To connect to third-party products that provide OLAP data and services, you need to install OLAP provider software. This software includes additional data source drivers and client software to allow you to connect to a third-party OLAP database on a server.
To use the Microsoft Office features for working with OLAP data, the third-party OLAP provider must be Office compatible. The provider might or might not support creating and working with offline cube files. You can check for this support by creating a Microsoft Excel PivotTable report from source data that's provided by the third-party OLAP database. In the PivotTable report, the Client-Server Settings command on the PivotTable menu (PivotTable toolbar) will be unavailable if the provider does not support offline cube files.
For information about installing and using a third-party OLAP provider, consult your system administrator or the vendor for your OLAP product. After you install the provider, you can set up data sources in Microsoft Query to access the provider's databases.