Excel Is The World’s Most Used “Database”

"I've invented a program that allows non-programmers to input loosely-typed semi-structured data without needing to define a schema. It is automatically human-readable, and data can be simple code that can act on other data. It doesn't scale too well, but it can export to CSV and other standard data formats, allowing you to build real systems with it once the non-technical people have finished their logical prototyping."

People would be singing its praises and proclaiming the death of SQL for umpteenth time.

Let's take an example. If the user wants to stick some free-form text in between the end of sales records for one year and the start of the next, they are free to do that. In any less free-form application, they need to define a "comment record" or similar, and they probably need to get a programmer involved to do that. And although the SaaS web version of their "database" may have a better interface, in a lot of cases, having to get a tech involved to make that sort of change is not a compromise people want to make.

And they have a point. It's not a slight against programmers, it's just that when they need to make that change, you'll be 2 companies and 5 projects down the line, and it won't be possible. The article mentions a sheet that has been in use for 15 years - if that had been made as a proper program, at that time, it likely would have been done as, say, a VB application, with an MDB back-end, and it probably would have had purple buttons. The source code would now be lost, and if the business process changed at all, the choices would be a full re-code, or working around it. I would be surprised if in 15 years time, we don't look at today's pet technologies in the same way that you just did when you read VB and MDB.

For me, the direction that Excel, and other spreadsheet, need to take is the same route that browsers needed to take when IE6 ruled the world. We need standardisation, and innovation. I've written a couple of blogs on this, and for me, the way to go is a central repository of extensions (http://edparcell.posterous.com/how-about-an-app-store-for-ex... for more on that). In the case of Excel "databases", it might be sensible to create an extension to standardise the management and creation of such "databases". It could even allow features like sharing data, backing up etc, but for that to still happen where users are comfortable: within Excel.

http://www.neopoleon.com/home/blogs/neo/archive/2003/09/29/5...

Seriously though, the problem is that any real solution needs to accommodate housing data internally that's accessible concurrently with backups. Once you do that you still need IT involvement, which still makes it 3 months slower than excel.

+ Most companies have share-point, and the newer versions allow users to define spreadsheets with rules that can be edited directly in excel yet still upload centrally for all users to access with backups.

I think you're trying to find a sweet spot where technology will overcome organizational bureaucracy. It's a tight spot.

Best of Luck!

All the 'Excel-replacement' solutions I've seen are forms based, so there's a lot of pointing and and dragging going on. That's so much slower than just using the keyboard.

Just observe how true Exel ninjas use it... the keyboard calisthenics is mind-blowing.

Perhaps an Excel replacement will need to have an Excel-like interface, or find a way to get rid of excessive pointing and clicking.

Users of Excel see its great potential and its intuitive interface and use it for things that builders of this product have not anticipated.

What's wrong here is that builders do not follow users and don't try to improve their product to better fit what the users are using it for. Excel should turn into actual database many years ago.

Personally I'd like to see Excel migrate in this direction: http://dabbledb.com/demo/#play

Ill chuck up a review my startup thread in the next day or so when we get the website / documentation cleaned up, but would be happy to hear what anyone thinks.

Also, I never thought schools, PCs or technical manuals did an adequate job of explaining what the difference is between a spreadsheet and a database. Usually they just say 'database is for large amounts of data' but as we know businesses have enormous spreadsheets anyway. I'm not even sure how I would explain it without referring specifically to relational databases and saying something like 'think of a database as like a 3D spreadsheet...' and mumbling a lot

Also, I'm building everything on top of Django with plans for an Export App feature that will give people portability. Build your app and tweak it with us, then export and host it on your own servers if you want (although you'll lose the ability to customize it without getting into the code).

All in all, I think there's room in the market for a lot of different approaches, since everyone's problem is a little different, and everybody's data is different.

I'd love to find a better solution but excel so far is still the cheapest/easiest to train.

We met with a group of spreadsheet support people once at a fairly large company where, as is typical, IT was trying to force the users off their spreadsheets. Here is how they said users were actually using the spreadsheet-replacing-proper-enterprise-apps that they had been mandated to use:

  1. Open the enterprise app.
  2. Paste the data into Excel.
  3. Do whatever they want.

Unfortunately, I'm away from my notes, but my latest thought was this:

1. Able to import basic excel data, even if an MVP can't deal with VBA. Support the basic types of Excel, and be able to interact with the data in a spreadsheet sort of way. (Much like Access.)

2. Don't make IT afraid of this app. Imagine the technical support requirements as people lose data, do something weird. It's a burden to IT. So, it has to be dead-easy to use (Read: like Excel) with incredible documentation (video, audio, tutorials, dead-tree), and has to give buy-in to IT that it will make their lives easier, not harder. Judging by my experience working in shops with small IT, this is really hard.

Or, it has to be for very-small businesses without a major IT presence. Then, it has to be cheap, because they already have excel. This looks to be the biggest barrier! You have to convince the client they have a problem. To me, this looks like the wrong market, though the one I started to look at first.

It's a sexy market. I'd still love in on it, and the people who finally figure it out will be a billion dollar business. However, more people than you know have tried it. It's a deceptively hard problem and I've been thinking about it off and on for over a year now.

I'm starting to think it should look a little different. Take care of an enterprise app framework for small businesses that takes care of single sign on with easy LDAP/AD integration, connections to multiple database, connections to legacy apps (simple links with option for single sign-on integration, with options for new windows or frames) and THEN have an Excel/Wufoo-crossbreed add-on for creating small applications. This would have IT buy-in, as they could use it themselves for small things, it would have built in transparent security, and they would be able to delegate to power users who could define the problem and would be able to work with IT for solutions.

This would be a big app. I haven't found the MVP to extract, save for the framework itself. I'm looking for partners on this idea currently.