locii is committed to using Microsoft Excel as the front end tool for all our Business Intelligence (BI) solutions.
locii Insight uses Excel 2007 as its native front end and concentrates on making full use of the latest technological advances made available by Excel 2007 linked to SQL Server and SQL Server Analysis Services.
Why does Insight use predominantly Excel as a front end interface ?
Quoting from a renowned Business Intelligence expert, Rick Sherman :
“For many years BI vendors have been building front-end tools to try to replace spreadsheets for querying, reporting and analyzing data results. But despite the fact that tens of thousands of BI tool licenses have been sold, spreadsheets are still the most pervasive and dominant tool.
What makes Excel so dominant? It's on practically everyone's PC; there are no extra costs; it's easy to learn; it does the data manipulation and data graphics companies need for most reports and analysis; and many business people have become spreadsheet "jocks." Even if "real" BI tools were free, Excel already has enough momentum that people would still use spreadsheets for much of their reporting and analysis tasks.
So how do BI vendors feel about this? They've initially responded in two ways. First, they tried to develop Excel-like interfaces. Close, but no cigar. Why learn another interface that's sort of like what you want, but isn't and can't do all of what you have been able to do for years? Second, they "integrated" with spreadsheets by exporting data in spreadsheet formats like CSV (without formulas or formatting). This one-way transfer often required business users to reformat and recreate formulas, which didn't make them or their IT people happy … they are in denial mode if they think they can truly supplant spreadsheets.”
Rick Sherman
Rick Sherman has 20 years of business intelligence and data warehousing experience. He is the founder of Athena IT Solutions, a Boston-based business intelligence consulting firm, and is a published author and industry speaker.
Storing all business data in a data warehouse while keeping Excel at the front end utilises the power and familiarity of spreadsheets whilst avoiding the proliferation of undocumented data silos and the questionable data that goes along with them. Most significantly, it makes business users more productive because it lets them choose and create their own business intelligence tools while still supporting IT's efforts to manage and control the spread of data. By concentrating on Microsoft Excel as the front end tool and providing an array of additional functionality, like specialised cube functions and a ribbon interface, Insight builds on this advantage to maximise productivity.
