I don't subscribe to your theory that the wide adoption of Excel as a database system is due to corporate politics.
Well good, because that's not my theory. I never said Excel wasn't good on its own merits. What I am saying is that Excel is used for ad-hoc process and automation.
The phenomenon I actually described happens all the time on trading floors in the energy industry. Whatever trading system is in use gets in the way of something new. The processes to support the something new are run largely off of spreadsheets. If the something new is a big hit, higher-ups start a project to enable the new processes on the enterprise software where they can be better controlled.
My experience (mostly in smaller companies of <1000 people) has shown that people use Excel because of low barriers (easy to learn), quick results, empowerment, and ownership.
If Excel didn't have all of these attributes, it could never be used by non-programmers to support ad-hoc processes.
The trading example you mention illustrates how organizations can benefit by allowing people to innovate within the business units, see what works, and implement the successful ideas in a more scalable form.
One of the challenges is whether the person/people who developed the spreadsheet version and the enterprise development team can successfully manage a transition to a formal enterprise project. Sometimes, the people who build these spreadsheets see the job as their domain, and see outsiders as treading on their turf, while the development team is not always sensitive to the ownership issues.
The trading example you mention illustrates how organizations can benefit by allowing people to innovate within the business units, see what works, and implement the successful ideas in a more scalable form.
Most often, the organizations I've seen see this more as a problem of lack of control and wish they could stamp out spreadsheet use entirely.
Well good, because that's not my theory. I never said Excel wasn't good on its own merits. What I am saying is that Excel is used for ad-hoc process and automation.
The phenomenon I actually described happens all the time on trading floors in the energy industry. Whatever trading system is in use gets in the way of something new. The processes to support the something new are run largely off of spreadsheets. If the something new is a big hit, higher-ups start a project to enable the new processes on the enterprise software where they can be better controlled.
My experience (mostly in smaller companies of <1000 people) has shown that people use Excel because of low barriers (easy to learn), quick results, empowerment, and ownership.
If Excel didn't have all of these attributes, it could never be used by non-programmers to support ad-hoc processes.