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.
“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.
“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.
