Microsoft Excel (MS-Excel) the name which do not need any introduction. This is one of the applications that is widely in use for all time since inception. Almost close to 40 years and still running. According to me, it is one of the most powerful and important applications to date. The scope of excel is very vast. Uses of excel Right From Data Entry to Business Analytics, To do lists to Analysis of complex data with various tools of estimation. Designing a user friendly interfaces with Visual-Basic and Macros What not ??
The major difference between the regular/ normal statistical tools and excel is the user interface. User interface lets you see/ understand what happens to the data upon changes.
Why should I learn Excel or learn to use Excel?
Excel is everywhere in business world. In areas like marketing, business development, sales, and in Finance. Many business professionals not only use excel for performing daily tasks but also for decision support. What are the various uses of excel?
I never know how people are using Excel, because it’s used in so many different ways. – Terrence Huang, Partner Development Manager at Excel
The top reasons/ uses of excel – to learn or be proficient in excel
while uses of excel are unlimited the top reasons to learn excel are as follows.
Professional/ Career growth: Being proficient in excel helps you gain edge over your peers and make you a valuable asset to the organization. Also increases the chances of your selection in an interview in case if you are looking for a job/ job change.
Increase Productivity/ efficiency and Save time/ money: You can automate the redundant tasks that are being done manually and time consuming. Excel provides you the feasibility to automate such tasks and helps you save your efforts, time and money. As the task is automatic quality is not a concerning factor at all.
Analysis and Predictions from Data: Excel has the ability to store lots of data. Excel helps you to extract information from data and have actionable insights which will improve overall performance of you/ your team as well as the organization.
Reports: No one would want to go through reading pages of reports and then arrive at a conclusion. Instead a visual representation of the same is always preferable. With Excel we can represent the data both in the form of normal reports and visual reports as well which are understandable very easily.
Ease of Access / Collaboration: We can share an excel sheet with anyone in the globe. Different users from different parts of the world can edit/ share/ use the same sheet at same time. You can have access restrictions to the spreadsheet as per user level or requirement. In addition the feasibility of using the same sheet across multiple applications is an added bonus.
Storing and Organizing Data: Excel is not only an analysis tool but also can serve as a database to store and organize data.
Excel Quotes and Trivia
Excel actually changed the way business works, really by making it easy for people to use and to be able to make decisions and do calculations and put charts on their data – Derek Burney, Corp VP Data and BI, VP – Data and Business Intelligence
There are a few images in Dilbert stating the importance of having basic knowledge in Excel. Else you might end up in similar situations.
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