Excel has long been the go-to tool for both professionals and casual users in handling, analyzing, and sharing data. It has grown beyond its initial functionality, and today, with tools like Power Query, it allows for Extract, Transform, Load – ETL -processes right inside the familiar Excel interface. But as powerful as this tool is, there’s a growing divide between what we might call “Popular Excel”–the traditional, widely recognized uses driven by everyday Excel influencers with the ‘large sheet of paper’ mindset –and “Professional Excel,” which is paving the way toward enterprise-level data processes. Let’s explore how this new wave of Excel capabilities is reshaping the landscape, allowing users to go beyond even the mighty Power Query.
The Power of Power Query.
For many, Power Query was a game-changer. Its ability to connect to external data sources, clean data efficiently, and automate repetitive tasks opened up new doors. This is the domain where Popular Excel thrives–tutorials, tips, and tricks on how to optimize workbooks for business or personal needs, often with a single user in mind. Excel influencers, who share their knowledge on platforms like YouTube and LinkedIn, have made it possible for people worldwide to learn advanced techniques that save time and increase efficiency.
But Power Query is still, at its core, an individual solution and activity. The typical workflow involves one user creating a workbook, running Power Query, and distributing it to others–often by email or shared files. This single-user scenario, which has worked well for many years, presents some limitations as the complexity of workbooks grows and the scale of enterprise-level collaboration expands.
The Problem: ‘Excel Hell’.
As organizations scale, this individual approach can lead to what’s sometimes called “Excel hell”–a chaotic situation where multiple versions of the same workbook exist, each slightly modified or with different data sets. Spreadsheets that were supposed to make life easier become tangled webs of links, external connections, and errors that are hard to troubleshoot. In this Jackson Pollock-like scenario, collaboration turns into a minefield of broken references, outdated data, and inconsistent reporting.
Power Query helps mitigate some of this, but it does not solve the core problem: Excel, at its base, remains a tool for individual users. So how do we transcend this limitation? How do we go beyond Power Query?
Professional Excel: Beyond Power Query.
Enter the professional Excel workflow: A shift from individual workbooks to an integrated, enterprise-level architecture that solves the collaboration problem by centralizing data management and using Excel as an interface and logic and functionality, rather than a data storage tool.
The idea is simple yet revolutionary: instead of sending Excel files back and forth, the data is stored in a central location (a cloud-based database, for example), and Excel becomes the interface through which this data is accessed. Users update data in their individual workbooks, but the data itself resides externally. This eliminates the need for constant file sharing and reduces the risk of version mismatches.
The real innovation here is that this setup scales. Hundreds or even thousands of users can access and update the same data simultaneously, without ever having to exchange files. Excel handles the same data model, but instead of each user maintaining their own copy of the data, they access the “single source of truth” directly from the database.
The Enterprise Shift: ERP for Everyone.
This architecture mirrors the concept behind ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning systems, which revolutionized business processes decades ago by integrating core business functions into one system with centrally accessible data. Now, Excel users can take advantage of similar principles with much greater flexibility and customization. All with the already built-in capabilities of Excel.
In the enterprise scenario, multiple teams or departments can work from the same dataset, each using their own custom Excel workbooks designed for their specific needs. These workbooks pull data directly from the central source, ensuring consistency across the board. If changes are made, they’re reflected instantly for all users, eliminating the risk of working from outdated information. This is because Excel can update the central data seamlessly with its built-in capabilities, a capability that most Power Query users and influencers do not appear to know.
This is a significant leap from the ad-hoc nature of most Popular Excel solutions, where each task is isolated, and the process is often repeated manually. Professional Excel workflows automate these processes and make them scalable across entire organizations. It transforms Excel from a single-user tool into a collaborative platform that can handle complex, large-scale data processing involving many people in many departments.
What Does This Mean for Popular Excel?
To be clear, the rise of Professional Excel doesn’t diminish the value of Popular Excel. In fact, Excel influencers have played an essential role in democratizing access to advanced tools like Power Query. The difference lies in the scale and the intended use case.
Popular Excel remains a powerful solution for individual tasks, where single users need to manage and manipulate their data efficiently. But as organizations grow and the need for real-time collaboration increases, there’s a need for Excel to evolve into something more than just a local tool. The leap to Professional Excel is that evolution.
The two workflows can coexist harmoniously. Popular Excel serves the needs of the everyday individual user, while Professional Excel paves the way for enterprise-wide collaboration, data consistency, and efficiency. Both have their place in the modern Excel landscape.
Conclusion: The Future of Excel.
We’ve reached a point where Excel’s potential is no longer limited by what one person can do with a single workbook. The new era of Excel is about scalability, real-time data, and collaborative, centralized workflows. This transformation is already happening in many large organizations, where Excel is moving beyond Power Query to become a part of an enterprise-wide data strategy.
The question isn’t whether Excel can handle this–it already can. The real question is: are we ready to move beyond Power Query and embrace Excel as a tool not just for individuals, but for entire organizations?
You’ve been listening to a podcast by Hiran de Silva. Read by Bill.
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