Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM) is a new data model that was introduced by Microsoft in SQL Server 2012. It is a single unified BI platform that publicizes one model for all end-user experiences. It is a hybrid model that exposes two storage implementations: the multidimensional data model (formerly called OLAP) and the tabular data model, which uses the xVelocity engine (formally called VertiPaq), all of which are hosted in SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS).

The tabular data model provides the architecture and optimization in a format that is the same as the data storage method used by PowerPivot, which uses an in-memory analytics engine to deliver fast access to tabular data. Tabular data models are built using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) and can be created from scratch or by importing a PowerPivot data model contained within an Excel workbook.

Once the model is complete, it is deployed to an SSAS server instance configured for tabular...