Do spreadmarts have their place?
Business Intelligence software vendors spend a great deal of effort preaching against the dangers of spreadmarts: valuable corporate data trapped inside Excel files all over the place. On the other hand, when the BI tool fails to meet a requirement, every vendor is happy to demonstrate how they can be a hybrid solution. Reports can be exported to Excel, reports can be opened directly from an Excel plug-in, and spreadsheets can be updated automatically with figures from the data warehouse.
This speaks to the maturity of BI software in general. There is a grudging acceptance of two things:
- not every forseealbe requirement can be met with a shrinkwrapped software solution
- people like Excel
As BI vendors move into the broader SMB market, the interoperability with Excel will be key. For many, Excel is the de facto standard for reporting and analysis.
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