Hey Software Bullies, Stop Picking on Excel

As many Microsoft Dynamics AX users will attest, Excel is a life saver. It picks up most of the analytical slack from ERP, whether planned or as a stopgap measure. So as much as most ERP vendors say they can do everything, users continue to flock to Excel to manage, analyze, and plan their supply chains, or to query data to answer financial or statistical questions. Organizing and displaying data in Excel is a hit with users, sitting squarely in their comfort zones after years of training and use.

With its arsenal of capabilities, some still position Excel as the unspoken ERP module. Even my own colleague, John Westerveld recently published a blog entitled, "Yet Another Excel Blooper. When Will We Learn?" John sites a column error on a Eurozone Crisis study that fundamentally changed the results, causing some skewed decisions. John also quoted Forbes, who called it "the most dangerous software on the planet". But these "bloopers" are not a problem with Excel, the software is simply doing what it is told. If there is an error, it's a human one.

Excel was the first supply chain planning tool I ever used. Although we were only doing some simple demand supply balancing, it was still easier, faster and more effective than our legacy ERP system. I continue to use it today for data analysis and as a measurement system. If you haven't guessed already, I'm a fan of Excel. It's a great personal productivity and analytical tool. However, managing a global supply chain may expose areas where Excel just doesn't fit.

To use a favorite golf analogy, what club would you rather hit, that expensive driver or your nine iron? The right answer depends ...