As a "recovering" CPA, I've probably spent as much time with Excel open in front of me as any other single application over the span of my career, although I'd bet that my browser would be catching up over the last few years. I used to hold (and hope to renew) a certification as an "Expert" Excel user, so I thought I'd take a look at how spreadsheet applications are changing based on the emergence of Web Services. The first post will be about Google Spreadsheets, and I hope to follow on with some posts on Excel Web Services and Office Live.
Google Spreadsheets was introduced in June 2006 and has garnered a fair amount of attention, not least from Microsoft. At this stage in its existence, it looks like a product light in functionality but rich in collaboration tools, well-suited to groups of people collaborating on basic spreadsheet work, but not part of the same organization, perhaps separated by distance. A few examples where it looks like a good alternative to try are:
- a neighborhood committee
- a community organization
- a fantasy sports league
- a study group
- low-cost (free)
- low-overhead (just a browser)
- ease of sharing of spreadsheet data
- integration with Google messaging/Gmail for collaboration
It also includes utilities for .XLS and .CSV file import and "save as."
Weaknesses (in its current form):
- limited functionality
- security and privacy.
The perception exists, especially in light of recent leaks of consumer and classified data, that creating, maintaining, and storing private or sensitive data on-line is less secure than storing it locally on a HDD, a network drive, or even removable media. People much geekier than myself can refute that by talking about security best practices, layers of security, architecture, SSL, etc., but your typical spreadsheet user (God forbid they are an accountant or some other similarly risk-averse person!) will struggle to get their head around why/how their data is secure when it's "out there" rather than somewhere on media that can be seen and touched.
Is Google spreadsheets ready for the enterprise? Probably not until business users are comfortable with this. Is it a rational fear? Probably not. Is it real? Absolutely. Just as people are more scared of flying (safer, but less control) than of driving (far more dangerous, with far more control). As someone who has spent the last 15 years working with both technically inclined and technically inept finance and accounting people, I have seen this over and over: they call senior accounting people "Controller" for a reason.
Forward-looking statement: don't be surprised in the future if Google adds their spreadsheet solution and their word processing solution to their dedicated search appliances for Enterprise users, as they develop a productivity suite of their own for knowledge workers and continue the IT trend of driving consumer tools into the enterprise (ref. search, social networking, wikis, etc.).
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