Microsoft Excel is here to stay. I know similar predictions of immortality were made of, for example, the typewriter , and as recently as 20 years ago no one thought that the fixed line telcoms would be at risk of becoming extinct, so maybe in 10 years time I will look back on this post and wonder what I was smoking when I wrote it. But having worked with Excel for many years now, and more specifially creating technology that integrates with Excel to provide BI solutions for mid sized organisations, I believe I have a very good appreciation of how relevant and critical it is to many millions of companies – and I don’t see it losing its position of dominance in the world of BI and spreadsheets in a hurry.
There are already, and will no doubt be many more, pretenders to the throne but Excel is pervasive, it is easy and will get easier to use, it is immensely powerful and will get more powerful (despite all of us only using a fraction of ts functionality). With this antipated growth in functionality and usability, I would bet that Excel will remain a great BI base for the mid sized market for a long time to come.
