In November 2017, The Wall Street Journal published a thought-provoking piece that triggered a wave of responses from the Excel community. Among the loudest reactions was a recurring refrain: “But what about Power Query?” The implication was that the article had failed to acknowledge a revolutionary shift—that Power Query had changed everything, and any discussion of Excel without it was obsolete.

This kind of response tells us something significant—not about Excel itself, but about the current culture around it.

Many of these Power Query defenders had not worked with it in real enterprise settings. Instead, their views were shaped by social media influencers and online tutorials that present Power Query as a silver bullet. They saw flashy transformations, drag-and-drop demos, and automated imports, and assumed that this functionality must have transformed Excel into an enterprise-ready platform. But this was, and remains, a surface-level impression.

In reality, those of us who have implemented process automation and data transformation in true enterprise environments know that the conversation must be framed differently. Power Query, while useful, is not a client-server architecture. It is not a scalable, transactional data engine. It is not a security model. It is not a system of control. It is a tool—one of many—that may assist within a proper architecture. Without that architecture, it is simply another way to fetch and clean data—albeit with a nicer interface.

This surface-level understanding of Excel’s evolution was echoed in another major point from the WSJ article: the comment from Brian Jones, Head of Product for Excel at Microsoft. In response to questions around Excel’s capacity for collaboration—particularly in complex business environments like financial consolidation—Jones pointed to co-authoring as the answer.

Co-authoring is a strong feature, particularly for live editing and version control among multiple users. But the idea that co-authoring addresses the deep requirements of enterprise collaboration—structured access control, modular workflows, transaction integrity, logging, and cross-file process dependencies—is a category mistake. The original question was not about casual file sharing; it was about enterprise-grade operational control.

In both cases—the overhyped Power Query and the over-applied co-authoring feature—we see the same pattern. The wrong questions are being answered because the assumptions are rooted in consumer-facing product features, not enterprise workflow demands. This disconnect between what’s marketed and what’s needed continues to obscure the real power of Excel when properly architected.

And that’s the core issue. Excel, even in 2017—and even more so today—is often misunderstood not because of what it lacks, but because of how it’s framed. Its true enterprise potential lies not in standalone features, but in how it can be structured as part of a robust, client-server model—an area where most mainstream discourse, even from within Microsoft, remains worryingly shallow.

The WSJ article unintentionally highlighted this problem. But the reactions to it revealed something more: a fundamental gap in understanding between the promotional narrative and the practical, architectural reality of Excel in serious business contexts. It’s a gap that remains just as important to close today.

ABSTRACT

Excel Power Query Illusion and Collaboration Misunderstanding

This piece examines a 2017 Wall Street Journal article about Excel and the subsequent community reactions, particularly the overemphasis on Power Query. The author argues that many users, influenced by online content, mistakenly view Power Query as a comprehensive solution for enterprise needs rather than just a data cleaning tool. Similarly, they contend that Microsoft’s focus on co-authoring as the answer to enterprise collaboration issues also misses the mark. The core issue, according to the author, is a misunderstanding of Excel’s potential in serious business contexts, which lies in its architectural integration within a client-server model, an area that remains largely unaddressed in mainstream discussions.