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Love that. I'm working in group benefits insurance now and spreadsheets are how everyone communicates. The software is just there to hold the data in between sp

• osullivj 11y ago
  Are the spreadsheets doing real number crunching? Do they use XLLs and VBA, or just worksheet functions?
  • drglitch 11y ago
    Very often yes, to a scary degree. The amount of data normalization, adjustments, aggregation, analysis, etc that happens in some poorly documented and ill maintained macro is mind-boggling (there is a term for it - a model/process being "offline", i.e. not properly source-controlled or auditable). The real reason is because Excel is still by far the simplest, quickest way to get something done fast when the deadlines are always "yesterday!".
    • HiLo 11y ago
      I was in finance as well as trading risk management at one of the largest physical commodities trading houses in the world ($100+ billion revenue) and orders, positions, PNL, inventory, inventory movements, market research and analysis, and general business reports... yes, very expensive systems backing them... and they had to be done on Excel manually and synced daily to make sure if the main systems (absurdly complex) got out of sync, either one could be repaired as a failsafe.