Remember When Spreadmarts Were Evil?

It seems like just yesterday that spreadmarts were evil, but it’s been over a decade since former TDWI researcher Wayne Eckerson first coined the term in an article entitled Taming Spreadsheet Jockeys (see related Wikipedia article). After years of promising to exterminate Microsoft Excel and multiple versions of the truth, analytics vendors are now going out of their way to embrace Microsoft Excel. Take a look at the latest SAP Lumira ad.

Lumira Fast Visual Analysis For All

 

“Turn Excel data into visualizations with SAP Lumira”. You know, what we used to use Xcelsius for?

Even the slogans are beginning to sound alike. Check out the home page for you-know-who.

Tableau Visual Analytics for Everyone

“Visual Analytics for Everyone” + “Fast Analytics for Everyone” = “Fast Visual Analysis For All”?

I’ll bet Mr. Eckerson is already working on a follow up article, “Retaming Spreadsheet Jockeys”. Just in case.

 

Dallas Marks

Dallas Marks

I am an analytics and cloud architect, author, and trainer. An AWS certified blogger, SAP Mentor Alumni and co-author of the SAP Press book SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence: The Comprehensive Guide, I prefer piano keyboards over computer keyboards when not blogging or tweeting.