Excel Services: Welcome to the future of spreadsheets

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Excel Services is a brand new server technology that enables you to Load, Calculate, and Display Excel workbooks on an Office SharePoint Server. Excel Services is currently released with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

 There are essentially two ways to interact with Excel Services:

  1. Through an interactive interface provided in the Web browsers
  2. API (Programming Interface)

How can my Business Benefit?

The most frequent scenario that I generally provide users to explain Excel Services is my Financial Consultant example. Mr. Todd travels from client to client providing sound financial advice. Occasionally, he needs to access updated information from his analysts summarizing global market trends and transaction fees on an Excel workbook. However, in order to do this, his analysts email him the latest copy of the workbook and Mr. Todd downloads this workbook onto his clients computer to check the results.

With Excel Services, Mr. Todd will:

  1. Access his workbook with updated data (At the moment of access)
  2. Securely read his workbook without having to worry about forgetting to delete his workbook from his client's computer
  3. Access his workbook on his PocketPC via web browser
  4. Filter unnecessary data using Pivot Tables
  5. Edit Worksheet data by using Parameters
  6. Allow clients to view workbook on their computer without displaying worksheet formulas (Snapshot View)

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I will update my blog with many interesting information regarding Excel Services. However, if you have any comments, suggestions, or pain points about this products, PLEASE, let me know. I really enjoy getting any kind of feedback regarding our services.