Microsoft Excel has been the “Go-To” application for spreadsheets since spreadsheets have been a thing. Over the years, its features have consistently improved to a point where some people treat it almost like a Programming Language/IDE Hybrid.
There is a PHD thesis in the study of Excel and how it has shaped the world and I’m certainly not going to try and cover everything here, but I think there are a few reasons why it has and still seems to be the “Go-To” App for most people when interacting with any kind of data.
Everyone knows how to use it
Let me kick this off by saying that, I really like Excel – simply put, it just works! For any data related task, it nearly always can help you get the job done. Excel has a very low skill-floor to get started (even though there are very complex macros/functions if you want to delve into it) – most people under 30 will have probably had to learn it in school and everyone else who has ever worked in an office will be familiar with the value of putting data into rows and columns. It is simple, is easy to open, can be put in emails and generally very accessible.
It is great for quickly comparing data
Anytime there is something you need to track, compare or are working with numbers – it is likely that Excel is the simplest and fastest way for you to get the result you need. There are so many useful functions that work with a click of a button. Wether you just need to find the duplicate values in a list of 1000 customers or need to merge together two datasets, Excel is probably faster than anything else unless you are proficient in a programming language like Python.
Excel as the Anchor point?
Now, I will say that this is pretty much just an opinion piece from me, but stick with me and let me know what you think. We all know that the more popular something becomes, the more popular it gets just because it’s easier. For example, there are literally thousands of messenger apps out there, but only 3 or 4 of the biggest occupy the majority of users. This is because, if I want to contact my friends/relatives – it is much easier to just get the apps they are already on (2/3 total) than to persuade everyone to swap to the one app I want to use.
Excel is the same, most offices have been using Windows forever and as Excel is part of that ecosystem, it is now just the obvious choice. This has created an odd situation, whereby I think that Excel has subtly become almost like a base-currency against which we peg other apps. I don think this is a conscious process but I ask you to sit here now and consider the following:
You want to analyse some data, maybe you need to know the history of prices for a given product at your business, which of the below do you feel most drawn to:
- Get new login details made for the product system, login and view the data in there if you can.
- Ask someone to extract the data into a CSV file, that you can import into Python or any other tool/language.
- Ask someone to send you an extract as an excel sheet so you can filter it yourself.
If you have any experience with Excel at all, and you are short of time, you will probably always just pick option 3. This is anecdotally true for many other people too anytime there is a suggestion to move to new software or build a tool, I think some of us subconsciously think (is it better than excel?). In a way this compares all other applications to Excel, like how we compare the GDP of countries based on the Dollar.
Master Of Some?
The problem with all this is that many purpose built applications often never meet their full potential. Anytime a new “Tracker” type application is needed, many people will default to at least build a prototype in Excel – rather than attempt to build a custom web portal or desktop application.
- Perhaps you have had a project plan sent to you as an Excel spreadsheet, instead of MS Project?
- Maybe you have received an Excel spreadsheet, filled with Macros to submit data – instead of a webpage or purpose built application.
- Are your weekly reports send as Excel spreadsheets, rather than a real-time dashboard?
The possibilities are endless and it is impressive that Excel can be adjusted to perform nearly any role as an application it is likely not as good as a purpose-built solution. I am not saying that we need a specific app to track this years Secret-Santa, I just think it might be time we try something new on the next use case.
What do you think?