Excel is becoming somewhat like the Irish diaspora of the IT world. No matter where you go, you will find an Irish person and Excel – sometimes even together! In the article below there are a number of views from various Excel gurus and generally the view is very positive….
27 MICROSOFT EXCEL EXPERTS PREDICT THE FUTURE OF EXCEL IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Main points?
- Third most used option in IT systems – still Export To Excel (after OK and Cancel) . (Chandoo) Users want their data in Excel format. They feel comfortable with it. The challenge I believe for IT departments and management is getting people up to speed with the amazing facilities that are already there and with the advent of Power Query and Powerpivot – business intelligence can really be in the hands of the users. (Ken Puls)
- Still not loved by IT departments – see Chris Webb’s ( Blog.crossjoin.uk // @Technitrain)
“In the future I think Excel will be right where it always has been – at the centre, loved by its users, disliked by IT and the target of endless attempts to replace it by third party BI software vendors.
Excel will be right where it always has been – at the centre, loved by its users, disliked by IT and the target of endless attempts to replace it by third party BI software vendors.
– Chris Webb
I come from an IT background and I fully understand all the hostility that exists towards Excel in this area: it results in ungovernable, out-of-date spreadmarts of data, inconsistent and error-prone calculations and difficult-to-maintain reports, all of which create real problems for IT. Yet the cause of these problems, the flexibility of Excel and the power that it puts in the hands of its users, is the reason why non-IT people use it and love it so much and why it won’t be replaced in the foreseeable future”
- BI for the users – that’s how it could be used..
Mynda Treacy (Myonlinetraininghub.com // @OnlineTrainingH ) makes the point that “Excel is affordable self-service BI for everyone”
However there was some rather less optimistic views as well…
SOMKIAT FOONGKIAT (Excelexperttraining.com // @SomkiatFK) said ” I believe that MS Excel is going to be more uncontrollable and used with higher risk in the future. Few users have control over how they apply Excel in businesses. Excel is easy to start using, but it is very difficult to apply it correctly”
Rory Archibold (http://Excelmatters.com // @roryarchibald) “I have mixed feelings. Excel now has excellent BI tools which are becoming better integrated with each version. However, since 2010 they seem to be aimed at enterprise customers who, in my experience, tend to have their own tools in place and whose IT departments tend to guard access to the data sources with an almost religious fervour.The real benefit of self-service BI to my mind is in the SME sphere but they now need to pay for more expensive ProPlus subscriptions or stick with Office 2010 for the time being and hope for the best.Finally, Microsoft needs to stop changing the names of the tools!”