The Unbundling of Excel

tomtunguz.com

6 pointspdog2 comments

The author is right to highlight the adoption of specific vertical solutions to replace Excel by business as they grow, because "the Excel workflow becomes unwieldy and burdensome". That's because Excel based solutions have to be operated manually on the desktop. Vertical solutions can tick over on cloud servers with minimal manual ops. But those considerations ignore the factors that drive Excel's persistent use. Excel enables end users to solve problems for themselves, without reference to vendorware, SaaS offerings or their own IT dept. And that enables business agility. Ergo Excel will never be completely displaced by the new solutions that the author identifies.

> Excel enables end users to solve problems for themselves, without reference to vendorware, SaaS offerings or their own IT dept.

Only because, largely for cargo cult reasons, many IT departments prohibit other tools that may be more suitable for the task but allow Excel, even when Excel and the other tool have similar profiles in whatever aspect (often security) is the normal basis for the policy.

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