MC808826 – Microsoft Excel: Publish to Power BI retires starting August 19, 2024 (archived)

Product:

Microsoft 365 Apps, OneDrive, Power BI, SharePoint

Platform:

Web, World tenant

Status:

Change type:

User impact, Retirement

Links:

Details:

Summary:
The "Publish to Power BI" feature in Microsoft Excel will retire on August 19, 2024. Users should transition to the Power BI service for publishing needs. The Power BI service offers additional capabilities not found in Excel's publishing feature, and this change will not affect existing workbooks. Users must upload workbooks to Power BI from OneDrive or SharePoint.

Details:
The Publish to Power BI feature will no longer be available in Microsoft Excel in Microsoft 365. We recommend users transition to Microsoft Power BI on the web (also known as the Power BI service), for their publishing needs. We will remove Publish to Power BI from Excel in Microsoft 365 starting August 19, 2024, and Publish to Power BI will not be included in the Excel 2024 perpetual release. This does not impact prior versions of on-premises Office.
The Publish to Power BI feature is no longer up to date with the publishing experience in the Power BI service. The Power BI service has all the capabilities of the Excel Publish to Power BI feature and more, such as non-default workspaces, workspace folders, and modern format data models, which are not available through Excel publishing.
This retirement will not impact any existing workbooks or workbook artifacts in the Power BI service or in Excel.
Users will need to transition to the Power BI service for their publishing needs. The Power BI service can do everything that the Publish to Power BI feature does and more. We recommend using these workflows in the Power BI service:
Upload your workbook to the Power BI service
Uploading a local Excel file to your Power BI workspace: Power BI no longer supports the upload of Excel files from local folders. To upload or view your Excel file in a Power BI workspace, resave your file in Microsoft OneDrive or Microsoft SharePoint.
Uploading a cloud (OneDrive or SharePoint) Excel file to your Power BI workspace: In your selected Workspace/folder, use Upload to upload files to the Power BI service.
Export workbook data to the Power BI service
Use the Power BI service to import local Excel data into your Power BI workspace: In your selected Workspace/folder in the Power BI service, select New and then select Semantic Model.
Use the Power BI service to import cloud Excel data into your Power BI workspace: In your selected Workspace/folder in the Power BI service, select New and then select Semantic Model.

Change Category:
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Scope:
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Release Phase:

Created:
2024-07-06

updated:
2024-07-06

Task Type

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Docu to Check

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MS Urgency

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MS workload name

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Direct effects for Operations**

- Impact on IT Operations
- Transition Requirement: IT operations will need to facilitate the transition from the "Publish to Power BI" feature to the Power BI service, which may require additional training and support resources.
- Roles Impacted: IT Support Staff, IT Training Coordinators
- Increased Support Tickets: Anticipated increase in support requests as users adapt to the new publishing process, potentially leading to resource strain.
- Roles Impacted: IT Helpdesk, IT Support Staff

- Impact on IT Services
- Dependency on OneDrive and SharePoint: The change necessitates reliance on OneDrive and SharePoint for file storage and access, which may require monitoring for performance and availability.
- Roles Impacted: IT Operations Managers, Cloud Services Administrators
- Integration Challenges: Potential integration issues with existing workflows that utilize the "Publish to Power BI" feature, requiring updates to documentation and processes.
- Roles Impacted: IT Process Owners, Business Analysts

- Impact on IT Users
- User Training Needs: Users will need training on how to effectively use the Power BI service for publishing, which may disrupt their current workflows.
- Roles Impacted: End Users, Business Intelligence Analysts
- Change in Workflow: Users accustomed to the Excel publishing feature will need to adapt to new workflows, which may lead to temporary productivity loss.
- Roles Impacted: Data Analysts, Business Users

- Impact on IT Administrators
- Policy Updates: IT administrators will need to update policies and guidelines regarding data publishing and storage to reflect the new processes.
- Roles Impacted: IT Compliance Officers, IT Policy Managers
- Monitoring and Reporting: Increased need for monitoring usage of Power BI service and reporting on user adoption and issues encountered during the transition.
- Roles Impacted: IT Administrators, Data Governance Officers

- Dependencies and Interdependencies
- Interdependency with Power BI Features: The retirement of the "Publish to Power BI" feature may affect other Power BI functionalities that rely on Excel integration, necessitating a review of all related services.
- Roles Impacted: Data Engineers, BI Developers
- Collaboration Tools: The reliance on OneDrive and SharePoint for file uploads may impact collaboration tools and require updates to user access and permissions.
- Roles Impacted: IT Security Administrators, Collaboration Tool Managers

References:
- Microsoft Announcement on Power BI and Excel Changes: [Microsoft Blog](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/10/01/microsoft-excel-publish-to-power-bi-retires-starting-august-19-2024/)
- Power BI Documentation: [Power BI Documentation](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/)

Opportunities**

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Potentional Risks**

XXXXXXX ... paid membership only