I’ve been using Excel for my entire professional career, most of the time in large corporations where adding a piece of software to the standard IT structure would be some kind of heresy. When I have a business need that can be solve by an out-of-the-box Excel installation that’s the path I follow (I’m also a power user of the company’s formal BI tool, so I know where to draw the line).
Over time, I’ve developed a framework that helps me to solve problems from a very specific point of view: how to minimize file size, how to minimize calculation time, how to deploy, how to update, and so on. This is the logic that you often must follow, and you tend to believe it is the best one. At that point you must start a conversation (a very fashionable word nowadays..) with someone that doesn’t share that logic.
Take OLAP cubes, for example. I never use them. I use the corporate BI tool or I create a 100% pure Excel application. But then Andreas told me about XLCubed and how you could deploy online your always-updated-file. That was a turning point because for me those are two killer features that I’ve been yearning for a long time.
I started to play with the tool, but still using the same logic. And was plain wrong. Sure I could use all my Excel background, but I needed to adjust it to a different logic. Using an OLAP cube you get a new set of functions that simplifies much of your work and you need to reevaluate some Excel functions because some of them will perform better under this new environment. You’ll leverage your Excel background to create a a new logic at a higher level.
I’m an experienced Excel user, probably like you, and this is just Excel on steroids. I’m leaving my comfort zone, one foot at a time, and I’ll document and share with you my learning curve. So come with me to the Cubed Kingdom and we’ll walk through this together.
First stop, next post: what is a cube, anyway?
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