Excel: Automated Ledger or Analytics IDE?

Abstract

Since the inception of VisiCalc over four decades ago, spreadsheets have undergone a gradual transformation, evolving from simple ledger automation tools to the current state of Excel, which can be described as an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for analytics. The slow evolution of Excel from an automation tool for ledgers to an IDE for analytics explains why many people have not noticed that Excel includes a fully functional database, an OLAP Engine, multiple statistical programming languages, multiple third-party software libraries, dynamic charts, and real time data connectors. The simplicity of accessing these multiple tools is a low-code framework controlled from the Excel tool that is effectively an IDE. Once we acknowledge Excel's shift from a desk top application to an IDE for analytics, the importance of establishing a comprehensive risk framework for managing this distinctive development environment becomes clear. In this paper we will explain how the current risk framework for spreadsheets needs to be expanded to manage the growing risks of using Excel as an IDE for analytics.