Problem With Forecasting With Excel 2007 DM Add-in Using Drill-through Data From SSAS 2005!

I€™m having a problem with Excel 2007 DM and SQL 2005 and I hope someone out there has a solution.

Consider the following environment:

Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, Excel 2007, Data Mining Add-in, SSAS 2005 (with session mining models enabled, an AdventureWorksDW cube deployed and drill-through actions available).

Now take the following steps:

1. In Excel 2007 set up a connection to SSAS

2. Connect to the cube and create a new pivot table report (drag and drop whatever you like)

3. Right-click on one of the cell values in the data region and either select a drill-through action, or, select Show Details in the context menu

4. Ensure that you have at least 10 detailed records that are generated on a new worksheet page; you should have a time-based column in your detailed records

5. Select the table of detailed data, then select the Analyze tab (within the Table Tools grouping) which appears in the topmost menu above the ribbon

6. Click the Forecast button in the ribbon and choose both the field which you want to predict as well as the time-based column (from step 4) as well as the number of time periods to forecast

7. Finally click OK.

1. Having followed these steps on both WinXP SP2 and Vista, I keep coming across the exception: HResult:0x800A03EC. Any ideas as to why this exception pops up? If I was using a normal table of data (which was not generated from a Show Details or drill-through action), then the Forecast button works fine.

I googled it and thought the localization settings for SSAS 2005 and Excel 2007 needed to be the same (initially they weren€™t). I€™ve tried removing the auto-filters which appear atop each column in the detailed data table prior to clicking the Forecast button, and, I€™ve also tested for a series of data across a number of time periods with the same result.

Also, a colleague of mine discovered that the column headers that appear by default from a drill-through start with "$[", and, in removing them the Forecast function appears to work.

I would have thought there would be a seamless transition in Excel 2007 between data retrieved from a cube and the DM Add-in featueres (or at the very least, a more meaningful exception message than the one presented).

Is there something I€™ve missed, or, is there a KB article I haven€™t come across yet? As I know for a fact that the problem is reproducible, is there a fix to this problem on its way to us? Is there a useful workaround that doesn't require manual intervention?

Thanks,
A.