#4: no Maps
The next commonly listed criticism of Excel BI is the lack of integrated geospatial mapping. While for some reports maps remain an irrelevance, for others they can make a huge difference, with targeted advertising or awareness campaigns being the most obvious. While you can now use mapping in Power View, for most corporate office users that isn’t an option yet. XLCubed brings both point and shape based mapping to any version of Excel.
The example report below mixes mapping with the Small Multiples concept. The approach means you can have multiple identical maps which vary only by the time period. This helps you see change over time regionally, and also to make comparisons between the direction and pace of change by region.
You can zoom in and pan the maps as needed and they’ll stay in sync, and individual points on the map can also be set up as report selectors which update the rest of the report in sync.
So, mapping in Excel? – absolutely, right now and in any version.