Microsoft Dynamics NAV Users Weigh Benefits, Risks of Broader use of PowerPivot

What's all the excitement around PowerPivot with Microsoft Dynamics NAV?  Sure, there is buzz, but until you start getting your hands on it, the benefits and risks of Microsoft's new generation of personal BI tools may not be clear.  And if you ask for lots of opinions on the question, you are bound to get lots of answers. 

A NAV user recently posed this question to the NAVUG ranks via their Collaborate forum (login required): Why is there so much excitement around PowerPivot? What's it good for and why is it better than the alternatives?

Like other broad use tools, PowerPivot has to be applied appropriately in the context of a Dynamics ERP or CRM solution to get great results and also minimize risks and headaches around reporting accuracy, data access, performance, and efficiency.  In the forum thread, the answers paint a picture of a tool that users are finding to have a wide range of possible applications, but in some cases can prove to be almost too far reaching.

"I've used it a bit at my site reporting on sales activity (Item Ledger Entries, Value Entries, and Item Analysis View Entries)," explained one user. "Generally my models allow for pivoting on Customer/Item dimensions (traditional NAV dimensions as well as any Customer/Item record field)."  He noted that performance is much better than NAV reporting, and that end users prefer an Excel-based report to one built in NAV.

Another ...