Executives are not comfortable with analytics platforms, and still prefer their spreadsheets

For close to two decades now, vendors, analysts and pundits have been predicting the death of the spreadsheet, as executives, managers and professionals move on to connected, intelligent analytics platforms to aid in their decision-making. It’s 2019, and guess what? Everyone still loves their spreadsheets. 

A recent study of 1.048 executives out of Deloitte finds most companies are not mature when it comes to business analytics; and 62 percent still rely on spreadsheets for their insights.  While 76 percent of survey respondents report that their analytical maturity has increased over the past year, most are still using traditional tools such as spreadsheets (62 percent) and business intelligence programs (58 percent, combined). 

“The traditional workhorses of the data analytics universe-spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel and business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Power BI or IBM Cognos-are the most commonly used tools,” according to the Deloitte team. They add, however, there are some more advanced tools present within their enterprises: 67 percent also use at least one advanced tool such as SAS, an open source tool such as R, a programming language such as Python, or an AI tool.

Will artificial intelligence finally release the hold spreadsheets have on business analytical culture? We’ve heard this tune before, but the Deloitte survey’s authors, led by Thomas Davenport, are optimistic on this one. Forty-six percent of executives see AI as an important initiative over the coming years.

The survey found that fewer than four in 10 (37 percent) of executives believe that their companies are relatively mature in their adoption of analytics. While the remaining 63 percent are aware of analytics, they lack technology infrastructure, are still working in silos or are expanding ad hoc capabilities. In addition, 67 percent of executives surveyed are not comfortable accessing or using data from their existing tools and resources. Structured data still rules as an analytical foundation, the survey shows.