Aaron Feng: Is Excel the ultimate business solution?

Is Excel the ultimate business solution?

Aaron Feng — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:54:00 -0400

Sometimes I wonder why exporting to Excel is commonly found in software? It seems like the first requirement for all business-like software is the ability to export to Excel. This is also apparent from the development side since many UI controls right out of the box have this magical ability baked in, especially 3rd party controls.

I understand Excel is a powerful tool, and it solves problems for many. It's just ironic to me that we are building software that exports to some other format, so people can use an external tool to make sense of the data. Shouldn't the software itself help people to analyze the data?

I have actually seen software that has no real ability to analyze the underlying data. The only way to make sense of the data is to export to Excel then run some fancy macro in Excel.

The baked in exporting feature also creates another dilemma. If they are made by different vendors, they probably don't export the same way (maybe even from the same vendor) in terms of layout and formats. The facility to change the exporting behavior is usually limited or non-existant.

One could argue that Excel is just another format that allows people to share data, and they should be able to manipulate the data in Excel however they want. I'm totally fine with that. What I have a problem with is that exporting to Excel shouldn't be a replacement for real business value features. We shouldn't design the application around some magical control because it can export to Excel.

"Is Excel the ultimate business solution?" by Greg Young

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:47:25 -0400

Well ... I consider excel to be an invaluable prototyping tool as well as good for "one offs".

As a prototyping tool, users will often have ideas of how they want to look at data, it may or may not be valid but needs to be looked into so they can fix up their idea before actual work is spent on it. By allowing users to export to excel you are allowing them to do this. This must however be paired with proactive featyure searching of looking at what their excel spreadsheets do and how they use the data. Overall this has been very successful for me to find the areas of the business that the software is lacking in.

The last case and probably the most important to watch out for in prototyping is when people are using excel as an integration tool. Taking data from disparate sources and combining it to create charts etc. I cannot stress it enough that this is BAD and it shows a lacking integration point in the domain model where a key segment of the business has been missed. This needs to be looked at immediately.

For the "one off" cases excel is also extremely valuable. Some examples of "one off" cases might be to create a chart or to regress two columns in a data set to test for correlation. While you could put in support generically to test for correlation many users would prefer to just do it in excel. I am all for the creation of generic statistical functions/interfaces but many companies are simply not willing to invest the money in it. As for the charts, it is simply not cost effective to create a custom chart in the system for every chart someone may ever want to build (and to munge the data appropriately for them, especially if it is only to be run once for a given meeting).

"Is Excel the ultimate business solution?" by Chris Holmes

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:05:40 -0400

"If the users do not trust the software, how can they trust the data that is being exported?"

This is so funny. Same question came up in our last meeting with our customer. They don't trust the software, despite unit tests and acceptance tests that they defined. But they trust Excel to SUM a few numbers in a column.

I think, however, there's one other thing to consider: familiarity. Users like to work with what they know and they abhor change. At the most fundamental level, that is the problem. Users don't like to adapt to change, regardless of what new or better features may be brought into play.

It's a mindset issue.

"Is Excel the ultimate business solution?" by Aaron Feng

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 15:34:08 -0400

I would question why resources are not allocated for feature. Isn't the goal of the software to improve productivity? I can see this point more for internally built software.

If the users do not trust the software, how can they trust the data that is being exported? I think this is a sign of a bigger problem. Perhaps Excel is the cornerstone of the banking/finance system because people are used to inferior software.

"Is Excel the ultimate business solution?" by AK

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:46:08 -0400

But it is unavoidable. For example, in the case of finance/banking sector, users are not always getting the software features that they need. (It is usually due to the fact that the IT management does not allow delivery of new features in the name of resources allocation. And they are PROUD of being conservative) . Secondly, in this sector, users do not trust the system a lot either. (Software quality issue. In some banks, really serious issues that I always wonder why no SEC investigation). So, exporting to excel is a way the end-users can really have a hand on the raw data and to cross-check the system. I'd say Excel is more than just a mean to share data. It is the cornerstone of our banking/finance system :-)

"Is Excel the ultimate business solution?" by jon

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 00:59:38 -0400

well said, aaron. well said.