Excel, created by Microsoft, is one of the most popular software applications in the world. Despite the ongoing conversations about its failures, it continues to rule over multiple industries. Many organizations rely on Excel for managing and analyzing financial performance, while others have begun to question its effectiveness and seek alternative solutions. While the tool provides tremendous value, it presents tremendous danger. This sharp contrast has sparked discussions about completely abandoning the practice.
Julian Tanner, a public relations exec and charity leader, laments his charity’s overuse of Excel. He’s still right to think of it as an extraordinary expense, and he’s far from the only one who feels this way. Excel has been Health New Zealand’s data file of record when tracking financial performance. Tanner’s fears do shine a light on an increasingly popular movement of organizations and associations taking a look at the impact of living in Excel.
Just this year, the UK’s recruitment process for new anesthetists was thrown into disarray by Excel spreadsheet-based governance. This unfortunate incident serves as a tragic reminder of the dangers of spreadsheet overload. The Afghan data scandal was triggered when an Excel spreadsheet made the rounds. This incident shook confidence in the integrity and security of all data, especially tracking technology.
Learn more about Moutie’s leading actions to stop Excel from driving your city’s planning and to develop a custom planning operating system. She hopes this shift will save C$42 million ($30 million, £23 million) annually by cutting mismatched capital. Wali adds that moving off Excel completely might not be reasonable, especially in the short term. He explains, “It’s hard for an external vendor or an external tool provider to just provide something for the organization that it could use across all those different teams.”
Two-thirds of office workers say they use Excel at least once an hour, a testament to the fact that Excel is firmly entrenched in offices worldwide. We all love Excel for letting users automate a series of steps through a massive spreadsheet. People like Professor Mark Whitehorn have cautioned against becoming overly dependent on it. He points out that departments usually just punch data into spreadsheets which then get run through a bunch of macros and come out the other end with outputs.
Even with these worries, Excel continues to be the default tool of choice for thousands of professionals. As an example, Kate Corden runs a bike fitting business and uses Excel to track her data. She acknowledges its limitations: “It’s too easy to lose data. It’s easy for data to be altered.” Corden recently migrated off of Excel to LinkSpace, a more robust case management tool built for complex workflows. She believes this transition will streamline her operations significantly: “It’s just having a complete data management system where you’ve got everything, instead of having multiple excels, which is going to really help me as I grow.”
Microsoft seems to be aware of this change in how Excel is being used lightning over the past 40 years. A spokesperson stated, “Over four decades, Excel has evolved from a basic spreadsheet into a versatile platform used by everyone.” They further emphasized the software’s increasing relevance: “It is more widely used today than ever before, with monthly usage growing consistently over the past six years, and remains the default tool for data analysis, modelling, and reporting across industries.”
Though Excel has been a mainstay in tech education for decades next to Word and PowerPoint, many in the profession recommend being careful because of Excel’s drawbacks. Tom Wilkie remarks, “It’s just a really good tool. If you want to look at a small dataset, try an idea, or make a quick chart for a presentation, there’s nothing better for quick and easy analysis.”
The juxtaposition of convenience against potential risks brings forth the critical point made by Professor Whitehorn: “People will say ‘well I’m taking my data and I’m doing this,’ but it’s essential to remember: It isn’t your data, it’s the company’s data.” This underscores the importance of strong data management systems to reduce risks from data loss or change.