future of MS Excel

[baitmaster]

I don't know about you, but my entire career revolves around MS Excel. Without it I'd need to do some extensive retraining, and I'd lose the main tool that gives me a significant advantage over everyone else, in particular the ability to programme in VBA

Reading an interesting article over on Linked In that shows some pretty stark figures for MS: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsoft-capitulation-end-windows-everywhere-benedict-evans. In a nutshell, PC sales figures dropping like a stone, and MS missed the boat on mobile leading to significant fall off in MS Office use

So where does that leave MS Office for business? The article discusses home PCs so maybe not the end yet in business terms, but its not an ideal picture. With more analysis being done in bespoke systems - accounting, SAS, SQL etc. - will there be a gradual or even swift decline in the use of Excel in businesses? VBA has always been a little unpopular in some circles whether that due to lack of understanding, lack of supportability from IT outsource companies, or fears that personnel loss will leave a company with unusable systems, so is MS Excel even vulnerable to competitors that don't have VBA just because they're on a more popular platform?

It's definitely time to expand the skillset, but which way to go for the seasoned analyst that likes his programming and doesn't want to start as a novice again?

For me its project management coupled with accountancy and SQL, should provide a broad enough set of tools for the foreseeable, but interested to hear what others think is going to happen to the industry that has grown around MS Office, if that software itself falls into decline

 

[My Aswer Is This]

I believe the reason personal computer sales are down is because 90% of the public never did anything with their desktop or laptop computers except play games and social media. Now with all the Smart phones they can play their games keep in touch with FaceBook and twitter. I imagine sales of MSWord are also down. I've used Excel since 1980's

 

[Joe4]

will there be a gradual or even swift decline in the use of Excel in businesses?

Many large institutions, like banks, insurance companies, etc change at "glacial" speed. So even if there is a change/shift away from Excel, I think it will be anything but "swift". I say this because I have worked for or with many of these companies, and still see many old programs like MainFrames and DOS programs being used (welcome to 1989!).

It's definitely time to expand the skillset, but which way to go for the seasoned analyst that likes his programming and doesn't want to start as a novice again?

SQL and Visual Basic (VB.Net) & Visual Studio are good things to learn. I am in the process of working on that myself. Web design and web-related stuff seems like a good idea too.

 

[Smitty]

For serious financial use Excel is still the only game in town, so I don't think you'll see it go away anytime soon. But like Joe says, a lot of organizations are slow moving, so don't expect people to be upgrading to Excel v.Next anytime soon (unless they're educational organizations). I know some organizations that are still on 2007, and it's not rare to see one on 2003.

As for expanding your skillset I'd definitely look at the Power Tools suite (Query, View, Map Pivot). I'm actually looking into Python as a way to get my daughter into coding. SQL Server is also good to know, especially if you do anything with Access.

 

[mrmmickle1]

I've been learning a lot of MS Access lately which has been a pretty good experience. I find myself missing the Macro Recorder... but I have developed a decent skill set over the past 6 months. My plan is to segway this into SQL Server, SSRS and Visual Studio. My current company is moving into Tableau and SAP - Business Objects if that gives you an idea of where reporting is going.

Tableau is supposed to be "more user friendly" but I find it a little annoying. This is mainly b/c I can pretty much manipulate any data set in MS Excel. Trying to manipulate it in a different software proves difficult. The strength for Tableau is that it is real time. Which has a lot of advantages... It also has drawbacks though...seeing as snapshots are always nice to have.

MS Access / SQL Server - Some of the data sets I work with won't fit into workbooks, which makes it impossible to use MS Excel. I want to learn some PowerPivot skills, but am lacking at the moment.

Business Objects - This is a drag and drop environment like tableau... Its fairly user friendly...but has its quirks.

SSRS/Visual Studio - Haven't got a chance to mess with these too much....

 

[Smitty]

SSRS is pretty cool.

 

[Macropod]

In a nutshell, PC sales figures dropping like a stone, and MS missed the boat on mobile leading to significant fall off in MS Office use

So where does that leave MS Office for business? The article discusses home PCs so maybe not the end yet in business terms, but its not an ideal picture. ... is MS Excel even vulnerable to competitors that don't have VBA just because they're on a more popular platform?

Missing the mobile market is entirely irrelevant insofar as Excel is concerned. After all, how many users do you expect to do serious number-crunching on their smart-phones? Likewise, a drop of home PC sales is equally irrelevant - few home users need Excel. Some may dabble with budgets and the like, but you can already do that with Excel (yes, Excel) on smart-phones. On the business side of things, the story is quite different; Excel has such a huge installed base that it's unlikely industry will be moving en-masse to any other spreadsheet app in the near term.