Benefits of Excel Based Software

Benefits of using Microsoft Excel solutions for business applications

The application of Excel Templates and Add-ins for business management and analytical requirements has several benefits which are useful to consider when deciding between Excel based and traditional software solutions.

Familiarity

Most business professionals are already familiar with the Microsoft Excel application. This translates into a faster acceptance and shorter learning curve to users presented with an Excel based solution disseminated within an organization. The wide user base for Excel has also established an extensive resource base for education, learning and sharing of developments. Familiarity and accessibility to help content can reduce training costs and time with the deployment of Excel based solutions.

Customization

The flexible nature of Excel make applications developed with it relatively easy to customize to specific end user requirements. Such customization may be accomplished within the applications themselves or, where application is protected or locked, through separate workbooks and modules that interact with the main application. Customization of Excel based solutions can range from simple style and formats to modification of VBA code for analytic processes.

Scalability

The abilities to link formulas and call compiled modules from separate workbooks in Excel make developed solutions scalable to meet growing demands of analytical requirements. As business needs evolve over time, additional functionality can be developed and integrated with the original application. Attention should be made to managing scalability so that solutions are built in an organized and modular fashion to facilitate additional functionality as requirements evolve.

Interoperability

With the proliferation of Microsoft Office as the choice for corporate desktop software for many organizations worldwide, Excel based solutions can seamlessly inter operate with other Office applications (including Excel) both within and between organizations. Furthermore components available in recent versions of Excel (as well as third party solutions) allow Excel content to be converted and shared on the web in HTML and XML formats. Versions of Microsoft Office available for alternative operating systems including Windows and Mac OSX allow Excel based solutions to be developed as cross platform business applications.

Collaboration

For projects and environments where all participants have Excel installed, Excel based solutions can be emailed and/or stored on shared servers for participants to update and contribute to Excel based solutions collaboratively. Collaboration to Excel based solutions can be both data input oriented and actual application development. In certain cases, Excel can act efficiently as a frontend data input and reporting solution for multiple users with a database infrastructure as the storage layer.