Microsoft Excel as a Development Platform
Microsoft Excel is a truly remarkable application. This spreadsheet tool combines the fundamental capabilities of many different software packages (database, calculation, programming, graphing/charting, user interface, etc.), giving the user a wide variety of integrated resources useful in creating custom applications. It is for this reason that Spreadsheet Alchemy focuses on Microsoft Excel as our preferred platform for our solution design and development efforts.
Versatility of Custom Solutions
Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software applications are generally designed to perform a specific function, and often impose very strict operating assumptions, a complicated input structure, and a cumbersome and steep learning curve. Rarely does an institution’s workflow process fall within the “do it this way all the time” philosophy of COTS packages.
More likely, each new project undertaken has its own unique characteristics and requires a different approach than those of previous projects. This results in either executing each effort manually, attempting to coerce commercial software to perform the desired function, or the investment of time and money into the creation of tools specifically for the active project. Although the development of automated tools for a single program may at first seem difficult to justify, the benefits obtained once the tools are in use far surpass the initial investment cost.
I have been actively programming spreadsheets for every organization I have worked for since the inception of Lotus 123 in the early 1980s. The breadth of the applications I have constructed range from complex engineering design tools to sophisticated financial models, to educational and administrative utility programs. Many of these custom products are still being used today by their respective organizations to maintain their effectiveness benefits.
Rationale for Excel
Several of the compelling motivations for selecting Microsoft Excel as Spreadsheet Alchemy’s software development package of choice are listed below.
For these reasons (and more) we recommended considering Microsoft Excel (and Spreadsheet Alchemy) as the basis for improving your workflow processes and procedures.
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Microsoft Excel is ubiquitous; nearly every organization has Excel installed through an institutional or corporate license, making it a no-cost alternative that all employees have access to. Generally, Excel is most effective (and has the most available features) when employed on a Windows platform.
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Excel spreadsheets are familiar to almost all employees and Excel has an established user base, thereby eliminating a steep learning curve that could be a barrier to acceptance of other software applications.
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The workbook/worksheet structure of Excel is well-suited to most corporate-level systems. Engineering systems and subsystems in particular are well adapted to this structure.
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Excel can accept any comma separated variable (CSV) file as input, and CSV files are nearly always an option for output from any commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) or reputable third-party software application (such as common data acquisition systems or enterprise software suites). Legacy software code written in common programming languages can be scripted to export data as CSV files.
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Excel offers relatively sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI) options to ensure mistake-proofing of input and formatting of output for formal presentations and company reports.
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Excel provides an adequate “flat file” database capability for storing information that does not frequently change (for example, customer contact information, engineering data, product specifications).
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Excel has a built-in programming language (Visual Basic for Applications – VBA) that is used to model the more complex organizational processes or repetitive procedures. Most Information Technology personnel are well-versed in the VBA object-oriented language and are able to successfully troubleshoot or modify any underlying code as required.
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Excel has extensive interface capabilities with external libraries written in other software languages or applications (for example, FORTRAN) and easily interfaces with other Microsoft Office products (Word, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.). This allows for comprehensive solutions to be created exercising the entire Microsoft Office suite.
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Using Excel workbooks provides a measure of version control for your process; updating the workbook to a new version is easily accomplished (and named appropriately) and rolled out to users, archiving all previous versions.
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Building an application within Excel ensures repeatability; anyone using the tool will achieve the same results, meaning that cross-training of department employees is made far simpler when automated tools are employed for standard work.