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We use spreadsheets to manage data that would 1000% be better suited for storage in a database (and extracted the data would be sooooo much simpler than my monthly half day job of updating management reports).

Why? Because we don't have access to any databases. I dread to think of the requests and committees I would need to find and traverse to get a database set up for my team, let alone a system that I can write and run code on. Yet we can guarantee that every internal and external user has access to Excel.

Unless you are working for a software firm, or are part of a dedicated analytics team with access to suitable systems, large companies and government pretty much have no chance of being able to roll your own database.

Don't suggest Access. Never suggest Access.



Now that you mentioned, we didn't have access to SQL Server dwh until 6 months before I left for good.

Can you try sqlite? It's usually enough for simple things I think.


But then we need something to interface with the db. Getting any programming language installed isn't going to happen in government.


Best of both worlds: libsqlite.dll is almost certainly on any corporate Windows rollout somewhere already, and you can load it into Excel as an extension for a pretty front-end that happens to have a programming language built in.


Nocodb is trying to solving the issues of implementing a spreadsheet-like frontend on top of a database backend https://www.nocodb.com/




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