A good part of the problem could be the timelines involved. With something like Excel, you have a large number of people who can put something together in a sh

A good part of the problem could be the timelines involved. With something like Excel, you have a large number of people who can put something together in a short amount of time and perform the needed analysis. Contrast that to a database. The first problem you run into is the limited number of people who actually have meaningful experience with databases. Databases ceased being consumer products about 20 years ago, so most people have only interacted with very limited front ends. They certainly haven't created a database, nor performed anything more than trivial queries. (Even then, they probably aren't thinking in terms of databases and queries.) Okay then, we are reliant on a much smaller number of skilled database administrators and developers. Do their tools facilitate rapid development? Even if they do have access to suitable tools, the process is going to be slowed by communications between the people who need the analysis done and the people who can actually perform the analysis. Needless to say that Excel, with all of its limitations is starting to look like a good option.