Business analysts develop Excel spreadsheets to assist with the day-to-day operational decisions their jobs demand. Pleased with the autonomy and sophisticated analysis that Excel supports, they share these innovations with colleagues who modify spreadsheet logic and manually tack on data from their own information silos. Over time, rogue spreadsheets with data from dubious sources is propogated throughout the organization. Executives find themselves making decisions based on untraceable, questionable data. The enterprise is at a loss to audit these numbers for themselves and for regulatory agencies.

Meanwhile, the IT division has complete, auditable, and backed-up operational system data that is untapped by the Excel user community. IT executives are frustrated by the rampant spread of unreliable information and their inability to leverage corporate data stores.

Information Builders has both push and pull strategies to serve up corporate data for use in Excel spreadsheets. These strategies buttress Excel's weaknesses as an enterprise business analysis tool while allowing users to continue to operate in their preferred analysis environment.