MS Excel is still the most common analytics tool- especially with financial analysts and even in the midst of the smartest Analytics technology vendors.
But the well-known issues remain- not least the inherent degradation of data as the complexity of the spreadsheet increases. Every business plan with a whopping mistake can trace the fault back to the way the spreadsheet has been manipulated over time
Tom Cahill paints a lucid picture of the benefits of Self-service Analytics tools available. Whether a software vendor that needs to embed embed self-service analytics or an enterprise needing to visualise insights you will find useful information here
Companies have spent countless hours grappling with spreadsheet software to decipher data; from manipulating text to setting up pivot tables, a lot of effort goes into creating a chart. The notorious shortcomings of spreadsheets for business-wide data capture and analysis, plus the need for clean, flexible data models gave birth to the business intelligence (BI) and analytics market. But to enforce analytics across an entire business has typically required qualified employees that have deep knowledge of data structures and the technical ability to apply algorithms that solve business needs. These people are rare and often expensive.
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