OT: Is EXCEL a productivity killer?

[Otto]

We do not provide any EXCEL exports in our software because we think that a business software should provide the data a business needs.
The main disadvantages we see are:
If you allow data manipulation with for example EXCEL you lose standardization because everyone “invents” new forms.
And second people which are not trained in programming do this job and lose a lot of time.
What do you think?
Best regards,
Otto

[TimStone]

Otto,

At the request of some clients, I export certain information to Excel, but I do not allow any importing. There are two reasons for the exports.

1) Some people like to manipulate the data to do "what if" projections. They know what they are doing, and doing it outside the application keeps the data tables safe.

2) Some people send the information to 3rd party vendors. For example, they want a listing of clients which is selected by our system, but the spreadsheet is then transferred to a company that handles a mailing.

Tim

[Rick Lipkin]

Otto

Let me say that I used to work for State Government for 18 years.. I provided custom applications for multiple program areas for an Agency with about 5000 employees.

It never ceased to amaze me just how many times the same question can be asked ( from a different point of view ) at least 10 different ways all resulting in 10 different answers.

I got to the point where my standard reports had three options, Print, View or Export to Excel... You have data analysts that I would rather give them the raw data and have them crunch the numbers, presented with this column totaled, or sorted by this column, added up this way, subtracted from that, multiplied by whatever ..

Plus, you have to realize that the raw data will be crunched and presented to someone else that needs to have it in an e-mail format like excel.

I am not dis-agreeing with you .. I do my best to provide as many standard reports with all my applications .. but inevitably, the business rules change, and if I can minimize the impact of writing new reports by allowing the customer to extract raw data it only helps to extend the life of my application.. which just leaves me more time to do other things.

Rick Lipkin