Excel was transformative in its day. It quickly became the most extensive spreadsheet software in the entire world. It transformed the workflow of business professionals, teachers, and family budgeters alike. Company data was kept to a few departments, and was limited enough that Excel could handle it well.

What are the problems with Excel?

1. Lack of Scalability

Excel has a file size problem.

With companies storing hundreds of terabytes of data, Excel is incapable of handling that scale of data. According to support.office.com, Excel 2013 is limited to 2 GB of data. When the average business manages 162.9 TB of data, this file size is capable of analyzing and carrying approximately .000012% of the company's data. Companies need a more scalable solution, and thankfully, they exist.

Deep analysis cannot be completed on such small subsections of data.

2. Too Difficult to Share

Excel's sharability is limited to the physical transfer of the file.

Take this hypothetical scenario: John, an accountant in Purchasing and Travel, has been managing an Excel sheet that contains the financial records of one of the company's consulting teams. Fred, the controller, needs a weekly report of their expenses, as they are on a long assignment with a client. Every friday, John opens his Excel file, double checks its accuracy, updates it as necessary, and sends it to Fred over email. While Fred is waiting for the Excel document to show up in his inbox, he has no way of knowing what the financial standing is of the team. He receives the email on Monday, then proceeds to analyze the expenses. In the meantime, the team has spent far more during the weekend in categories not contained on John's Excel sheet. By the time the information reaches Fred, the information is outdated. John will have to send another report just for the updated expenses, and Fred will have to know to keep them separate.

Excel is not easily shared.

3. Lack of Real-time Collaboration

Excel has limited collaboration capabilities

This has changed slightly in recent versions, but Excel has been a one-person show for a long time. The lack of real-time collaboration hinders its usefulness for organizations and teams. Personal budgets won't suffer much from this drawback, but as corporations rely more and more upon collaboration, they will feel the pain as excel bogs that down.

Excel does not promote collaboration.