As An OLAP Client
Excel Pivot Tables includes the feature to directly query an OLAP server for retrieving data instead of getting the data from an Excel spreadsheet. On this configuration a pivot table is a simple client of an OLAP server. Excel's Pivot Table not only allows for connecting to Microsoft's solution (Analysis Service), but to any XMLA (OLAP standard) compliant server.
Other OLAP clients are JPivot, Dundas, IcCube (Client Library).
Read more about this topic: Pivot Table
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