Premium Content

Access "Riding herd on Excel BI use isn't easy, but it's necessary"

Alan R. Earls, Contributor Published: 10 Oct 2012
Data warehouses must learn new tricks in Big Data era

This article is part of the Issue 6, June 2012 issue of Data warehouses must learn new tricks in Big Data era

Business intelligence managers once talked longingly about weaning end users off their Excel addictions to help ensure that BI data remained consistent and secure. Yeah, right: In most cases, efforts to eradicate Excel from BI processes went nowhere, forcing BI teams to shift to a strategy of accommodating rather than eliminating it. “We have fought the war for 20 years and we have lost,” said Boris Evelson, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. What BI managers need to do now, he added, is work to control and manage Excel BI use as best they can. For example, Evelson recommended that Excel be integrated with BI software that can export data to spreadsheets, enabling Excel to function more as a user interface and data presentation layer than as a data manipulation tool itself. More on mixing Excel and business intelligence Find out why consultant Rick Sherman has called Excel “the king of BI” Get tips on how to deal with data integrity issues in Excel BI applications Read about a retailer that is shifting its reporting from Excel to a BI ... Access >>>

Access TechTarget
Premium Content for Free.

By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy

Already a member? Login to access this content.

What's Inside

Features

More Premium Content Accessible For Free

Back to top