The ExcelCube Blog

So much time gets spent when there is a need to merge or consolidate information across Excel files.

A great question that Jaime Brugueras, CEO of Mineful addresses in his Software Advice blog What's Lacking In BI.  It seems that building the definitive Business Intelligence (BI) system is like chasing a dream.   We get close, but never quite there.

There are many reasons that currently Business Intelligence systems miss the boat….  Jaime, quite correctly identifies some key pain points.   Here they are with our comments: 

Come hear Tom Salzer, CEO of ExcelCube, speak at the NY Business Intelligence Meetup on Tuesday, November 8th at 6:00pm in New York City,  Here is the link to sign up:

It may seem strange that a Business Intelligence Software company is asking whether we are doing too much reporting and analysis.  Typically, it would be quite the opposite.

Go into an organization and ask to see some of their Excel applications.  Inevitably, there are applications that are amazingly powerful and equally complex.

So here’s how the process generally goes…  One person in one department develops a budget spreadsheet.  It looks good.   The organization sees that there may be a fit for other departments as well.   So, the spreadsheet expands to accommodate the new departments.   Then the next step is to consolidate across departments for a version of the budget that pulls the whole organization together.  Linking formulas get written and it’s all good.

It often looks like the world of Business Intelligence (BI) software world is pitted against Excel.  So much of current thought is that if only Excel users could somehow be moved to a standard system of reporting and analysis all would be good with the world.  Excel chaos would be over and the company could move on