power BI Data Catalog, and many more.