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I think the Excel team disagrees with you. I remember having even seen an Excel demo about big data on channel9 (apparently if it fits in a spreadsheet, it is still big data!). Based on the evolution of Excel, they clearly see it as a data analysis tool only, with lots of iterations of the pivot tables functionality. And clearly not as a modeling tool. My guess on Excel usage is that it is 10% of the time used for data analysis (pivot tables, time series analysis), 20% of the time used to create a simple table (planning for the week by non technical people), and 70% of the time used for modelling (business plan, tax calculations, accounting, pricing financial instruments, running an inventory, calculating something scientific/mathematic, etc). Most companies are run on Excel. For instance one thing where Excel sucks at one of its core functionalities is linking a powerpoint presentation to an Excel model. Any consultant, expert, banker, accountant, salesperson or marketer will do that all day. You can paste a table as a linked image but the formatting will be completely unstable and it is very dodgy. And no way to link a number in a textbox to Excel. Microsoft should focus on these problems rather than yet another pivot table functionality. Though office seems to be frozen time. I can't think of any major new feature since Office 2007. |