Well, literally speaking, this title is incorrect, but fundamentally this statement is true.
Excel is an excellent tool.
It is easy to use, flexible, and calculates quickly. With Power Query, it has even become a powerful data analysis tool. Gone are the infamous and risky "vlookups," replaced by structured transformations. Power Query is also a welcome gateway to Power BI. These are definitely great achievements by Microsoft.
Easy access for everyone (every company has access to Excel or an equivalent, such as Google Sheets, Libre Office, etc.) has created "shadow IT" in companies—the deployment of business solutions developed by individuals to meet their own needs. The result is a jumble of fragile Excel files that are difficult to maintain.
This observation is not new, but the situation persists.
It is not for pleasure or perversity that users—and particularly corporate planners—have deployed a recurring model: data is extracted from the ERP, processed in Excel, and the system is updated, usually manually, sometimes with an automated data entry system.
They did this because it was the easiest and fastest way to implement logic tailored to their reality. The inflexibility of some IT teams did not help.
Don't deny it: you've probably done it too. Your company probably has its share of Excel files, often used for critical tasks. In my own career in supply chain, I have left behind a plethora of Excel files (preferably with VBA macros) and Access databases (yes, I'm getting on in years, and I'll only admit under duress that my first crimes were with Lotus 1-2-3 and then Multiplan) ...
In an industrial company we know, the management of the factory—a complex production site—relies on nearly 200 Excel sheets. Sheets, mind you, we're not talking about tabs, there are many more! However, this company has, remarkably, structured, cataloged, and numbered these documents in an effort to facilitate versatility and the integration of new planners.
Excel is constantly being enhanced.
How many LinkedIn posts suggest sharing an Excel file with KPIs, safety stock calculations, Python algorithms, simulations, etc.?
Curiously, Excel is also the tool of choice for many supply chain and operational excellence consulting firms. A consulting assignment is often short—a few weeks or months—to help a company overcome a crisis. It is difficult to structure a sustainable solution in such a short period of time. Consultants, who are often junior but bright, will develop an Excel file to help the company. At the end of the consulting assignment, the file will remain in place temporarily... often for several years.
This then provides an opportunity to offer a consulting assignment to eliminate Excel files and launch a call for tenders for digital solutions.
In the age of agentic AI, and with low-code solutions becoming more widespread, will Excel finally give way?
Nothing is less certain—and it is not necessarily certain that the cure will be better than the disease.
Let's face it: low-code solutions allow for a high degree of tool customization. At one time, this was called "custom development," and we didn't like it because it created critical vulnerabilities.
The democratization of development solutions that are easy to access for advanced users is likely to generate a new wave of ad hoc solutions, whose logic may be questionable and whose aging may be painful.
Our approach is to replace this fragmented, disjointed, and fragile logic with a structured solution based on recognized management principles. Intuiflow is a solution that is constantly being enhanced with new features, but it is a standard solution.
The code base is shared, and improvements developed for one customer are made available to all customers. There is no customization of this code, because any direct customization of the code is a weakness. If publishers offer to customize their solution for you, think twice.
Does this approach prevent adaptations? Certainly not! If an adaptation is useful to several customers, it is developed for everyone. If an implementation requires very specific business logic, it is always possible to interact with Intuiflow through low-code solutions and APIs. This approach provides a robust backbone, while ensuring that peripheral adaptations are properly maintained.