by Hiran de Silva
1. The Reality of the Modern Enterprise
Across the world, companies have invested tens — even hundreds — of millions in ERP systems and cloud-based planning tools. These systems were meant to deliver integration, visibility, and control.
But in practice, they have become black boxes.
When business needs change — as they always do — these systems cannot keep up. The configuration that once made sense no longer fits. The data structures are rigid. The workflows are locked down. The cost and delay of change are prohibitive.
And so, the people who actually run the business — the analysts, the managers, the budget holders — reach for the one tool that always works: Excel.
2. Why Excel Always Returns
Every spreadsheet that exists in an enterprise tells a story.
It exists because the system couldn’t.
Each one was born to fill a gap that the black box could not fill — quickly, cheaply, or flexibly enough. That’s why spreadsheets flourish in every company, regardless of how much has been spent on technology.
But while these workarounds are necessary, they’re rarely efficient. Over time, they multiply. People send files back and forth, version numbers grow, and formulas become fragile. Soon, there are “many versions of the truth.”
And the industry coined a term for this chaos: Excel Hell.
3. The Irony of the Anti-Excel Industry
ERP vendors and cloud planning tools have built their marketing on this term.
They point to the chaos of Excel Hell as proof that Excel is the problem — that it must be replaced.
But the truth is the opposite.
Excel Hell does not arise because Excel is weak.
It arises because Excel is underused.
Because it is used without architecture.
When properly architected, Excel becomes not a workaround but a bridge — a living interface between systems, data, and people. It becomes the missing link that allows your massive ERP investment to actually deliver what it promised.
4. The Pipes in the Desert
Imagine an arid desert scattered with oases. Each oasis has its own system of pipes — isolated, local, self-contained. One oasis cannot send water to another.
Between these systems, people form human chains, carrying buckets of water from one to the next. It’s slow, error-prone, and exhausting — but it’s the only way to survive.
That is what happens in today’s enterprises.
Each ERP, CRM, HR, or planning system is a separate oasis.
And the “human chain” is made up of spreadsheet users, copying, pasting, emailing, consolidating — bucket by bucket.
This is the activity that has become so visible, so ridiculed, and so misunderstood.
But what if Excel itself could replace the human chain?
It can.
When Excel is implemented with enterprise architecture — using databases, ADO, and structured data flow — the buckets disappear. Water flows automatically between systems. The oases connect. The desert blooms.
5. Excel as the Bridge, Not the Problem
Excel already contains the engineering to achieve this.
It can communicate with databases, integrate with ERP systems, and manage multi-user data.
It can transform silos into a network.
It can transform manual work into automation.
It can transform “Excel Hell” into Excel Harmony.
The irony is staggering: the tool accused of creating the problem is the only tool that can solve it.
6. The Missed Education
There is no shortage of Excel training in the world.
But nearly all of it is misdirected.
It is designed for a single person, on a single computer, working on a single file — and collaborating by sending that file to someone else.
That is the digital equivalent of the human chain — the very inefficiency we are trying to escape.
What’s missing is education for enterprise Excel — training that teaches how to design systems, not just formulas; how to connect, not just compute; how to build architecture, not just dashboards.
No one is teaching that.
7. Bridging the Gap Efficiently
When Excel is used as a true enterprise client — with data separated, shared, and governed through a central database (the “Digital Librarian”) — it can integrate seamlessly with ERP and planning systems.
It can send and receive data in real time.
It can automate consolidations, reconciliations, and reviews.
It can provide visibility that even expensive planning tools struggle to achieve.
The effect is transformative.
The business gains agility.
The IT investment gains purpose.
The people gain control.
8. The Economic Awakening
Here is the punchline.
You’ve already spent millions — maybe tens of millions — on your enterprise systems.
They are powerful, but incomplete.
And you already own the missing piece.
It costs $12 a month.
It’s called Excel.
When you learn how to use it correctly — with architecture, integration, and design — that £10 million system starts to behave like the £10 million system you thought you were buying.
Excel becomes the plug that completes the circuit.
9. Seeing Inside the Black Box
To make this transformation possible, you must understand — at least conceptually — what’s inside the black box.
It’s not magic.
It’s data flow.
And that data flow can be drawn on a whiteboard.
Once you see that, you can design Excel to interact directly with it — to fetch (“GET”) and send (“PUT”) data between systems, live, safely, and at scale.
When that happens, the fog lifts.
Spreadsheets stop being shadows of the system — they become its extension.
10. The Call to Action
We stand at a crossroads.
One path continues the bucket chain — the copy-paste culture, the endless “Excel Hell” narrative, the growing dependence on systems that promise transformation but deliver opacity.
The other path recognizes Excel for what it truly is:
the universal interface of business.
The bridge between technology and people.
The activator of enterprise potential.
This manifesto is a call to those who can see it —
to those who have lived the frustration,
to those who know that spreadsheets exist for a reason,
and to those who believe that enterprise technology can — and must — serve the business, not the other way around.
The Vision
An enterprise where systems are transparent, data flows freely, and decisions are made in real time.
Where Excel is not a symptom, but a solution.
Where the black boxes are opened, and the water finally flows.
That is the future we can build — together.
That is the Excel Enterprise Manifesto.
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