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Why Do We Use Excel?

insightsoftware -
July 21, 2023

insightsoftware is a global provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions, empowering organizations to unlock business data and transform the way finance and data teams operate.

On September 30, 1985, Microsoft released Excel into the world. First built for Macintosh, Microsoft added a Windows version in November of 1987, and the world of finance and accounting has never been the same.

Countless other spreadsheet software has since landed on the market, from Google Sheets to Apple’s iWork Numbers to Gnumeric for Linux. And yet, none so far have proven quite as enduring or prolific as Excel. Developed now to work on both desktop and mobile, Excel remains the undisputed king of the spreadsheet world, boasting over 750 million users worldwide.

There Must Be a Reason

Seven hundred fifty million users can’t be wrong: There must be a reason why the majority of companies continue to primarily use Excel over any other spreadsheet option. It is the number one platform when it comes to analyzing data, finding information, preparing charts, and presenting them to decision-makers. Excel is also used for doing forecasting models. Excel performs well for all levels of user—from the basic calculator to the 100% technically adept—and allows each user to feel accomplished. Because Excel puts power in the hands of its users, it has cemented user attraction to the program and ensured that it will not easily be replaced in the foreseeable future.

Excel is familiar, readily available, and more powerful than ever. Some experts even go so far as to label Excel as the one application that the business world cannot live without.

That’s a pretty big statement.

And we just so happen to agree.

So Why Do We Love Excel?

At insightsoftware, we definitely love Excel. We love it enough to help make it even better for you and your team. We wanted to make Excel a program you love too, not one you just tolerate to get your job done.

What if Excel could be fun? What if it could automatically and securely run your scenario modeling summary reports with the latest data and drastically reduce the time it takes to assemble them each day, week and month? We saw these questions as opportunity to further solidify Excel as your number-one reporting platform, to keep you working in the program that you’re most familiar with, even when reporting on data from a variety of disparate sources.

While Excel in its own right is excellent at organizing and formulating data for reports, it often still requires significant human intervention, manual data mining, data dumping, and manipulation—up to and including re-keying data—each time you create a report. This can only increase the opportunity for error. Not to mention that the time it takes to complete the reporting process is often a CFO’s biggest nightmare.

That’s where Spreadsheet Server and Atlas come in. These flagship offerings were created with the express intent of making Excel an even easier and more intuitive place to work. Both programs integrate seamlessly with Excel to provide your reporting a true self service offering, pulling in live data from ERPs and other data sources into your reports and enabling you to update parameters and results with a single mouse click. The best part is that Spreadsheet Server and Atlas both leverage the Excel knowledge that you’re already using every day.

We simply took power and made it more powerful.

Is Excel Ever Going Away?

It might be a silly question to ask, since Excel is cited as a number-one business tool, but when the only constant is change, one might wonder if Excel could indeed ever go away.

The answer? Likely not!

With advances to the program itself as well as continually evolving plug-ins and tools, your Excel experience can only grow deeper roots. Platforms such as Spreadsheet Server and Atlas install in minutes and capitalize on everything you can already do in Excel and make it easier, faster, and more importantly: automated. Rapidly build reports that you can update on a monthly, quarterly, annually, or even daily basis with just a few clicks. We allow you to start—and stay—in Excel for your entire reporting experience, from build to delivery.

Ready to take your Excel experience to the next level? We’re waiting to get you there. Let us show you how!