title: Analysis Services with excel as front end - is it possible to get the nicer UI that powerpivot provides
body: <p>I have been looking into PowerPivot and concluded that for "self service BI" and ahoc buidling of cubes it has its uses. In particular I like the enhanced UI that you get from using PowerPivot rather than just using a PivotTable hooked up to an analysis services datasource.</p>
  
  <p><strong>However</strong> it seems that hooking up PowerPivot to an existing analysis services cube is not a solution for "organisational BI". It is not always desireable to suck millions of rows into excel at once and the interface between PowerPivot and analysis services is very poor in my book.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Hence the question is</strong> can an existing analysis services solution get the enhanced ui features that power pivot brings, <strong>without</strong> using powerpivot as the design tool? If powerpivot is aimed at self service/personal BI then it seems bizare that the UI for this is better than for bigger/more costly analysis services solutions.</p>